Government Forces | Communards |
| 877 killed, 6,454 wounded, and 183 missing | 6,667 confirmed killed and buried; unconfirmed estimates between 10,000 and 20,000 killed |
The key to minimizing casualties will be picking the right moment to end CHAZ, the Capitol Hill Atonomous Zone. Maybe it will disolve on its own. That is the best case scenario. Maybe it will descend into chaos and internal rioting and death. That is a worst case scenario. Maybe the criminal element will step in to restore ordeer, so they can get back to work. That is a more middle way.
I have a Sister-in-Law with a condo very close to CHAZ—a few blocks. She isn't living there at this time, but I would hate to see her investment go up in flames.InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: Is this just whinging Progressive propoganda from the Woke cybabies in the Newsroom of The New York Times, or is this real reporting. How do we judge that? Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The Boston Globe, by New York Times Reporter Michael Wines, 14 June 2020.
Here is the lede plus three:
In a normal election year, volunteers from the Columbus, Ohio, chapter of the League of Women Voters would have spent last weekend at the Columbus Arts Fair, pens and clipboards in hand, looking to sign up new voters among the festival’s 400,000 or so attendees.
This is not a normal election year.
“There are absolutely no festivals this summer,” said Jen Miller, executive director of the league’s state chapter. “We don’t have volunteers at tables. We don’t have volunteers roving with clipboards. Obviously, we’re just not doing that.”
Neither is pretty much anyone else. First, the COVID-19 pandemic upended how people vote, forcing a big shift to mailed-in ballots in primary elections nationwide. Now it is taking aim at who can vote — the millions of people who would ordinarily register or update their registrations in a presidential election year.
This article is a mixed bag. Of course voter registration is down—we have the WuFlue. And, of course, people are learning how to use the Internet to register to vote.
However, the article doesn't mention the impact of George Floyd Demonstrations and the accompanying riots and looting. In fact, I am not sure the NYT Newsroom would even acknowledge this as a factor or that rioting and looting actually exist. That is the problem with the defenesgtration of an Editor for countenancing the alterntive view of a US Senstor. We now have to ask if views are being suppressed.
Then there is the fact that we didn't even have a paragraph insert to talk about Massachusetts. My suggestion is that when a big operation like The New York Times is distributing articles for others to publish they should have small optional paragraphs of state or regional interest.
I would grade this article as a "Fail".
Oh, and make sure you are registered to vote. We have an important election coming up. Be a mench and do the right thing.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: We we bgin to see emerge the Rights of Englishmen, which we enjoy today. Not perfect, but pretty good and evolving. Nothing to see here; just move along.
I joked to someone that after this nothing of importance happened in history until July of 1776. While that is a little flippant, it also contains a grain of truth.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: They are not our betters. They are our equals, elected to serve us. Nothing to see here; just move along.
Here is the sub-headline:
Politicians and bureaucrats are America's ruling class and they should start paying a price for failure. Accountability isn't just for little guys.
From USA Today, by Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds, 16 July 2018.
Here is the lede plus †hree:
Our Constitution forbids the creation of “titles of nobility.” The Framers thought it was important enough that the prohibition appears twice, once forbidding the federal government from doing it, and elsewhere extending the ban to the states.
And Americans, to the extent that they give the question any thought at all, probably think that the ban works: After all, nobody’s squiring about the United States, sporting titles like Duke of Pennsylvania or Earl of Internal Revenue.
But now I’m wondering if we don’t have a problem. First, Charles C.W. Cooke, a Brit who just recently became an American citizen, noted the practice of calling former government officials by their former titles and called it "grotesque.” It’s something he discussed in a recent book.
"By custom, we allow our politicians to retain their titles for life. Throughout the 2012 election, Mitt Romney was referred to as 'Governor Romney,' though he had not been in public office for six years," Cooke wrote. "One can only ask, 'Why?' America being a nation of laws and not men, political power is not held in perpetuity, and there is supposed to be no permanent political class.
I think the Law Professor has a point. We need to respect our elected officials, but we need to remember that they are citizens, just like us.
But, undue respect will be a hard habit to break.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit, who resurrected this item for Sunday.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: When we can no longer depend on food delivery we will be very unhappy with the revolutionaries, but we will blame "Capitalists". Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The Don Surber Blog, by Himself, 13 June 2020.
