Monday, July 22, 2019

South Bend cops warn of ‘mass exodus,’ as morale tanks over Buttigieg handling of shooting

“To me, it’s like he kind of convicted Sgt. O’Neill before anything was even out, making comments like that,” one officer said. “It wasn’t based on the facts of what happened, because we don’t even have all the facts of what happened.”
Fox News  "As South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg commands national attention with his media-savvy presidential bid, the firestorm back home over an officer-involved shooting shows no sign of settling soon -- with the mayor facing criticism not only from protesters but police who say his handling has crushed morale and risks a “mass exodus” from the force.
“Morale around here has been terrible. We do nothing,” one police officer, a 20-year veteran of the force, told Fox News. “We call ourselves firemen, we sit around in parking lots until we’re called and then we go to the call, because if you say or do something wrong, then you get hung.”
“ 'At an all-time low,” another officer said of morale. “It’s been really demoralizing and hard to come to work lately.”
"Officers requested not to be identified for this story in fear of retaliation by the mayor's administration. But they told Fox News that they know of multiple officers who are considering handing in their badges or taking retirement if eligible, in response to the mayor’s handling of the shooting." . . .
. . . "Buttigieg has claimed he has not taken sides, but amid angry protests back home, he has not challenged the narrative that the shooting is connected to police racism. At an NBC News-hosted presidential primary debate last month, Buttigieg described the shooting as “a black man ...killed by a white officer” and said he “could walk through all of the steps we took, from bias training to de-escalation, but it didn’t save the life of Eric Logan. And when I look into his mother’s eyes, I have to face that fact and nothing that I say will bring him back.' ” . . .

Mayor Pete's virtue-signaling on race riles South Bend's police  . . . "Mayor Pete is caught between his police officers and the mobs that assume that a white policeman is racist if the victim is black.
"Mayor Pete should have supported the police chief and ordered him to conduct an internal investigation to determine what had happened.  Instead, Mayor Pete stabbed his police officers by jumping on the bandwagon that this is a civil rights issue.
"Yes, a white police officer killed a black man.  That does not mean that racism was part of the result.
"Unfortunately, so many Democrats are hostage to the narrative of race and let the mobs set the conversation."

I am not sure if this incident will hurt his presidential campaign.  What it does is prove that he is another Democrat who has to see everything in terms of race.

The Squad Becomes the Untouchables

For eight years, criticism of Barack Obama was automatic grounds to get you smeared a racist. Over the next Lord-knows-how-many years, criticism of these three will get you smeared as that and more — on race, on Islam, on women, on socialism. For the Left, AOC, Tlaib, and Omar will be a handy weapon for knifing opponents.
American Spectator

Rashida, Ilhan, and AOC are more immune to criticism than even Obama was.



"When I first heard that Donald Trump went after Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (I had not heard of Ayanna Pressley), I immediately expressed gratitude that someone had the guts to push back. These three congresswomen are unhinged, a fact further revealed a week earlier in the “testimony” of a brazen AOC and a half-sobbing, ready-to-burst Tlaib. The depth of the radicalism of the AOC-Tlaib-Omar troika, in full display after only a few months in Congress, is difficult to express.
"Perhaps worse, given the context of their current battle against President Trump over divisive language, is that few congressional freshmen in memory have been as out-of-the-gate acrimonious as AOC, Tlaib, and Omar.
"AOC, remember, had just compared our border detention centers to Nazi concentration camps, and then doubled down on it.
“ 'The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are,” said an outrageous Ocasio-Cortez. “They are concentration camps.”"Evoking the language of the Holocaust, she continued: “I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity that ‘Never Again’ means something,” employing the warning of Holocaust survivors. “The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing.”
"I have Polish friends who were really upset at AOC suggesting our border camps are comparable to Auschwitz. They had family who were turned into lampshades in such camps. Did Bernie Sanders, who had relatives killed in concentration camps, denounce AOC? Did CNN devote a smidgen of criticism? If CNN and MSNBC criticized her, it wasn’t at the level of their current meltdown over Trump.
"And how did Democrats respond? They gave AOC a platform to testify on immigration policy. They didn’t denounce her offensive stupidity; they rewarded her and accorded her the seat of an expert." . . .

