SF Giants Manager, Coaches, Players Kneel During National Anthem

Newsmax "San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler, two coaches, and three players knelt during the playing of the national anthem before the team’s exhibition game against the Oakland Athletics on Monday night.
"The action came in the first of two practice games before the Giants begin their truncated 60-game regular season Thursday against the Los Angeles Dodgers and a day before President Donald Trump criticized any sports figure who kneeled during the playing of the 
Star Spangled Banner," calling it in a tweet a "sign of great disrespect."
"Kapler kneeled along with coaches Antoan Richardson and Justin Viele and outfielders Mike Yastrzemski – the grandson of Baseball Hall of Fame member and Boston Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski – Austin Slater and Jaylin Davis.
"The demonstration drew no fan reaction since the game at the Oakland Coliseum – like all games are scheduled to be across the country – was played without spectators.
"While it was not publicly announced, Kapler – in his first season with San Francisco after being fired by the Philadelphia Phillies at the end of 2019 – told his players before the game his intentions."  . . .

Colin Kaepernick Comes for Baseball   "Where does a patriotic Americano have to go to escape woke politics?"

"The America-the-Terrible disease has now invaded baseball, the sport that to this point had mostly avoided the current race obsession that threatens to turn the American melting pot into a pressure cooker." . . .

The Babylon Bee finds much room in this all for its brand of parody:

Chicago White Sox To Drop Offensive 'White' From Name

. . . “Being a mascot is an honor,” Jerry said. “Unless, of course, your mascot is a Native American. Then it’s a shame. I’m still not sure how all this works. Anyway, we have realized it’s inappropriate to give a place of honor to whiteness in our team’s name. The word 'white' really has no place in modern society, so we have removed it."

According to sources, there was debate over some new names, like the Chicago Stinky Sox or the Chicago Tube Sox. In the end, stakeholders elected to simply shorten it to “Sox.” 
"At this news, gang leaders across the Windy City laid down their weapons, and all crime and oppression disappeared overnight. 
"Unfortunately, the name change had no effect on the team’s win to loss ratio."

San Francisco Giants Hire Kaepernick As Head Kneeling Coach

. . . "Lessons taught by Kaepernick will include these:

• Preventing injury while kneeling
• How to make sure you're kneeling when the camera is on you
• How to leverage your brave protest into multi-million-dollar endorsement deals
• Funny parodies of the national anthem to sing during opening ceremonies
• How to look solemn and serious even though you're kinda a clown

"Unfortunately, Kaepernick was released on his first day after he tried to throw a baseball back to one of the players and instead lobbed it 50 feet in the opposite direction."

A sample of MSNBC's brand of "Journalism". Just this day!

They must be trying to show CNN how it should be done.

Chicago Mayor: If Trump Wants To Stop Violence In Chicago, He Should Enact Gun Control

Elizabeth Warren: Trump’s Not Just ‘Incompetent’ But He Is ‘Dangerous And People Are Dying’

Maxine Waters: These Federal Agents in Unmarked Cars Could Be People Who’ll Help Trump Resist Stepping Down If He Loses
Watch how this MSNBC interviewer tees the subject up for Waters.

MSNBC: Trump Prepping To Use Military To Steal Election Through ‘Force’

Maxine Waters: Trump Is Interfering With The Postal Service to Sabotage Mail-In Voting

And from CNN, we have...

Image by Mark Echelbarger

Body found in Minneapolis pawnshop that was torched in George Floyd protests

One wonders if the killers could hear their victim screaming, "I can't breathe!" TD

NY Post

BLM rioters/activists have killed far more unarmed black people than police have this year. America's maleducated youth in action.

"A charred body was found in the wreckage of a Minneapolis pawnshop this week — nearly two months after the building was burned down in the protests that followed George Floyd’s police-custody death.
"Investigators were acting on a tip when they found the man’s body in the rubble of Max It Pawn on East Lake Street in south Minneapolis, police spokesman John Elder told the Star Tribune.
"“The body appears to have suffered thermal injury and we do have somebody charged with setting fire to that place,” Elder told the paper.
"The man’s identity was not immediately released pending the results of an autopsy, which will determine the specific cause and manner of death.
"The details and precise timeline of the man’s death are not completely clear, but a police news release obtained by the paper suggested he died in the blaze that destroyed the pawnshop on May 28.
"Montez Terrill Lee, 25, of Rochester, Minn., was hit with a federal arson charge last month in connection with that blaze." . . .