Here is the lede plus four:
A poll of truck drivers found more than three-quarters of them won't deliver supplies to cities that defund their police. No one wants to be Reginald Denny.
Remember him?
Time magazine reported that on "April 29, 1992, he had simply loaded up his 18-wheeler and headed down the road, driving for his employer Transit Mixed Concrete. Little did he know that he would drive smack into the middle of an angry mob looking for vengeance.
"As his rig crossed Florence, a group of rioters enraged over the Rodney King verdict rushed toward him, pulled him out of the cab and beat him to within an inch of his life. The attack ended when Damian Monroe Williams took a cinderblock and bashed Denny's skull, fracturing it in 91 places and causing severe brain damage."
I am pretty sure that every holder of a Commercial Driver's License knows the story.
At the end of the day the laws of ecoonomics are immutable. Sooner or later you run out of other people's money and then it becomes a barter economy.
In the end the Criminals will create their own police force, so they can conduct business. We won't like what results.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: Civil-Military relations are easy when you have a General Marshall, who never voted, because it was unbecoming a Commissioned Officer in the US Military. Nothing to see here; just move along.
Here is the sub-headline:
Award-winning journalist and war correspondent Lara Logan discussed how retired generals who are speaking out against President Trump are either “complicit” with or waging an information warfare campaign against him, in an interview with Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Daily on Wednesday.
From Breitbard News, by Reporter Kristins Wong, 10 Jun 2020.
Here is the lede plus two:
Logan reminded listeners of the Russian collusion narrative, and how many officials from the Justice Department, Director of National Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and other agencies worked together to push the idea that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.
“Think about how many people it took who had to be complicit to push that narrative. Think about the secretaries of defense and the national security advisers that served at that time, who all had access to the intelligence. They all knew it wasn’t true,” Logan told show host Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow.
“General [Jim] Mattis, he knew. General [H.R.] McMaster, he knew. General [John] Kelly, he knew. One after another, after another. You can name them, and strangely enough, it’s the same people standing up now taking shots at the president. The same people, so they were silent then, but they sure as hell have got a lot to say now, don’t they?” she added.
Read the whole thing to get a sense of it. What we are seeing is people who held their peace, and then felt, with the edifice collapsing, it was time to speak out. To the degree that is the case, it is not very honorable.
On the other hand, they and their friends can just say, "but Trump."
On the other other hand, it may be that President Trump is not collapsing and that come November he will win the needed Electoral College votes for re-election. Stranger things have happened. Look at 2016.
Hat tip to my Wife, who found this.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: This is old, but worth a glance. It represents the view that the FBI is not much better than it was 70 years ago, when we thought it was a wonderful institution, and were deceived. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From the Don Surber Blog, by Himself, 28 May 2020.
Here is the lede plus one:
He was for a decade following 9/11 the federal government's police chief as FBI director. Thanks to fawning by the Washington press, Bob Mueller retired with a sterling reputation despite blowing the anthrax case.
In 2017, he came out of retirement and tried to frame President Donald John Trump. John Dowd, Trump's lawyer, provided the details to Gregg Jarrett of Fox.
While I accept that FBI Director J Edgar Hoover was a bad egg, he is long gone. I wonder if it all now falls to someone else. I would nominate Former DOJ Attorney Andrew Weissmann.
Cleaning up corruption is a never-ending task. Part of the problem is that a lot of folks, in the name of curing some ill, embark upon paths that are, or evolve to be, corrupt.
Just saying.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: From time to time it appears that it is socially acceptable, amongst Progressives, to gratuitiously insult Black Republicans, but really Republicansof all stripes. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The Washington Examiner, by Reporter Becket Adams, 12 June 2020.
Here is the lede plus four:
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is the only black Republican senator.
He is also the only member of Congress’s upper chamber who is subjected regularly to the racist allegation that he is a “token." It even happened this week during Scott's appearance on NBC’s 3rd Hour of TODAY.
The moment occurred during an interview with NBC’s Craig Melvin, who pressed Scott to respond to a number of questions about the senator's efforts toward criminal justice reform and the White House’s response to the national debate surrounding the wrongful death of George Floyd.
