Being called "Fredo" isn't as bad as being called a "CNN Anchor"

Image by Timothy Bishop

 J. Marsolo: Christopher Cuomo is an embarrassment to Italians "CNN's Christopher Cuomo, brother of N.Y. governor Andrew Cuomo and son of former N.Y. governor Mario Cuomo, objected to a man who called him Fredo.  He threatened to punch out and throw the man down the steps. He then repeatedly used the F-word against the man and, even more bizarre, said the term "Fredo" is a slur against Italians comparable to the N-word against blacks.

"As an American of Italian descent, I don't know any Italian, other than Fredo Cuomo, who thinks "Fredo" is a slur against Italians.  Certainly, it is not remotely close to the N-word." . . .

. . . "Fredo Cuomo should not be upset.  He knows he got the CNN gig because of his brother and father, not to mention getting accepted at Yale University.

"There are plenty of Fredos in politics and business.  For example, Senator Ted Kennedy got elected because of his father's money and his brother, JFK.  But there are better names for Teddy, such as Ted the Swimmer, so why waste Fredo on Teddy?

"Or there is former California Governor Jerry Brown who got elected because his father, Pat, had served as governor of California.  But Jerry had the nickname "Moonbeam" thanks to columnist Mike Royko, so why waste Fredo when you have Moonbeam?

"Chris Cuomo isn't very bright.  The brilliant and fearless Kellyanne Conway wiped the floor with Cuomo when he tried to debate her on border security." . . .

http://stiltonsplace.blogspot.com/

Christopher Cuomo surpasses Juan Williams in stupidity  . . . "But Christopher Cuomo, a worthy challenger, may have surpassed Juan.  Cuomo, the Freddo of the Cuomo family, tried to take on the brilliant and fearless Kellyanne Conway regarding the current Dem-media obsession with the enforcement of our border laws.  The Dems and media are trying to divert attention from the I.G. report of the corrupt Comey investigation of Hillary, which is tied to the corrupt Mueller investigation.  Ms. Conway does not back down from the Cuomo types.  She should be attorney general." . . .

. . . "Cuomo ranted the usual Dem-media talking points about the terrible, inhumane Trump.  Ms. Conway calmly explained how the law, passed by Congress, operates.  It is not that complicated.  If one violates the law, then arrest and prosecution follow.  She asked Cuomo what the Dem-media proposal is, to which he had no answer." . . .

Deep Throat, we need you

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/

Barr investigation eyes coordination by Obama intelligence chiefs  . . . "The 2016 election intelligence assessment came from two Obama loyalists who have since become Trump’s most ardent critics on CNN and MSNBC: former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Also signing off was another fierce Trump critic, then-FBI Director James Comey.
"Brennan and Clapper have accused the president of being an agent for Russia. The Mueller report determined there was no collusion between Trump and his associates and Russia.
"On the other side are Republicans in Congress who “wonder whether FBI informants were put into place for the sole purpose of getting a Trump ally to say something that could justify an investigation,” Scarborough noted.

"Coats has all but acknowledged that Barr is conducting a wide-ranging investigation of intelligence agency activities." . . .

Wikipedia:  All the President's Men is a 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists who investigated the first Watergate break-in and ensuing scandal for The Washington Post. " . . .

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11127411

Hong Kong Protesters Are Waving American Flags As A Symbol Of Freedom

. . . "Some of the protesters in Hong Kong have been flying the American flag and even singing our anthem to make a statement about their desire for freedom from communist China:" . . .

This protester . . . explained that the American flag represented freedom, human rights, and democracy. He added, “We hope we can be friends with America.”

Meanwhile here in America:

15 Best Tweets About Chris Cuomo’s Insane Response To Being Called ‘Fredo’

The Federalist  Some fun tweets about the situation.

Chris Cuomo caught on video flying into rage after man calls him ‘Fredo’

"He could end up sleeping with the fishes for using that name.

“Punk-ass bitches from the right call me ‘Fredo.’ My name is Chris Cuomo, I’m an anchor on CNN,” the newsman says in the video, which was shared on Twitter Monday evening.A man sent cable news host Chris Cuomo into a flying rage when he called the anchor “Fredo” — an apparent insult referencing Fredo Corleone, the ineffective son of Vito Corleone in “The Godfather.”

“ 'Fredo is from ‘The Godfather,’ he was a weak brother and the use of it to an Italian is disparaging,” he continues.

"The 49-year-old anchor tells the man that the name “Fredo” is as offensive to Italian Americans as the N-word is to African Americans.

" 'Don’t f–king insult me like that,” the Queens native fumes. “You call me ‘Fredo,’ it’s like I call you punk bitch, you like that?”