Liz Cheney smacks down biased interviewer; much commentary on this

Thomas Lifson  "Yesterday’s Face the Nation episode on CBS exemplified media bias.  It’s no secret that the Sunday morning broadcast network political interview shows are losing viewers, but it’s less well-known that among them Face the Nation isbleeding viewers the fastest. Yesterday’s episode of the program, hosted by Margaret Brennan, was a case study in bias.
"A lot of attention has been paid this morning on Fox News to a confrontation between Representative Liz Cheney and Brennan in which an exasperated Cheney confronted Brennan and told her she was making Cheney’s case on bias. House Republicans posted to YouTube the highlight of the segment, lasting a minute-and-a-half. (the full 6 minutes of the segment may be viewed here):

"Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller counted up the times Brennan interrupted Cheney at 10. What makes this so outrageous is that in another segment of the show, Brennan “sat idly by when California Rep. Adam Schiff falsely claimed later in the show that President Donald Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator in the investigation of Michael Cohen."
CBS Host Repeatedly Interrupts Liz Cheney. The Interview With Adam Schiff Was Completely Different  . . . "Democrats have said Trump’s remarks were racist, while Trump’s defenders said his comments had nothing to do with race and were instead a critique of their policy positions.
"Cheney made the same argument, leading to a contentious exchange with Brennan." Watch here.
Under Fire on CBS, Liz Cheney Brings the Heat on the Socialist Squad  . . . "While Brennan asked Booker and Schiff if the Republicans have a point about the Democrats, but it comes with skepticism already attached. To Booker: "Do you think there is any merit to the argument that Democrats need to-- to police their own ranks, that some of these progressive Democrats in the House have been reckless with some of their language?"
. . . Brennan began the Booker interview with a question he clearly felt was easy: 
BRENNAN: Senator, you compared President Trump to George Wallace, the segregationist Democrat from Alabama. You said the President's own words were a disgusting display of racism and bigotry, are you accusing the President of being a racist?
SEN. CORY BOOKER: I'm accusing him of being worse than that.
"CBS doesn't seem to find any recklessness on the liberal side of politics."

Liz Cheney Tells CBS's Margaret Brennan She's Part of the Problem With 'Squad' Feud  "This is about policy," Cheney added after Brennan's interruption.
"The host continued to cut in, insisting Trump's diatribe was racist.
" 'Margaret, you are making my point," Cheney observed, again trying to explain the real problem here." . . .

How much sillier can western culture get? Updated.

Lucianne
UPDATED* Woman Forced To Close Business After Refusing To Wax Male Genitals Of Transgender Person  "A Brazilian immigrant living in Canada was forced to close up her small business after refusing to wax the male genitals of transgender LGBT activist Jessica Yaniv, formerly known as Jonathan Yaniv."


Yaniv: One proud lesbian. I'll never give
up fighting for human rights equality.
"Citing discrimination based on gender identity, Yaniv filed a complaint with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal seeking financial restitution. The activist has filed complaints against 15 other estheticians with the tribunal, claiming “gender identity” discrimination, as well, The Daily Wire reported last year. It was not until Wednesday, however, that Yaniv’s identity was allowed to be disclosed.

"According to The Post Millennial, Marcia Da Silva claims that she refused to service the complainant “due to safety concerns raised by her husband and alleged harassment on Yaniv’s part and not because of the claimant’s identity.”

"During tribunal proceedings on Wednesday, Da Silva said the complaint from Yaniv forced her to close shop, the outlet noted.

“ 'Some of my clients have been very significantly affected on a personal level. [Another client also] closed her business, she has been depressed, anxious, sleepless and that has gone on for a period of many many months,” said Jay Cameron, a lawyer from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms representing Da Silva." . . .

Yaniv seems to be making this a vocation:
Jessica Yaniv, a transgender Canadian, has filed over a dozen gender-identity discrimination complaints against women in the Vancouver area who have refused to perform Brazilian bikini wax procedures on her male genitalia. 
Yaniv
In a tweet posted Thursday, Yaniv framed the shuttering of Da Silva’s business as a win for human rights.
“This is not about waxing,” Yaniv wrote. “This is about businesses and individuals using their religion and culture to refuse service to protected groups because — they — don’t agree with it or the person and use that to illegally discriminate contrary to the BC Human Rights Code and the CHRC.”