“Senator, you have faced a fair amount of criticism,” Melvin said, “especially over the past few days, because you are the only black Republican senator.“
The NBC anchor, who is black, added, “Some have said that your party is using you, they’ve even thrown around the word ‘token,’ as well. Your response to that criticism?”
I wonder if this is a deliberate action, to make all Republicans look bad, or if it is just reflexive.
I wonder about the response if Senator Tim Scott had asked Reporter Craig Melvin if he was an NBC "token".
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: There is a lot of arrogance across the fruited plain, and it is getting in the way of individual freedom and civil rights.. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From Inside Sources, by Mr Michael Graham, 11 June 2020.
Here is the lede plus four:
Working-class parents without college degrees aren’t capable of overseeing their own children’s education, according to comments State Sen. Jeanne Dietsch (D-Peterborough) made during a House Education Committee hearing on Tuesday.
Dietsch was speaking on behalf of a Senate bill that would repeal a law allowing the state Board of Education to create an alternative program for granting graduation credits, which became Learn Everywhere.
“This idea of parental choice, that’s great if the parent is well-educated. There are some families that’s perfect for. But to make it available to everyone? No. I think you’re asking for a huge amount of trouble,” Dietsch said.
“Is it your belief that only well-educated parents can make proper decisions for what’s in the best interest of their children?” asked a dumbfounded Rep. Glenn Cordelli (R-Tuftonboro).
Rather than saying “no,” Dietsch instead repeated her view that parents without college degrees are less capable of overseeing their children’s education.
There is a certain elitism out there that doesn't trust the hoi polloi.
And it make me wonder if many of our current leaders how those who went before us in total contempt. Yes, they didn't know as much about the universe as we do, but they managed to give us a launching platform that has allowed us to do better than they did. To paraphrase a former President, "You didn't create these United States by yourself. Someone else did and you are just building upon that foundation."
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: Why would I believe what former Vice President Joe Biden says about our economy? Getting it wrong is right up his alley. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The Washinton Times, by Reporter Alex Swoyer, 9 June 2020.
Here is the lede plus one:
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden said Tuesday President Trump has
“squandered” the economic expansion created during the Obama-Biden
administration, causing an economic recession.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s comment came after the
National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee
noted the U.S. economy peaked in February and has hit a downturn.
I guess. If you think the improving economy was all the result of actions taken before January 2017. And President Trump has just been a drag on that economy. But, I don't think so.
This view works if you don't think that the elimination of restrictive regulations had any impact on the economy. My view is that a President Biden would not help the economy. To quote Nobel Prize Winning Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman:
If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: The 1860 Election is an example of a peaceful transition of power gone awry We shouldn't wish for another transition like that. Democracy requires faith in the process and the power of the next election. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The Conservative Tree House, by Sundance, 10 June 2020.
Here is the lede plus one:
Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany and former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard “Ric” Grenell appears for a discussion with Lou Dobbs about the echo-chamber within Washington DC and the internecine relationship to the intelligence apparatus.
Ric Grenell makes a really good point when he connects how the DC political resistance would not attend the Trump inauguration, and how that same attitude just continued throughout. President Trump’s outsider status made him a risk to the interests of the administrative state. The DC system will not accept a ‘people’s president’, they demand approval authority permitting only one of their UniParty tribe.
If we don't see our opponents as legitimate, then there is no basis for peaceful transition. If there is no basis for peaceful transition, is there any basis for Democracy?
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
This was posted by Immigrant Fiction Writer Sarah Hoyt, who lives in C-Springs.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: To foment change it is often good to be a chameleon until it is time. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The Althouse Blog, 10 June 2020.
Here is the Tweet:
Megan McArdle
Antifa is a bogeyman, little more than a figment of overheated right-wing imaginations. Also, they just declared an autonomous zone covering several blocks in Seattle, and are planning to expand their territory.
1,364
8:48 PM - Jun 10, 2020
I don't expect to hear much about the Seattle Commune, as it goes counter to the narrative.
For sure, we will not hear much about Antifa until it is ready to make its move, which Ma be never.
Hat tip to Ann Althouse.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: The State of Georgia came ready for its interview by News Interviewer Chris Cuomo. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From Red State, by Sister Toldjah, 10 June 2020.