"The man in the video insists that he believed the anchor’s real name was Fredo.

"But Cuomo, a dad of three, doesn’t buy it." . . .

Which is the most derogative term? To be called "Fredo", or to be referred to as "My name is Chris Cuomo, I’m an anchor on CNN,' ”


Chris Cuomo Once Referred to Himself as Fredo on NY City Radio Show

• RACIST: Fredo
• NOT RACIST: White terror, white fragility, white supremacy, white privilege, white nationalist, deplorable.
• This is CNN.

 Ed Morrissey at Hot Air had this to say:  . . . "This person wanted to start some s*** with Cuomo and got more than he bargained for. Cuomo’s not the only one who should be embarrassed by this video going viral.

"However, it’s clearly an embarrassment for Cuomo and CNN too, especially in equating “Fredo” to the N-word for Italians. There are a few derogatory terms for Italian-Americans as a group but none of them really rise to the level of the “N-word,” and Fredo isn’t a group insult in the first place. Its Godfather reference has nothing to do with Italianness; it refers to stupidity and incompetence in a sibling, offspring, or within an organization. (In fact, I’ve used it that way myself on occasion.)

What protection did people living in Michael Brown's neighborhood get from him and his friends? TD

Who is Creating the Culture of Hatred?
. . . "There was no interest in the rationale of the shooters, they just used it as a political opportunity to blame President Trump for anything going wrong, everything from tragedy to hemorrhoids. I still insist the Democrats and Media would do this to any other Republican elected president in 2016, had it been Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, et al. They would have been smeared and vilified as much as Donald Trump. To illustrate, consider how they disparaged the character of President George W. Bush. By the end of his term, he was one of the most despised presidents, which opened the door to Barrack Obama." . . .

2014: Why Are Black People So Angry?  . . . "So what is it that causes many black people to use any pretext to go into the streets, defy police authority, and set fire to their own neighborhoods? To find an answer to that question we must first determine what has been the major contributing factor in the disintegration of the black family unit." . . .
. . . "The only price blacks had to pay for all the free money, food stamps, subsidized housing, free healthcare, and preferential treatment in jobs and higher education was to pull the Democrat lever on Election Day. Since that time, blacks have consistently given 90-95 percent of their votes to Democrats. Yet, 61 years after Brown v. Board of Education, and in spite of endless Democratic promises of “better times,” blacks have seen little social and economic progress." . . .

Leaving the Democrats; now they are designated "Nazi, homophobe racists"

You want solid content? This ex-Democrat provides it. But for perspective, first consider what CNN/ Beto says about these people:
Beto: Let's Face It, It's 'Really Hard' Not To Consider All Trump Voters Racists

It's therefore probably quite unwise for prominent members of the party to insult all Trump backers like this. It's also probably unwise for them to nominate someone with far-left views, like taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants, but what do I know? Allahpundit also makes a point that immediately occurred to me, too:. . . 

Now to the thoughts of those O'Rourke calls "racists", namely most of us:
Leaving the Democrats  . . . "After securing a job at a hospital, I watched ObamaCare tear through healthcare and then almost immediately watched as our pension benefits were frozen as a result of having to comply with new rules and regulations.  My wife and I lost 3000 dollars a month in future retirement income as a result of her company having to reorganize, and my pension is a private plan. Not a single Republican voted for the ObamaCare scam. But hey, 70 million dollars later the hospital has EPIC.  My Chart anyone?  I understand the CEO of that company has a lot of ties to Obama.

 "Hospitals now have departments of people working just to make sure all of the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed and the punctuation is correct just so we get paid for taking care of those on Medicare and Medicaid.  I can imagine on the other end that the government bureaucracy has people just looking for mistakes and ways not to pay out.  It is really mindboggling.

"I watched my father get piss-poor treatment at the VA hospital, waiting months to get appointments and then just handed more drugs.  He struggled with issues from Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam.  He had back surgery there without any physical therapy follow-up.  He could not straighten out his back to lie down or stand up straight after the surgery.   He died in 2011 after having to live and sleep in his easy chair for years due to the pain. I want to say he was taken care of for life as promised years before without sounding sarcastic.  But I can’t.

"I watched as my mother walked away from the Democrats.  She quoted Reagan…. they left her.  She voted for President Trump." . . .

. . . . .

"I am now called racist, homophobic, misogynist, and Islamaphobic.  A gun-toting, Bible-believing bitter clinger.  A deplorable.  A white nationalist.  Nazi. I can’t remember all of my Democrat party subtitles.