Update: Trans Activist Is Hosting A “Topless,” No Parents Allowed Swimming Event For Girls As Young As Twelve  . . . "This should be blasted from every mainstream media outlet from Canada to China, however, due to Canada’s overt obedience to social justice, naysaying a transgender person may not only land you a status as a public pariah, but it can land you in legal and financial trouble just like the ladies in the lawsuit above.
"In any normal world, this kind of proposition would immediately be dismissed and the person who proposed it possibly investigated. However, in Canada, this is forced down the public’s throat without much recourse. It’s so bad that Yaniv has posted in young women’s bathrooms without any punishments from authorities or even social media platforms whatsoever.
"Judging from Yaniv’s reported texting history, this man is clearly delusional and seems very interested in seeing young girls nude." . . .

*Meanwhile, Yaniv seems to be enjoying the spotlight:

“ 'At one point, the complainant compared the business owner to a neo-Nazi.' ”

Nadler not worried that GOP could press Mueller for details on Russia probe: 'Let them waste their time'

Fox News  . . . “ 'If they want to debate or discuss this irrelevancy, let them waste their time,” Nadler said on “Fox News Sunday,” insisting that everything Republicans are worried about has already been investigated and “found to be baseless.”

"Host Chris Wallace pushed back on that assertion, noting that the Justice Department Inspector General’s report on the Trump investigation and potential abuse of the FISA system to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page has yet to be released.

"Nadler referred to previous Inspector General’s findings related to the Hillary Clinton investigation, which he said was half of what Republicans are concerned with. Those findings included details about messages sent between former special agent Peter Strzok and attorney Lisa Page, which featured strong language against Trump and favoring Clinton. The report found that Strzok showed that his political opinions could have influenced his work, but that there was ultimately no improper impact on the Clinton investigation.

"Nadler also insisted, “There was nothing wrong with the FISA application,” but that remains to be seen, as that report has yet to come out.

"Wallace asked Nadler if his efforts to get more information out of Mueller could be fruitless, given Muelller’s public statement that the report was his testimony and he had nothing more to add." . . .


Texas Democrat Wendy Davis announces congressional bid

Once known in Texas as "Abortion Barbie"; she'll make good use of those California transplants. TD


Quotesgram
Dallas News  "Former Texas Sen. Wendy Davis announced early Monday that she would be running for freshman U.S. Rep. Chip Roy's congressional seat.
" 'I've learned that I'm at my best when I'm fighting for people," Davis said in an autobiographical video posted to Youtube Monday morning. "It isn't personal achievements or failures that create change. It's working together to fight for what matters."
Her famous filibuster footwear
"Davis said in March that she was considering a run for U.S. Senate, but would likely run for Congress if another Democrat decided to challenge Republican incumbent John Cornyn." 
. . . 
. . . "When her 2013 filibuster garnered national attention, Davis won the Democratic nomination to run against Greg Abbott in the 2014 gubernatorial election, but lost by over 20 percentage points.
"Once Davis moved to Austin, she campaigned for Hillary Clinton and founded Deeds Not Words, an organization for women's rights in Texas.
"The 21st District includes southern Austin and northern San Antonio, along with Fredericksburg and Kerrville. Other Democrats from the area, including Bruce Boville and Jennie Lou Leeder, have also filed Federal Election Commission finance reports."


Ave Maria Radio

Sunday, July 21, 2019

The Kavanaugh Hearing Revisited


Elise Cooper  . . . "The Democrats began their campaign on July 9th, 2018 after President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh for a position on the Supreme Court. Even before the confirmation hearing many Democrats including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and some Democrats on the committee had already announced their intention to vote against Kavanaugh. Thus, began the campaign to destroy Brett Kavanaugh by any means possible, including unverified and nonsensical accusations of sexual assault.



“ 'But a lack of evidence never seemed to keep them from being taken seriously.” Severino noted, “It was disconcerting to see that even when outlandish allegations came out, they were taken seriously by the Democrats and the media.  A man’s reputation was dragged thought the mud publicly with lifelong consequences. There is a need for some kind of evidence to substantiate the accusations.  We talk in the book about an understanding in our society that accusations cannot be acted upon without any evidence.”
"Hemingway felt, “There is an inherent contradiction to some people’s reaction to the #MeTooMovement.  There is the good of holding powerful men responsible in the sexual exploitation of women. Yet, not everyone’s allegation must be believed without evidence to support them. It is the standard of believing people without evidence that leads to situations. Remember Swetnick accused people of gang rape of underage women.  All the Democrats responded by saying Kavanaugh should resign.  Senator Diane Feinstein even read that accusation into the congressional record. It made a farce of the confirmation process by not handling all the accusations with confidentiality instead of the media circus.” 
"Although no hint of sexual misconduct had ever attached to Kavanaugh in his previous confirmation hearings or FBI background checks, on July 30, 2018, Christine Blasey Ford wrote U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein a letter, asking for confidentiality, that accused Kavanaugh of having sexually assaulted her in the 1980s. Feinstein held on to it and did not refer the allegation to the FBI until September 14, 2018, after the Judiciary Committee had completed its hearings on Kavanaugh's nomination. " . . .


