Five takeaways from the first Democrat debate

The Hill  "The race for the Democratic presidential nomination shifted into top gear here on Wednesday night, with the first debate of the 2020 election cycle. 

"Ten candidates took to the stage of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami. Another ten of their rivals will follow on Thursday.

"Here are five takeaways from the inaugural Democratic showdown.

"A big night for Warren
"The one-sentence summary: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) won.
"Warren was particularly strong in the first half-hour of the debate, when her answers — forceful, succinct and substantive — set her apart from everyone else on stage.
"During those crucial opening exchanges, Warren got to hit some of her favorite themes, including the misdeeds of the corporate world (“corruption, pure and simple”) and her advocacy of "Medicare for All." 
"In making her case for the latter topic, she blasted health insurance companies for what she portrayed as gratuitous profiteering.
"Other candidates were often asked about their own positions in relation to Warren’s — a move that highlighted her status as the dominant figure on stage.
"Republicans seek to paint Warren as an overly bookish, professorial person, but she combated that image with an emotive answer on gun control — she referenced being asked by children how she would keep them safe if elected president — and a personal closing statement outlining her modest upbringing in Oklahoma.
"Warren came into the debate with momentum. She accelerated even faster on Wednesday evening." . . .

The Cowardly Incoherence of Name-Changing, Statue-Toppling, and other Iconoclasms

Victor Davis Hanson

"A few activists succeed in demonizing Father Serra and removing a mission bell, but progressives still want the names ‘Stanford’ and ‘Yale’ on their résumés."

"My undergraduate alma mater, UC Santa Cruz, recently agreed to remove a mission bell donated years ago by a local women’s club.

"The university ceded to the wishes of one Valentin Lopez. He is the chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.

Val brought forth concerns to us about the symbolism of the bell. He spoke of the historical injustices and oppression that the bell represents to the Amah Mutsun and indigenous populations. It was such a compelling statement of impact and I am pleased we have been able to work in partnership with them on the removal. Our students have also given voice to the need to remove the bell.

"So said Sarah Latham, vice chancellor for business and administrative services at UCSC.

"The triumphant Lopez added, “These bells are deeply painful symbols that celebrate the destruction, domination and erasure of our people. They are constant reminders of the disrespect our tribe faces to this day.” Latham offered no clarification about the definition of “students have also given voice,” in terms of numbers of students or votes. Neither the taxpayers of the state-funded institution nor the alumni were surveyed. Apparently, no one wondered, while considering the list of impediments to the progress of Native Americans, just how high an offending bell at UC Santa Cruz ranks.

"About the same time, at San Francisco’s Washington High School, it was announced that an 83-year-old mural chronicling George Washington’s life was slated to be removed, destroyed, or covered up, owing to “accusations of racism.”

"Yet the artist, Victor Arnautoff, was a leftist who in 1936 had sought to offer a realistic view of what he thought was a flawed American history. No matter. The school board caved to the objections of one Virginia Marshall, apparent spokesperson for “the Alliance of Black School Educators,” who demanded the removal: “It is a racist mural. My history should not be racist but it is. I came from slaves.' ” . . .

‘Well, that’s awkward’! These alternate angle pics of AOC at the border last year seem to be missing something

Rich Terrell

Twitchy  "We told you earlier about a couple of tweets from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that don’t quite make sense considering they came months after photos showed her looking through a border fence, purportedly at migrant children in cages, with a horrified look on her face. Ocasio-Cortez explained the pictures this way:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

✔@AOC

I’ll never forget this, because it was the moment I saw with my own eyes that the America I love was becoming a nation that steals refugee children from their parents,& caged them.
More kids died after this. To date, no one has been held accountable.
We need to save these kids. https://twitter.com/i_p_a_1/status/1143361683710193665 …

"The pictures Ocasio-Cortez helped spread around only showed her reaction, and not what she was looking at. With that in mind, people have found photos that appear to show different angles, including what was on the other side of the fence through which AOC was looking — or what wasn’t on the other side as it were:"

LOOSE THREADS IN THE CURIOUS CASE (2)

Power Line "Minnesota state representative Steve Drazkowski reminds me of the legendary story of the time Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862. Lincoln is said to have greeted Stowe, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”

"Rep. Drazkowski is the state representative who filed the complaint against Ilhan Omar with the state campaign finance board. In the course of its investigation the board found that Omar had filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 with a man to whom she was not married — while she was married to another man (who may be her brother).

"Those tax returns are two datapoints suggestive of the fraudulent nature of Omar’s 2009 marriage to Ahmed Elmi. They are datapoints that Omar can’t evade or talk her way around. Indeed, she won’t even try. It’s not her style.