"But I am middle class. I have been given nothing by our government and have given too much to it.  And it always wants more, telling me I have to pay my fair share.  It is a sad state when you get to a point in life of maximum dollars earned that it is taken away by higher tax brackets and the loss of deductions.

"I will never vote for anyone advocating for more government control.  Or for anyone who is trying to denigrate me by name-calling or label-making.  The reason is my life." . . .

Bill de Blasio Accuses Hannity, Fox News of Hosting 'Charade' of an Interview

Cortney O'Brien

. . . "When it came time for their tax talk, Hannity was offended that de Blasio planned to tax people like him at a rate of 70 percent, telling the mayor, “I think you’re stealing from me.”

"But, de Blasio was convinced that the system was broken and that the middle class was being screwed. He accused Hannity and Fox News of trying to stage a cover up.

“ 'This is a charade,” de Blasio said. “Stop it…Too much of the time what Fox and News Corp. do is trying to people’s minds off the fact they’re being screwed economically by the 1 percent.”  . . .

Trump’s Commonsense Rule on Immigrant Welfare Use

The virulent protests from the gated-home set have already begun.

Trump’s Commonsense Rule on Immigrant Welfare Use

The welfare state is much bigger than just cash benefits.

"The newly finalized rule about immigrant welfare use is 837 pages long, but it boils down to two things: Foreigners who can’t pay their bills shouldn’t be allowed to move here, and “welfare” doesn’t just mean cash benefits."

Immigrants shouldn’t just use welfare less than the native-born — ideally, they shouldn’t use it at all. Past attempts at building a wall around the welfare state have enjoyed only modest success at best, and I don’t expect this latest effort to be an exception. The only way to truly fix this is much lower overall numbers and much higher standards.

It’s not racist to screen out migrants who’ll be a burden  "Last week’s mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, has sent public discourse about immigration off the rails.

"It has allowed radicals to frame as racist normal law enforcement activities and immigration rules. We saw this in New York recently, with anti-ICE protesters stopping traffic on the West Side Highway and holding sit-ins at an Amazon store to protest the company’s compliance with immigration rules." . . .  
. . . "Under the new rule, those who are in the country legally will have a more difficult time obtaining green cards or gaining citizenship if they received food stamps, housing assistance, Medicare or other public benefits."But the outrage about this rule, which is set to go into effect in 60 days, is overblown. Even in the era of mass immigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries, those who came here had to promise not to become a “public charge” upon the United States." . . .

Katie Pavlich at Townhall weighs in on this  . . . " 'Public charge has been a part of our immigration law since the 1880s.  Self-sufficiency has been a core tenet of the American dream. Self-reliance, industriousness, and perseverance laid the foundation of our nation and have defined generations of hardworking immigrants seeking opportunity in the United States ever since," a USCIS official released Monday morning. "President Trump is fulfilling his promise to the American people to fix our immigration system and is defining this important law that will protect American taxpayers and prevent abuse of government benefits."

"Cuccinelli will argue the Trump administration is simply enforcing long standing and existing laws. " 'Generations of Americans and hardworking legal immigrants have worked hard to meet their needs – they didn’t rely on the government," a background document says. "For more than a century, our process of admissibility into the country has emphasized the need for self-sufficiency."

The Left creates a hullabaloo over denying green cards to migrants who are public charges  . . . "The move is being made to cut down on fraud, abuse and to protect resources provided by the American taxpayer." . . . 

What We’re Reading: Warren’s Lies, Biden’s Gaffes, Taco Bell’s Hotel … And More

Issues & Insights

Biden’s Brain  Joe Biden claims there are ‘at least 3’ genders during Iowa campaign stop, blows up at college student — New York Post

Biden’s Gaffes Fuel Anxiety About Potency Against Trump — Wall Street Journal

Biden mistakenly says he was VP during 2018 Parkland shooting — The Hill

De Blasio’s Momentum  De Blasio campaign event in Iowa draws roughly 15 attendees — New York Post

Much, much more...

Joe Biden’s History of Racial Gaffes

Free Beacon

"Once boasted he could appeal to southerners because Delaware was a 'slave state"

Andrew Wilkow

Joe Biden’s Recent Gaffes Are Not Uncommon For Him

Joe Biden’s History On Race Looms As He Weighs Presidential Bid

. . . "2007: ‘I Spent Last Summer … Trying To Get Black Men To Understand It’s Not Unmanly To Wear A Condom’ " . . .

The Epstein Whodunit grows

Elite media already demonizing suspicions about Epstein’s death: you’re a ‘conspiracy theorist’ in the ‘fever swamps’  "Within hours of the death of Jeffrey Epstein, one of the thought-leaders of the media establishment rushed to print a demonization of suspicions about the shocking demise of a man whose death was advantageous to some of the most prominent and powerful figures in the world. The Atlantic is owned by deep-pocketed Lauren Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, and functions as a guide to what other elite media are supposed to think.  It is edited for people who think of themselves as more sophisticated than New York Times readers." . . .