LAME! Biden Sucks Up to Radical Joy Reid: I Was Thinking of You as VP!

Mark Finkelstein  

"On Monday, longtime MSNBC host Joy Reid debuted her new show The ReidOut, taking the slot of Hardball. And in an unapologetic signal that it will be nothing short of an extension of the Biden 2020 campaign, Reid's first guest was none other than Ol' Lunch Bucket Joe himself.
"As part of Biden's latest softball interview from his basement (aka his safe space), Biden sucked up to Reid by facetiously claiming that he had been "thinking of you for vice-president, and then you took this job."  . . .

Hateful MSNBC: Joy Reid Compares Republicans to Apartheid South Africa  . . . "Apparently, not wanting a brick thrown through your window or having your city set on fire is proof that Republicans are the party of apartheid and scared of black people." . . .

St Louis: when the power of government turns against citizens

President Trump has a political opportunity in this case. Verbal support for the McCloskeys and attacks on the prosecutor, and Soros who backed her, will play well with suburban voters afraid of the mobs.  Andrea Widburg

If Bolshevik Bernie hates billionaires so much, perhaps he will side with us against George Soros. TD
Soros-owned DA in St. Louis files felony charges against the McCloskeys 

. . . "It's true that Missouri Rev. State. § 571.030.1(3) makes it unlawful if a person “Exhibits, in the presence of one or more persons, any weapon readily capable of lethal use in an angry or threatening manner.” However, § 571.030.5 states explicitly that subdivision (3) “shall not apply to persons who are engaged in a lawful act of defense” per § 563.031. That statute, in turn, sets out the state’s Castle Doctrine (the right to defend one’s person and home) and a stand-your-ground doctrine:

1. A person may, subject to the provisions of subsection 2 of this section, use physical force upon another person when and to the extent he or she reasonably believes such force to be necessary to defend himself or herself or a third person from what he or she reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful force by such other person. . . .

[snip]

2. A person shall not use deadly force upon another person under the circumstances specified in subsection 1 of this section unless:

[snip]

(3) Such force is used against a person who unlawfully enters, remains after unlawfully entering, or attempts to unlawfully enter private property that is owned or leased by an individual, or is occupied by an individual who has been given specific authority by the property owner to occupy the property, claiming a justification of using protective force under this section.

3. A person does not have a duty to retreat:(1) From a dwelling, residence, or vehicle where the person is not unlawfully entering or unlawfully remaining;(2) From private property that is owned or leased by such individual. . . .

"Cutting through all that statutory language, what it means is that it’s an absolute defense to a charge of unlawfully waving around a gun without retreating if a person has a reasonable belief that he or someone else is in imminent danger. In this regard, it’s irrelevant that Gardner claims the crowd was “peaceful” and exercising its right to protest. What is relevant is that a mob of several hundred people smashed through a barrier onto private property, and swarmed near the McCloskeys, something that would terrify anyone." . . .

Much more in this article on the entire situation, including this Tucker Carlson interview

Sen. Josh Hawley Asks Attorney General to Look Into Investigation of Gun-Owning Couple    All you had to do was ask...

Missouri AG Files To Dismiss Charges Against McCloskeys: ‘I Won’t Stand By While Missouri Law Is Being Ignored’. . . Mark McCloskey, an attorney, recalled last month, “I went inside; I got a rifle … because as soon as I said ‘this is private property,’ those words enraged the crowd. … Horde, an absolute horde came through the smashed-down gates, coming right at the house. And then I stood out there, the only thing we said is, ‘This is private property, go back, private property, leave now.’ At that point, everybody got enraged, there were people wearing body armor.”
“One person pulled out [some] loaded pistol magazines and he clicked them together and he said, ‘You’re next,’” McCloskey continued. “We were threatened with our lives, threatened with the house being burned down, my office building being burned down, even our dog’s life being threatened. It was about as bad as it can get. You know, I really thought it was the storming of Bastille, that we would be dead and the house would be burned and there was nothing we could do about it. It was a huge and frightening crowd and they broke in the gate and they were coming at us.”" . . .