"Instead, when asked about the tax returns by the Star Tribune, she declined to respond through spokesman Jeremy Slevin. In his nonresponse Slevin essentially accused the Star Tribune of “colluding” with Power Line in bigotry: “Whether by colluding with right-wing outlets to go after Muslim elected officials or hounding family members, legitimate media outlets have a responsibility not to fan the flames of hate.”

"This is an old act that should long since have worn thin. Like the dog that didn’t bark in the Sherlock Holmes story, however, it is a clue." . . .

Making LGBT a Protected Class Will Kill Religious Liberty

Photo added by DT

T.R. Clancy. . . "Like their federal cousin, the Equality Act, these laws can't ensure equality because, as gay writer Brad Polumbo explains, they work by "elevating [LGBT] rights over those of religious Americans."  

"Senator Moss isn't even pretending this isn't the case." . . .

. . . "Even when we call our hitmen "doctors," and the murders they commit "health care." Or castration "gender transitioning."

"When the old progressives attacked religion, they mistakenly saw themselves as defending modern science from primitive superstitions.  Matthew Arnold rejected miracles outright, and called for a critical effort, "in all branches of knowledge, theology, philosophy, history, art, science, to see the object as in itself it really is."  But the last thing today's progressives are willing to tolerate is anyone pointing out the object as in itself it really is.  Our best-educated professors, lawyers, and doctors refuse to permit an unborn child to be referred to as a human baby, his bearer as a mother, or a gender dysphoric teenaged "transgendered male" as exactly what she is: a girl.  Today's war on religious liberty isn't being waged by clear-eyed progressives against bitter clingers determined to force their dark superstitions on the nation; it's being waged by a radical clerisy properly terrified that their counterfeit science is being exposed — including by clear-eyed believers — as the superstitious mumbo-jumbo that it is." . . .

Ten Questions NBC’s Debate Moderators Should Ask the Dems, If They Want to Be Fair and Balanced

MRC

ACTUAL QUESTION FROM 2015 DEBATE

"CNBC White House correspondent John Harwood to Donald Trump:

“Mr. Trump, you’ve done very well in this campaign so far by promising to....make Americans better off because your greatness would replace the stupidity and incompetence of others....Let’s be honest. Is this a comic book version of a presidential campaign?”

PROPOSED QUESTIONS FOR 2019 DEBATE 

"To Joe Biden: 

“Mr. Biden, you’ve developed a reputation as a gaffe machine and serial groper of women. Last week, you touted your ability to work with two notorious segregationist Democratic senators. You’ve also pledged to cure cancer if elected, something that no responsible person should promise. Let’s be honest: Is this a comic book version of a presidential campaign?”

"To Elizabeth Warren:

“Senator Warren, you’ve become a punchline for falsely claiming you were of Native American descent. Some have even called you Fauxcahontas and compared you to Rachel Dolezal. Let’s be honest: Is this a comic book version of a presidential campaign?” 

To Cory Booker: 

“Mr. Booker, you have repeatedly claimed to have had a childhood friendship with somebody you called ‘T-Bone,’ yet nobody has been able to prove this person actually existed. Why did you make up an imaginary friend? Let’s be honest: Is this a comic book version of a presidential campaign?”

. . . 

ACTUAL QUESTION FROM 2015 DEBATE

"CNBC anchor Carl Quintanilla to Sen. Marco Rubio:"

“This one is for Senator Rubio. You’ve been a young man in a hurry ever since you won your first election in your 20s....You’re skipping more votes than any senator to run for president. Why not slow down, get a few more things done first or at least finish what you start?”

PROPOSED QUESTION FOR 2019 DEBATE

"To Beto O’Rourke and Pete Buttigieg:" 

“This one is for Congressman O’Rourke and Mayor Buttigieg. You’ve been young men in a hurry ever since you won your first elections. Why not slow down, get a few more things done first or at least finish what you start?”

 More here...

Slavery and Reparations and Concentration Camps, Oh My

Christopher Chantrill  "The problem with our lefty friends is that they don't really want to have what they call a "conversation." Their idea of conversation is for highly trained activists to ram their morality down our throats and then demand we say thank-you.

Right now they are sticking it to us over the question of reparations and concentration camps.

"So when Democrats rile up their black base with demands for reparations -- that’s loot and plunder to ordinary deplorables -- and when Mean Girl of the Month AOC talks idly about “concentration camps,” well, all they are doing is trolling for votes.

"Let's take slavery and reparations. First, slavery. It was ubiquitous in human society up until the day before yesterday. Here are a few words from The Year 1000 by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger.