Tony Branco: Comically Incorrect
"Justice on Trial": Kirby Center Interview With Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino
. . . "That's one thing--nobody realized how absolutely intense and excruciating the next few weeks would be. And that was more because it just seemed like up was down and reality was turned on its head. You had facts, you had things that seemed like there's nothing here to support these allegations, but the media would present it as if there was a ton of stuff to support it. And you would have exculpatory evidence, and they would ignore it." . . .

Your Sunday schadenfreude

Thomas Lifson  "Senator Ted Cruz faced down and won re-election in a heated campaign against not just a fake Hispanic pretty boy named Robert Francis O’Rourke, he defeated an intense propaganda offensive undertaken by Texas and national media. That propaganda was not enough to convince Texas voters to hand a majority to O’Rourke, the already-wealthy populist who married an heiress to an estimated half billion-dollar fortune. But the propaganda campaign did convince O’Rourke that he had sufficient political assets to mount a presidential campaign.
"Poor Beto Bobby has now discovered that it was all just a matter of the media’s hatred for Cruz, who has the effrontery to be a conservative Hispanic and whip-smart.
"So, Ted Cruz has the right – maybe even the responsibility -- to point out that once he was not the target, Beto’s Bobby’s appeal evaporated quicker than a gasoline spill on a hot Texas day."
"Speaking to Margaret Hoover on PBS’s Firing Line, Ted took a well-deserved dose of schadenfreude. This video takes less than a minute of your time, and offers pure, unadulterated schadenfreude:"  Video of the interview here.
She said, "He did get 48 percent of the vote". I posit that is exactly what having a biased media does for you.

Death by Firing Squad for Islamists Who Beheaded Scandinavian Backpackers

Breitbart


"Three radical Islamic terrorists who beheaded two female backpackers in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco have been sentenced to death by firing squad.
"Carpenters Youness Ouaziyad and Rachid Afatti and street merchant Abdessamad Ejjoud were sentenced on Thursday for the murders of Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark.
"A fourth man, Khaiali Abderahman, was sentenced to life imprisonment, while another 19 accomplices were give prison terms ranging from five to 30 years, reports Sky News.
"Maren and Louisa, who were flatmates at Norway’s Bo University, had been backpacking, unguided, in the area to the south of Marrakesh when they were murdered whilst camping at the base of the range’s tallest mountain, Mount Toubkal, in December 2018.
"An anti-terrorism court in Sale, near Rabat, had heard that the men had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State before the murders, while French media reported that Ejjoud had served a prison sentence in Morocco for trying to join Islamic State in Syria and had been released in 2015.
"During the trial, Ejjoud, an underground imam believed to be the ringleader of the terror cell, had said: “We loved Islamic State and prayed to God for it.”
"The Islamist also said that he had planned a number of terror attacks, including on churches and synagogues, but chose instead to kill the two Scandinavian women. The court heard that the men took four days to identify the women as their targets, choosing Maren and Louisa because other tourists were accompanied by guides. The three terrorists filmed the decapitations and posted them online." . . .

Those ‘Making False Allegations’ Against Kavanaugh Have Not Been Prosecuted

Stephen Colbert 'Late Show' writer: 'I'm just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh's life'
Ariel Dumas and the US women's soccer team; what evil has overtaken our modern culture that we celebrate these people? TD

Mollie Hemingway



"Politicians, news media figures, and assorted leftists who slandered Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh have not been held accountable for their misconduct, said Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino, authors of Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court, in a Friday interview on SiriusXM’s Audio of this interview here at Breitbart Sirius XM
"The Democrats and broader left used the “politics of personal destruction” during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings to the Supreme Court, said Hemingway, senior editor at the Federalist and Fox News contributor.
“ 'This is part of a larger effort by some people to have the politics of personal destruction be dominant,” Hemingway assessed. “It’s why it was important that Kavanaugh actually win the confirmation battle, because if he had lost it, it would have been lights out for this type of politics.”