St. Louis couple hit with felony charges; outraged governor says murders are backlogged, Soros-backed prosecutor accelerated this

Liberal billionaire George Soros, who backed Gardner, likely envisioned moments like this when he engaged in a national effort to instill progressive ideologues at the local prosecutor level.  

"Missouri Gov. Mike Parson called Gardner’s decision to file charges “outrageous.”
“Kim Gardner’s action toward the McCloskeys is outrageous. Even worse, the Circuit Attorney’s office has admitted there is a backlog of cases and dozens of homicides that haven’t been prosecuted, yet she has accelerated this case forward,” he tweeted. “We must prioritize laws that keep our citizens safe over political motivations. Kim Gardner owes every single family who has had a loved one murdered an explanation on why she has acted on the McCloskey case instead of theirs. Her inaction is not fostering an environment of safety for the many communities and neighborhoods in St. Louis she serves.” . . .

Lower than dirt? Jon Turley clears up who is worse, NBC News’ Chuck Todd or CNN’s Jim Acosta

BPR  "Legal scholar Jonathan Turley slammed NBC News’ Chuck Todd for airing a “false narrative” in the misleading quote of White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
"The George Washington University law professor called out the “Meet the Press” host who “knowingly played a false gotcha clip” in a move that he deemed worse than the one by CNN’s Jim Acosta, who came under heavy fire for tweeting an out-of-context quote from McEnany."

Todd

"Quoting former Stanford Medical Center neurology chief Dr. Scott Atlas, McEnany had addressed reporters on President Trump’s stand on getting children back into classrooms, saying that “the science should not stand in the way of this.” But, as Turley pointed out, that quote by the press secretary which was used in Acosta’s tweet to mock her, “was artificially clipped to leave the diametrically opposite impression from what actually said.”
"McEnany slammed the “Case Study in Media Bias,” and others quickly debunked the clip and piled on CNN. Acosta’s CNN colleague Jake Tapper even called out the false narrative on the air, clarifying what McEnany was actually saying as Acosta tried to fix everything with a follow-up tweet." 
. . . 
But on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Todd used the deceptive clip of McEnany twice despite all the attention it — and Acosta — had received.
"“It was not just running an overtly misleading clip but defiantly doing so after other journalists have challenged the erroneous impression left by the clip.  The misleading quality of the clip clearly was not the problem but the appeal for Meet the Press,” Turley wrote.
" 'As bad as that incident was, it is not nearly as bad as Chuck Todd ignoring the controversy and the correction to repeatedly air the same misleading quote,” he added, calling out the network as well.
“ 'NBC was fully aware that the clip was not just misleading but that it conveyed the opposite of what actually was stated in the press conference,” Turley explained.

Jonathan Turley

@JonathanTurley

Replying to @JonathanTurley

...Todd is fully aware that the McEnany said the exact opposite of what his edited clip suggests.The quote was McEnany referring to a scientific study and, right after the line quoted, she said “The science is very clear on this” and later added “The science is on our side here.”

The Unhistoric Corruption of Mitt Romney

The American Spectator  The cynical senator ignored Carter/Clinton/Obama pardons.
"So let’s get this straight.

"President Trump, in the style of previous presidents with names like Obama and Clinton, commutes the sentence of Roger Stone, a longtime Trump ally and ally long before Trump of presidents Nixon and Reagan.

. . . Full article here.