Here is the lede plus one:
Apparently there were long lines and voting issues galore Tuesday during Georgia’s primary, and naturally Democrats and the media rushed to blame it on “voter suppression” and likening the situation to 2018, when Democrat gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams lost the election to Republican Brian Kemp and falsely claimed it was due to state efforts to suppress the black vote.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo was one of many in the mainstream media who took the “voter suppression” ball and ran with it in a heated back and forth with Statewide Voting Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling, who made it clear he was not going to be trifled with nor was he going to allow his state to be smeared by yet another media lie about how elections are run in Georgia.
Cuomo hit Sterling with Democratic talking point after talking point about polling places allegedly being deliberately shut down in places where there tend to be higher numbers of black Democrats who vote, claiming it was a repeat of 2018. Sterling corrected him everytime by laying out what really happened, saying much of it was related to the Wuhan virus outbreak:
Good on Mr Sterling.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: Why has it taken so long to come this far? Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The Hill, by Mr Kevin R Brock, 27 May 2020.
Remember the line attributed to President Trump—"They aren't coming for me. They are coming for you. I'm just in the way."
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: I don't think this is a surprise, but it is interesting confirmation—Native Americans didn't spring up here, but migrated across what is now the Bering Strait. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From United Press International, by Mr Brooks Hays, 20 MAY 2020.
Here is the lede plus one:
Using genomic analysis, scientists have traced the oldest link between the earliest Native American populations and the people of Siberia's Lake Baikal region.
Modern humans have populated the lands surrounding Lake Baikal since the Upper Paleolithic. Previous studies of the region's population dynamics suggest the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age was marked by genetic turnovers and admixture events, but the timing of the human migrations and cultural interactions that characterized this place and time in human history aren't well understood.
New genomic analysis of ancient remains in Siberia -- detailed this week in the journal Cell -- have offered scientists fresh insights into the movements of human populations across Eurasia and into the Americas at the end of the Stone Age.
"Previous studies observed the genetic differences between individuals from different time periods, but didn't investigate the differences by dating the admixture events," lead study author He Yu, postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, told UPI in an email. "Our study reports a 14,000-year-old individual, which actually fills in a large blank of ancient genomes in this region, between 23,000 and approximately 8,000 years ago."
Interesting.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: There is little doubt that a significant number of Democratic Party Leary’s are just not able to move on, even if it harms the Republic. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The Federalist, by Opinion Writer Tristan Justice, 18 May 2020.
Here is the lede plus one:
After spending the months preceding the global pandemic in a futile impeachment attempt, House Democrats are now again trying to impeach President Donald Trump.
The lower chamber majority told the Supreme Court on Monday that they are in the middle of an “ongoing presidential impeachment investigation” that requires redacted information from the grand-jury proceedings that were part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s two-and-a-half-year probe.
Since Trump was finally acquitted of two articles of impeachment in February, Democrats have expressed a desire to try again, requesting that the nation’s highest court grant them classified material that they have pledged not to leak under “special protocols.”
Is anyone shocked by this?.
This is a roll of the dice. The House Democrats might actually come up with something, although I am very doubtful. Maybe they are hoping to dirty up the President in a close election. Or maybe they are going to irritate the electorate close to the November voting.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: We are in the middle of a never-ending story of bureaucrats abusing the rights of Citizens, and getting away with it. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From Hot Air, by Mr John Sexton, 5 June 2020.
Here is the lede sentence:
Today, MSNBC announced it had hired Lisa Page as a legal analyst.
Don't remember her? She is the potty mouth Department of Justice lawyer who exchanged EMails with FBI Agent Peter Strzok, during the period when the FBI was abusing the civil rights of Trump Campaign workers. Because: Trump.
But, in its own way it makes sense.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: The view of some has grown fairly extreme in understanding how the year will evolve. Much of it centers on what President Trump may or may not do. In a way, it is sad. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The New Yorker, by Ms Sue Halpern, 4 June 2020.
Here is the lede plus two, plus the final:
I’ve kept a copy of Timothy Snyder’s book “On Tyranny” on my desk since it was published, in 2017. It’s a small volume—the cover is about the size of an index card. Most of the time, it’s buried under stacks of paper from stories I’ve been working on. Snyder is a historian of the Holocaust and of fascism, at Yale, and this book, subtitled “Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” is a claxon rung to get our attention. “Listen up,” Snyder seems to be saying to Americans. “Tyranny, fascism, authoritarianism could happen here, too.”