Welleas, or Welshman, was one of the Old English words for slave -- which showed where the Anglo Saxons got their slaves... Bristol was a slave port, trading with the Viking slave merchants based in Ireland. According to contemporary chronicles, eleventh-century Dublin operated the largest slave market in western Europe.

. . . 

Biggest lie? Terrorizing children with climate change scenarios

. . . All their tilting at windmills and solar panels are just silly pipe dreams.  America is never again going to be pre-industrial.  And CO2 is a life force, not a pollutant.  That is Science 101."

Patricia McCarthy  "Nancy Pelosi shamelessly accuses President Trump of "scaring the children" with talk of deporting illegal migrants who have committed crimes, received due process, and evaded deportation orders.  Pelosi is infamous for using children as pawns in her gutter politics.  Her party has been using migrant children as tools in their vicious game of border politics since the day Trump was elected. Up until then, they all claimed to favor border security.  That changed on a dime on November 8, 2016.  From that day forward, there have been no limits on how low they will go; children are absolutely indispensable in their plan to destroy Trump by any means available. 

"The hoax of man-caused climate change is one of their principal schemes to frighten the youngest among us into abject servants of the state.  So what if it destroys their hopes of a future, family or any comforts of home and freedom!  Those of us of a certain age have vague memories of air raid drills and duck and cover exercises in the fifties.  Most of our parents, however, did not use these events to instill fear in our hearts and minds.  Some did of course; they built bomb shelters and prepared for the worst, but in those days, the generation that had survived the Depression and WWII strived to protect the innocence of childhood for their progeny." . . . 

Severe language warning in this video, regrettably:

Dems Are Planning to Steal the 2020 Election

...Yet, vote harvesting is the most pernicious of the voting schemes; it allows partisans to go to someone’s home with a ballot, fill it out for them, and cast it in their stead.  Can you say, “voter intimidation?”  What could go wrong? Lowering the voting age to 16 and allowing felons and prisoners to vote are also aspirations. ...

William L. Gensert  "Democrats have an insurance policy for the 2020 Presidential election, and it has nothing to do with the eventual Democratic Party nominee.  The original policy was initiated by Obama, Comey, Brennan, McCabe, Hillary, and their ilk, bragged about by Strzok to his paramour, and paid for by the Democrat/media cabal.  The mephitic Mueller tried to cash it in, but the hero Marine got slapped down by Barr.

"It’s a plan to “win” the election by any means necessary, even by cheating if necessary.  Of its components, the “failsafe,” is most intriguing, if for no other reason than it is so devious, underhanded, clever, and inventive, that it’s surprising it comes from the same left which gave us the ridiculously ludicrous Steele dossier and Smollett hoax.

"October Surprise. 

"Notice how quickly E. Jean Carroll disappeared from the headlines?  Or, how the same media, which has a conniption fit when Trump asks for an extra scoop of ice cream, scarcely publicized her rape accusation, and then let the matter drop with nary a peep? Perhaps a sealed indictment of Donald Trump (New York has no statute of limitations for first-degree rape) is being processed as we speak, with the purpose of it being leaked just in time for the election."

Trump Administration Holding Immigrant Children in Cages-Mostly Truth! & Misleading!

Truth or Fiction

"Summary of eRumor:

"As part of its “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration, the Trump administration holds immigrant children in cages after separating them from their parents.

"The Truth:

"There are many questions about the Trump administration’s use of detention centers to hold immigrant children. One of the most potent claims has been that immigrant children are held in cages.
"Based on first-person accounts and historical records, chain-link enclosures similar to cages are used to separate children during processing at at least one U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) facility. It’s not clear how long children are held there for processing. However, that facility was in use in 2014, before Trump took office. Given that, we’re calling this one “mostly truth” and “misleading.' ” . . .

. . . "So, it’s true that at least one CBP processing facility uses fence-like enclosures. However, that facility was in use before Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. And other CBP detention facilities are operated as licensed child care centers. Given all that, we’re calling this one “mostly truth” and “misleading.' ”

Obama officials rushed to explain photos from 2014 that went viral showing locked-up immigrant children — and Trump's facilities look the same

. . . "Several former Obama administration officials took to social media and news outlets last month to explain a gallery of years-old photos that showed immigrant children sleeping in shoddy conditions at a government-run holding facility in Arizona. 
"The images, which the Associated Press first published in 2014, resurfaced recently for reasons that remain unclear, and quickly prompted viral outrage on Twitter. One particularly disturbing image showed two children sleeping on mattresses on the floor inside what appeared to be a cage.
"A number of prominent liberals — and even a former Obama administration official — shared the photos, mistakenly believing they depicted the Trump administration's treatment of immigrant children who were forcibly separated from their parents." . . .