Toon added by TD

"Hello? As the WSJ points out, there was zero — zero — “unprecedented” in the Stone commutation. Presidents Clinton and Obama pardoned their political allies without blinking. Clinton’s pardons not only included, as the WSJ pointed out, political pal “Susan McDougal, who went to jail for contempt rather than tell prosecutors what she knew about Mr. Clinton’s Whitewater transactions.” But, as was later true of Obama, Clinton went out of his way to pardon outright terrorists. As Obama’s aide noted, the reason to do so was that it would be “fairly easy to accomplish and will have a positive impact among strategic communities in the U.S.” The latter, of course, meaning the Puerto Rican/Latino vote in various U.S. cities and states. As Gonzalez also noted, Democrat Jimmy Carter pardoned “three Puerto Rican terrorists who shot at members of Congress” while the number of pardoned Puerto Rican terrorists for Clinton would climb to 12 in number.

"In 2010, on the verge of his second run for president, Romney released a book titled No Apology: Believe in America. In which he mentioned not a word — not a solitary word — about the Clinton pardons for pals and terrorists. The Obama pardon of convicted terrorist Oscar Lopez-Rivera would not come until, but of course, Obama was leaving office. (Which raises the question: What did Joe Biden know about the pardon of a Puerto Rican terrorist and when did he know it? Not to mention does Biden support it now?)

"What Romney has displayed here — and not for the first time — is either a complete ignorance of this history of Democrats and pardons for pals and terrorists. Or, in view of his silence on Clinton and Obama’s pardons, a hate-Trumpism that is so breathtakingly cynical that he accepts that it was just no big deal when the two Democrat presidents did precisely this — and it was OK because they weren’t Trump. Which would explain why Romney never managed to speak up in opposition.

"This issue, in fact, goes far beyond the commutation/pardon issue. It goes straight to the heart of a weak-kneed GOP Establishment that is unbelievably feckless, if not corrupt." . . .

Portland Goes To Hell: The Death Of An American City

“I don’t think the majority of social-justice warriors are truly concerned with justice,” said Nick Zukin, who just closed the doors of his Portland restaurant, Mi Mero Mole. “I think they enjoy causing people pain and ‘social justice’ gives them an excuse.”

Issues & Insights

"Portland, Oregon, was once known as the quintessentially nice Northwestern city. Its nickname, “The Rose City,” was given to it by a Baptist group that held a convention there over a century ago. Sadly, today, riot-riven Portland smells like anything but roses.
"The city has been the locus of nonstop violent protests for 51 days and counting. And really, calling them protests is incorrect: They are acts of outright rebellion, with many participants openly calling for the dismantling of the United States.
"The Daily Caller described the mayhem and posted videos of it, which included the attempted torching of the Police Association building:

Portland has seen over 50 days of protests and rioting, and Saturday proved to be no different. Daily Caller reporters were at the scene where rioters squared off with officers after tearing down fencing and using it to barricade the federal courthouse. …Outside of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, hundreds gathered and immediately began removing fencing surrounding the park and courthouse that had been erected by officers. Some rioters barricaded the building and began to taunt officers by banging on the walls and yelling for them to come outside.

"While all this was going on, more “largely peaceful” protesters broke into the police union’s building and tried to burn it down. That’s called arson, and it’s a felony.

"Who’s behind all this? Antifa and Black Lives Matter, of course. But they aren’t the only ones. There are lots of other leftists of various affiliations agitating the crowds.

"One in particular who’s come to our attention is a so-called organizer of the violent protests. She describes herself in a viral Twitter video: “My name is Lilith Sinclair, I’m an Afro-Indigenous non-binary local organizer here in Portland, organizing for the abolition of not just the militarized police state but also the United States as we know it.”

"Just so you know, “abolition” in this context means “violent overthrow.' ” . . .

More...

Federal Troops to Expand Beyond Portland  "Trump says Homeland Security will deploy troops to cities struggling with surges in violent crime."

. . . "Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf referred to Portland as a city “under siege,” saying that “each night, lawless anarchists destroy and desecrate property, including the federal courthouse, and attack the brave law enforcement officers protecting it.” 

A sprinkle of irony can be found in the fact that Bonamici is making a case for protecting the First Amendment rights of “peaceful” protesters in the midst of Portland’s millions of dollars in property damage.

The brats can now rest easy; your moms are here to protect you  
"PORTLAND protesters were protected by their moms who formed a human wall during a face-off with Trump's federal officers.

"At least 30 parents linked arms with one another on Saturday chanting "feds stay clear, moms are here!" and "leave our kids alone.' " . . .