"Those orchestrating slander against Kavanaugh have not been held accountable, said Hemingway.
"Hemingway said, “What concerns [Carrie Severino] and me is that no one really has been held accountable for some of what happened, and the way to prevent this from happening in the future is to hold people accountable.' ” . . .

Again: Ashley Kavanaugh Should Sue Christine Blasey Ford  . . . "This isn’t about revenge – even though I see nothing wrong with that. "This is about justice.
"A worryingly large number of people seem to think the War on Brett Kavanaugh is over now that he’s Justice Kavanaugh.
"It’s not." . . .

Colbert's writer and fans need to be condemned.  . . . "In a social media post on Saturday, a writer for CBS's "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" seemingly celebrated the damage done to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's reputation during his bruising and bitterly partisan confirmation battle.
" 'Whatever happens, I'm just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh's life," the writer, Ariel Dumas, posted on Twitter. Dumas later briefly made her account private, preventing others from viewing her posts without her approval.

Emphasis mine, TD

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Journalist Travels to Ilhan Omar’s Homeland to Prove Somalia is Beautiful, Debunk ‘Stereotypes’ – Gets Killed by Islamic Terrorists

The Gateway Pundit . . . "Hodan Nalayeh, a Somali-born Canadian journalist traveled to Somalia last week to prove Somalia is “beautiful” and to challenge ‘stereotypes’ ended up being killed by Islamic terrorists.
"Hodan Nalayeh returned to Somalia, the place of her birth, to document the beauty and to tell “uplifting” stories, according to WaPo.
"Nalayeh often tweeted about Somalia and just last week posted pictures showing how much fun she was having in Kismayo and the neighboring island of Ilisi.
“ 'It’s so clean & breathtaking. A perfect place for a day swim with the family,” Nalayeh tweeted just two days before she was killed.
. . . 
"One of Nalayeh’s Twitter followers praised her for “countering the doom narrative propagated by many about Somalia.' ”
. . . 
"On July 12, al-Shabaab terrorists stormed Asasey Hotel in Kismayo. 26 people were killed in the terrorist attack and Hodan Nalayeh, 43, and her husband were among the victims.
"According to a Canadian news outlet, Nalayeh was pregnant when she was killed by al-Shabaab terrorists last week." . . .

Are Democrats Sure Biden Is Different Enough from Hillary Clinton?

National Review
"How confident should the Joe Biden team be right now?"


"Think about all of the factors that contributed to Hillary Clinton’s defeat in 2016. She was a figure who had been around a long time, among the best-known names in the party establishment. As a senator, she worked closely with her home state’s financial industry, leaving some liberal grassroots concluding she was a corporatist who was far too comfortable with big business. Critics asked how someone who had spent the past few decades in the public sector could so quickly become a multimillionaire, and contended that her family foundation had engaged in shady deals with foreign governments and foreign businesses. Some people couldn’t believe she wanted to charge University of Missouri at Kansas City a whopping $275,000 to give a speech at a luncheon.

"More progressive figures challenged her in the primary, and activists on the Left hit her hard for her punitive stances on crime in the 1990s, including describing young gang members as “super-predators.” She attempted to shore up her support among African Americans by emphasizing her close work with Barack Obama.

"During the tough primary fight and into the general election fight, there were intermittent signs that Hillary Clinton was not at the top of her game – from claiming to being “dead broke” upon leaving the White House, to ham-handed comparisons to “your abuela*,” to the “basket of deplorables” statement. After her loss, Hillary Clinton admitted, “I really wasn’t ready or equipped to run for president against a reality TV candidate.' ” . . .

*Her "Abuela" ad


. . . Quoting below:
The “seven more ways” include:
  • “She cares about children everywhere…”
  • “She knows what’s best…”
  • “She reacts this way when people le faltan el respeto…”
  • “She reads to you before bedtime…”
  • “She isn’t afraid to talk about the importance of el respeto (especially when it comes to women)…
  • “She likes to highlight accomplishments…”
  • “and she has one word for Donald Trump…”

"Many of the reasons are typical from Hillary, with her claim as a champion for women and children and her swipe at Donald Trump, to whom she says “Basta! Enough!' ” . . .