PHOTOS: Are Immigrant Children Being Held in Cages at Border?
About some cage photos: . . . “They were taken by Ross D. Franklin, a photographer from The Associated Press, at a centre run by the Customs and Border Protection Agency in Nogales, Ariz,” reported Globelnews.ca. Trump also tweeted in late May about the 2014 photos, writing, “Democrats mistakenly tweet 2014 pictures from Obama’s term showing children from the Border in steel cages. They thought it was recent pictures in order to make us look bad, but backfires. Dems must agree to Wall and new Border Protection for good of country…Bipartisan Bill!”

Who you gonna believe: Netflix or the evidence?

"But instead of learning a somber lesson from their parents, paying the price and emerging better men, they have learned a much different lesson from our media: It doesn’t matter what you do to another human being; cry “racism,” and you will be rewarded with untold riches and celebrity."

Ann Coulter  "Last week, we reviewed the evidence of “innocence” of the “Central Park 5” presented in the court of Hollywood.
"This week, we’ll review the evidence of their guilt — presented in courts of law and ruled on by actual judges and juries.
"The five accused rapists — Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam and Kharey Wise — were duly convicted of the 1989 Central Park rape, as well as other assaults in the park that night; “exonerated” 13 years later; and, more than a decade after that, paid $40 million by the city of New York to “settle” a malicious prosecution case within months of Bill de Blasio becoming mayor, despite city lawyers’ confidence that they would win at trial.
"To his credit, Mayor Michael Bloomberg refused to give the “exonerated” convicts a dime.
"Today, they are civil rights heroes to Hollywood airheads and others completely unfamiliar with the facts of the case.
"Here is just some of the evidence against them." . . .   
Full article here with disturbing accounts.

Matias Reyes is a serial rapist who admitted in 2002 to raping Tricia Meili in 1989, over a decade after the Central Park Five, a group of black and hispanic teenage boys, were convicted for the crime. "When Reyes came forward, the Central Park Five were fully exonerated. They were given a $41 million settlement from the City of New York for their wrongful conviction.

"Reyes decided to come forward after he met Korey Wise in prison. Wise was one of the Central Park Five, and the only one of the group who was tried and convicted as an adult for the crime." . . .

Think another pallet of cash will cool things down with Iran?

Rich Terrell

Iran threatens to shoot down more US aircraft, say reports "Iran bragged about its “collection” of U.S. drones and said it’s prepared to add to that collection by shooting down more U.S. aircraft, according to Iranian media.
“ 'We possess a collection of US drones which is a proof that US has violated Iran’s airspace and shows that they don’t want to respect the international law,” the Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh told Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency reporters on Saturday, as Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported.
“ 'If such aggression is repeated, we will add other US [military] products to complete this collection,” he added, according to Mehr." . . .

What role did John Kerry play in Iran’s attacks on foreign tankers and the downing of an American surveillance drone?  . . . "These actions, taken together, reflect an emboldened, empowered Iran — a country that cannot possibly withstand a full-on assault by the United States. Did Kerry tell the Iranians some things — about U.S. capabilities, about the Trump administration, about things that would or could force POTUS Trump to reconsider any retaliatory strikes — so their government could remain intact and compete its nuclear work?

"Given his history of Logan Act violations and recent discussions with this rogue regime, following by Iran’s challenging behavior, it would behoove the president to have his attorney general, William Barr, impanel a grand jury, then haul Kerry in front of it and ask him, under oath and penalty of perjury, just what it was he and his Iranian buddies talked about." . . .

Trump’s Iran Policy Upstages Obama Disaster "Democrats so wanted President Donald Trump to blast Iran. I think many Americans believe that the shooting down of our drone by Iran was a setup. Democrats hoped Trump would overreact and blast Iran into next week. But he sniffed out the ruse, and instead provided a measured response."

U.S. Holds All the Cards in the Showdown with Iran by Victor Davis Hanson:  . . . "The Iranian theocrats despise the Trump administration. They yearn for the good old days of the Obama administration, when the U.S. agreed to a nuclear deal that all but guaranteed future Iranian nuclear proliferation, ignored Iranian terrorism and sent hundreds of millions of dollars in shakedown payments to the Iranian regime." . . .
"Iran believed that the Obama administration saw it as a valuable Shiite counterweight to Israel and the traditionally American-allied Sunni monarchies in the Gulf region. Tehran assumes that an even more left-wing American administration would also endorse Iran-friendly policies, and so it is fishing for ways to see that happen in 2020 with a Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Joe Biden presidency.
"Desperate Iranian officials have already met secretly with former secretary of state John Kerry and openly with Senator Diane Feinstein, likely to commiserate over Trump’s cancellation of the nuclear deal and to find ways to revive the Obama-era agreement after Trump leaves office." . . .