Barr Claims There Were ‘Serious Irregularities’ at Jail Where Epstein Died 
. . . “ 'We are now learning of serious irregularities at this facility that are deeply concerning and demand a thorough investigation,” Barr said during remarks before a law enforcement conference in New Orleans.  “ 'We will get to the bottom of what happened and there will be accountability,” he added." . . .

Epstein Was Left Unattended In His Cell for ‘Several’ Hours Before His Death . . . 
"Epstein was placed on suicide watch on July 23 after he was found unconscious following what authorities believed to be a suicide attempt. But he was taken off suicide watch after only one week, in a decision the Bureau of Prisons surely will be asked to account for. His cellmate was transferred after Epstein was taken off suicide watch, leaving him alone in his cell on the night he died." . . .

Why Conspiracy Theorists Will Never Believe the ‘Official’ Epstein Story  . . . "The reported cause of death was suicide—but the conspiracy-mongers were already springing into action.

"Within hours, #EpsteinMurder was trending on Twitter, as was #TrumpBodyCount (where liberals speculated that the president had offed his former friend), and #ClintonCrimeFamily (where conservatives accused Bill and Hillary Clinton of orchestrating a murderous cover-up). But the speculation was not limited to the fringes—the president himself retweeted a video suggesting Epstein was now dead because he had information on the Clintons." . . .

It’s next to impossible to kill oneself in jail—I know, because I’ve been there. 
. . . "In most jails, you can’t wear a belt, or shoelaces, or keep a razor in your cell. You have no privacy, no sense of dignity, and no rights. And in a well-run jail, high-profile prisoners have virtually no chance of killing themselves.
"So the alleged suicide of Jeffrey Epstein, the 66-year-old financier with powerful American and foreign friends who was about to stand trial for allegedly sexually abusing dozens of girls, many of them underage, is particularly unfathomable—and outrageous. In a letter to the Justice Department, Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska called it inexcusable that Epstein did not live to face his accusers. “Obviously, heads must roll,” he wrote. " . . .

Report: Epstein Was Not on Suicide Watch at His Time of Death  . . . "The Associated Press also reported that the billionaire was taken off suicide watch:

A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that Epstein had been taken off suicide watch. The person wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. It wasn’t immediately clear when he was taken off suicide watch.

 Autopsy of Epstein performed, but details yet to be released   . . . "The details of how Jeffrey Epstein died in his Manhattan jail cell over the weekend have yet to be released, but medical officials have performed an autopsy on the high-profile inmate accused of sexually abusing underage girls and paying them hundreds of dollars in cash for massages.

"Epstein’s abrupt death Saturday cut short a criminal prosecution that could have pulled back the curtain on the inner workings of a high-flying financier with connections to celebrities and presidents, though prosecutors have vowed to continue investigating." . . .

How Robert O’Rourke Became ‘Beto’

Victor Davis Hanson

It seems that being thought Hispanic is an advantage, not a disadvantage.

"A great deal of controversy has continued the past few days over Robert Francis O’Rourke’s longtime use of a nickname given to him at birth (albeit temporarily jettisoned while in prep school) — especially in the wake of his recent sensational and unfounded charges that Donald Trump is directly responsible for the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and that white supremacy defines America, past and present, and explains Trump’s culpability.
"The point of the amused contention is not that O’Rourke was given such a nickname at or near birth. Rather, the controversy is over his continued use of the sobriquet for cynical political advantage in a somewhat related manner to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s longtime false cultural appropriation of a Native American identity for careerist purposes. After all, we live in a progressive era in which “cultural appropriation” is a mortal sin and non-minority university students are routinely chastised for wearing clothing or hairstyles associated with minority groups or appearing in dramas playing the roles of characters of a different ethnic background." . . .

Rather, Beto seems to think that the current and continued Hispanicizing of his nomenclature (remember, at times Beto has dropped his nickname) will pay dividends in a national race. Yet according to his own logic, it should not, given his prior denunciations that America is incurably racist.

Beto O'Rourke says he's more determined to pursue nomination after El Paso 
. . . "A clip of a frustrated O'Rourke went viral last week after he was asked by a reporter if there's anything Trump could do to improve his relationship with the Hispanic American community.
"Along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, O'Rourke also became one of the first candidates to label Trump a "white supremacist.' "  Helped along by MSNBC shilling for him.

A very liberal ‘fortunate son’ named Beto

My View by Silvio Canto, Jr