The juxtaposition of those two things—Snyder’s book, which was published shortly after Donald Trump took office, and my stack of papers, which focus mostly on aspects of American democracy—has not been lost on me. If it were simply a contest of words, and the contest were confined to my desk, democracy would be winning. But we know this is not the case. American democracy is imperilled, and not just because of Trump and Trumpism but because of an ingrained and widely shared belief that the Founders of this country insulated us from the excesses of government with the power of the ballot. We heard it the other day from Representative John Lewis, the civil-rights leader and icon. “To the rioters here in Atlanta and across the country,” Lewis said, “I see you, and I hear you. I know your pain, your rage, your sense of despair and hopelessness. Justice has, indeed, been denied for far too long. Rioting, looting, and burning is not the way. Organize. Demonstrate. Sit in. Stand up. Vote. Be constructive, not destructive.” These are vital words, earned words, wise words. But they also come from an abiding trust that, no matter what, the electoral system many of us were born into, and others, like Lewis, had to bleed for, will prevail.
We have now crossed the threshold where we must think about the unthinkable: what happens if the November election is subverted. For the past three and a half years, we’ve watched the Trump Administration, along with its enablers in Congress and in the courts, ignore or decimate democratic norms. Since January 20, 2017, we’ve seen this play out in ways big and small—the Muslim ban, the children in cages, the demonization of the press as “fake news,” to name just a few. Each outrage has undermined a basic tenet of our democracy: the American government will not discriminate based on religion, asylum seekers will be granted court hearings, and government officials will uphold and respect the freedom of the press. If we shook our collective head each time there was a new evisceration of a democratic principle, it was always with the understanding that, after four years of cruelty and kleptocracy, the American people would go to the polls and vote Donald Trump and his collaborators out of office. Even those who expected the Trump campaign to flood the zone with disinformation and find new ways to cheat, and its candidate to lie, most likely believed that if enough people voted, none of that would matter.
. . .
But the lesson of Snyder’s book that I keep going back to, and the one that seems to acquire more salience the longer Trump remains in office, is the one where he exhorts readers to “defend institutions,” because they cannot protect themselves. “The mistake is to assume that rulers who came to power through institutions cannot change or destroy those very institutions—even when that is exactly what they have announced they will do,” Snyder wrote. “Sometimes institutions are deprived of vitality and function, turned into a simulacrum of what they once were.” I would like to believe that, if we are lucky, we will mail in our ballots or go to the polls in November, and the election will be free and fair. But, truly, luck will play no part in it.
There is always the view that President Trump will go rogue, that he will not operate under the same rules that have governed the nation for over 200 years. Yes, that is possible. However, it is more projection than likelihood. It comes from people who would be willing to engage in a soft coup in order to rid us of this President.
I will take the bet regarding the election. I bet it happens, and notwithstanding the high handed actions of people like Governor Gavin Newsom of California, will go as per usual.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Nothing to see here; just move along.
From CNN, by Reporters Dakin Andone, Christina Maxouris and Josh Campbell, 8 June 2020.
Here is the lede plus two:
Nine members of the Minneapolis City Council on Sunday announced they intend to defund and dismantle the city's police department following the police killing of George Floyd.
"We committed to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild with our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe," Council President Lisa Bender told CNN.
With nine votes the city council would have a veto-proof supermajority of the council's 13 members, Bender said.
Defunding the police seems like a splendid geopolitical act.
It will turn the United States into Sicily. (MAS, or Make America Sicilian). Of course, organized crime, which depends upon some level of civil control, or policing, will quickly figure out that they need to act. Thus we will have the kind of thing Mexico sees, with the Drug Cartels enforcing the rules. So, we will more or less go back on an even keel, except the voters having a say will be much less direct.
At the same time, like with Sicily, there will be mass emigration. I am guessing masses of people will leave the US for Russia, which is suffering from severe depopulation. Russia will be swamped and we may see efforts to limit immigration.
The Greens and Ultra-Progressives will be thrilled with the reduction in the human footprint. They will double down on the reduced pollution by killing the space program. This will increase emigration of aerospace engineers, who will go to Russia and help them in their race with China, to colonize Mars. America will be happy, what is left of it. Russia, although being swamped with Americans, will be happy. However, China will not be happy.
But, happiest of all will be long haul movers.
I am counting on some California Avocado Rancher to incorporate this into a novel, which will be published, in French, under a pseudonym (Monsieur Mec du Vin), and he will use the profits to keep his Avocado Ranch going, and, with movie rights, fund Small Wars Journal.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: Once upon a time The New York Times represented probity. Today it is so partisan it can not admit the legitimacy of the President or the Republican Party. This will not end well. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From Newsbusters, by Reporter Nicholas Fondacaro, 7 June 2020.
Here is the lede plus one:
Journalism is dead. That fact was made abundantly clear by New York Times staff writer and founder of the factually-inaccurate 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones in an appearance on the CNN’s so-called “Reliable Sources” Sunday, where she argued that the media couldn’t legitimately treat the Republican Party fairly because they were a “rogue” organization and being fair would be “picking sides.”
In a segment about The Times’ recent controversy where they were bullied by radical leftists inside the newsroom into apologizing for publishing an op-ed from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Hannah-Jones claimed the “main issue” was that Cotton was “in the party of power” and “he wants to use the military to suppress dissent.”
That was a lie. Cotton’s op-ed was about President Trump invoking the Insurrection Act to crack down on the rioters and looters plunging American cities in chaos.
She also asserted Cotton’s piece wasn’t subjected to “the normal fact-checking process that anyone making such claims should go through, and making assertions that our own reporters had discredited through their reporting.”
The idea that The Times would publish something they disagreed with without editing it was so ridiculous it was laughable, especially since multiple editors defended publishing Cotton’s words before the internal pressure became too great.
Yes, this is like the Red Guards of China, back in 1966 and 67, when Mao was in charge.
This will not end well.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: The campaign of Mr Donald J Trump was attacked with suggestions that he was not willing to play by the rules, when it was the other side not playing by the rules. Now we have attacks saying that President Trump won't play by the rules. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The New Yorker, by Staff Writer Sue Halpern, 4 June 2020.
Here is a select paragraph:
We have now crossed the threshold where we must think about the unthinkable: what happens if the November election is subverted. For the past three and a half years, we’ve watched the Trump Administration, along with its enablers in Congress and in the courts, ignore or decimate democratic norms. Since January 20, 2017, we’ve seen this play out in ways big and small—the Muslim ban, the children in cages, the demonization of the press as “fake news,” to name just a few. Each outrage has undermined a basic tenet of our democracy: the American government will not discriminate based on religion, asylum seekers will be granted court hearings, and government officials will uphold and respect the freedom of the press. If we shook our collective head each time there was a new evisceration of a democratic principle, it was always with the understanding that, after four years of cruelty and kleptocracy, the American people would go to the polls and vote Donald Trump and his collaborators out of office. Even those who expected the Trump campaign to flood the zone with disinformation and find new ways to cheat, and its candidate to lie, most likely believed that if enough people voted, none of that would matter.
Do you think she means like in the election in 2016, where Candidate Trump won, notwithstanding the shenanigans of the Democrats?
From my point of view this is fear mongering, plain and simple. That said, I am sure Ms Halpern is since in her beliefs. And that means reconciliation is not going to be easy in 2021. Especially if Nancy the Ripper is re-elected.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: Decades of Federal Government intervention and we are still miles from solving this problem. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From Red State Blog, by Sister Toldjah, 3 June 2020.
Here is the InstaPundit except:
“Now, too many see the protests as the problem. No, the problem is what forced your fellow citizens to take to the streets, persistent, and poisonous, inequities and injustice. And please, show me where it says that protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful.”
And, of course, the InstaPundit Blogger, Mr Ed Driscoll, obliged, by quoting the First Amendment.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
So Newscaster Christ Cuomo doesn't really know the First Amendment. I am not shocked by that. He seems to be all emotions and little knowledge.
The other place Mr Cuomo falls down is in not acknowledging that this problem of minorities feeling they are not being listened to is decades old and thus falls on his Brother and his Father, with regard to New York State. Why is he not excoriating his own kith and kin?
The death of Mr George Floyd is an example of a failure of local government. Not just the police department, which failed to discharge this officer with over a dozen complaints, but also the local States Attorney, who let him slide on a previous complaint. And she, now Senator Amy Klobuchar, was short-listed for the Democratic Party Vice Presidential nomination. If she had acted decisively back in the day might we not be here today.
The problems we are facing today, the abuse of civil rights, the lack of trust in government on the part of some groups in these United States, is not for lack of laws. It is for lack of good law enforcement. And not just the police. This includes things like building inspectors and folks enforing zoning codes. It is about the education of our children and where the sewer lines are being installed.
If we want to fix this we need to elect local leaders who want to make thing fair. As for legislation, we might consider this tweet:
Jane Coaston @cjane87 · 21h
1. End qualified immunity.
2. Curtail the power of police unions
And here’s the toughest one:
3. We probably need fewer laws, in general.
The InstaPundit himself, Law Professor Green Reynolds, bumped this, because it is true.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: Protest is our right. Riots are an attack on fellow citizens and must be stopped and condemned. Nothing to see here; just move along.
Here is the sub-headline:
Trump Derangement Syndrome Has Reached Pandemic Status
From PJ Media, by Mr Stephen Kruiser, 2 June 2020.
Here is the lede plus five:
President Trump provided the nation a perfect social media snapshot of why so many of us are way beyond being able to seem the American Left as anything but a bunch for raving lunatics. Yeah, I may be a little over the top now but I think I’ve been drowned in so much hyperbole and anti-Trump hysteria AMID THE PANDEMIC that I now feel like responding in kind.
It began when he gave a speech from the Rose Garden addressing the violence of the past few days that expressed some sentiments that are difficult to find fault with:
“All Americans were rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd,” Trump said, adding that “For George and his family, justice will be served. He will not have died in vain. But we cannot allow the righteous cries of peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob.
“The biggest victims of the rioting are the peace-loving citizens in our poorest communities. And as their president, I will fight to keep them safe.
“I will fight to protect you. I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters,” Trump said.
Trump then pointed out what has been plain for all to see: there has been a complete failure of leadership in every city where the violence has gotten hand. He was polite and didn’t mention that they were all Democrats running those cities.
I don't think there is much of anything the President can do that won't elicit criticism. But, that is not a promise that he won't win in November.
My take is that it was the right thing to do for the President to walk over to St John's, across Layfette Park from the White House, a church that burned during a riot in DC.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: We know about Mr George Floyd, who died in police custody, in Minneapolis. Should we not known about this man, murdered by a rioter this last weekend Yes, we expect higher standards of those who provide us protection, but that does not mean that rioters are not to be held to a high standard. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The Federal Times, by Reporter Daisy Nguyen, 1 Jun 2020.
Here is the lede plus one:
A federal law enforcement officer who was shot and killed while providing security at the U.S. courthouse in Oakland, California, during a protest has been identified.
Dave Patrick Underwood, 53, died from gunshot wounds sustained after someone fired shots from an unidentified vehicle Friday night, the FBI said Sunday.
For irony, Mr Underwood was a Black man.
For further irony, he was murdered while providing protection to the Ronald Vernie Dellums Building in Oakland. Representative Ron Dellums was the first Black Member of Congress from Northern California and served thirteen terms. He also served as Mayor of Oakland.
Mr Underwood is survive by a Sister, Angela Underwood Jacobs. Ms Jacobs, earlier this year, ran for the Republican nomination for the US Congress in the California 25th District. The seat was won by Republican Mike Garcia, who replaces disgraced Democratic Representative Katie Hill (resigned November 3, 2019),
Our condolences to Ms Jacobs and other members of Mr Underwood's family. He should not be forgotten.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: No Church Servics, but it is OK for mobs of people to wander through US Citizes. Nothing to see here; just move along.
From The Babylon Bee, 1 June 2020.
Here is the lede plus one:
LOS ANGELES, CA—Religious people in Southern California have found a bold, creative solution for in-person meetings in spite of the continuing lockdown. This past weekend, several area churches attended church services disguised as righteously indignant rioters.
"We already have the righteous indignation thing down," said one church elder. "Now, we've simply added black balaclavas, hoodies, Guy Fawkes masks, and baseball bats! We found that when we do this, we can meet in large groups without much interference from the local authorities. It's been a delightful experience."
Makes sense.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
For John, BLUF: What can I say? Nothing to see here; just move along.
Happy Anniversary
To My Beautiful Wife
Regards — Cliff