Police SLAM Democrats For Supporting Leftist Riots, Trump Announces MORE DHS Agent Deployment

You may dislike President Trump, but we must all fear the Democrats. TD

Whatfinger   "Police SLAM Democrats For Supporting Leftist Riots, Trump Announces MORE DHS Agent Deployment. Nancy pelosi herself slammed Trump’s use of DHS officers to protect federal property. Police are furious with Democrats over their consistent support for the violent riots sweeping the nation and the dramatic rise is specific violent crimes. Trump has heard the call from police unions to send in more federal officers but Democrats at the local and federal level are outraged. In what can only be described as a satire-esque move Democrats have decided to support the violent riots instead of law and order because the orange man is bad."

When the Sensible Take Leave of their Senses

George Will publicly despised the Bushes, regarded Bill Clinton as “a sociopath,” and was suitably unimpressed by Barack Obama. I understand how such an academic gentleman finds Donald Trump unsuitable as president, but it is discouraging that he gives him no credit for eliminating unemployment prior to the COVID-19 shutdowns, oil imports, and 90 percent of illegal immigration. Similarly, Trump gets no credit from Will for causing a general western recognition of the Chinese threat, for stalling the Iranian and North Korean nuclear military programs; for rebuilding the armed forces, or for causing the lower 20 percent of income-earners to enjoy a larger percentage increase in income than the top 10 percent, the first serious beginning anywhere to address the income disparity problem.

Conrad Black
More worrying than the abrasive groupthink of the national political media are the failings of today’s commentariat. The downfall of once-great thinkers like George Will is particularly disheartening.

"Almost all observers of the current presidential election campaign, regardless of their leanings, recognize that the national political media is overwhelmingly hostile to the president. The results of this election will determine whether their determination to evict Donald Trump from the White House will enhance the reputation of the national political press corps for invincibility when united, or whether they are brought into severe disrepute as a monolithic paper tiger. Historians of both the presidency and of the American media will opine for many years on why this overwhelming partisanship developed.

"My own supposition has been that when Trump announced his candidacy in the spring of 2015, and made clear that he was running to drain the Washington swamp—specifically including what he identified as the rot in the national political media—they all saw him first as a joke, and then as a threat. 

"It is piquant that Trump, to this point, has outsmarted them largely by recourse to talk radio and to social media, even though the corporate heads of the social media companies are ostentatiously anti-Trump limousine liberals. It is hard not to admire, at least to some degree, someone who has analyzed the complex political system of the country intensively for many years, changed parties seven times in 13 years, and who—looking for a channel where he could transform his great fame as a businessman, reality television star, impresario, and social figure, into the highest political office—outwitted and completed an end-run against the whole system; a system whose shortcomings were the motive and the basis of his campaign. He is a pioneer.

"Most of the Washington press corps are accustomed to presidents and presidential candidates who show greater deference to them and avoid ill-tempered direct exchanges with random members of the public such as those in which this president regularly engages through his nearly 200 million social media contacts. And even the president’s supporters, who find his bluntness and his informality a refreshing change from the evasions and pomposity of much of recent presidential history, will acknowledge that there is sometimes a gap between the dignity expected of his great office and this president’s conduct of it.

"But that does not make the relentless professional dishonesty of most of the national political media in the United States any more acceptable. 

"The New York Times, appropriately to its status for over a century as the country’s leading newspaper, led the way with a 2016 declaration that its goal was not to report impartially on national affairs, but rather to contribute to Trump’s defeat. 

"In some respects, the Times’ candor is welcome and commendable, but it is also disgraceful. It has been followed by virtually all of the influential traditional media, all of whom are guilty of unprofessional conduct. Whether they win or lose their war with this president, all polling indicates they have forfeited the credibility that the sound functioning of a democracy requires the press to retain. 

"In systematically destroying the believability of their craft, the press is undermining democracy and reducing the likelihood of an electorate adequately informed to vote as sensibly as the national interest of a great nation requires. Trump gains considerable support for holding his own against such a barrage of malicious disinformation from the media." . . .    Full article...

Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich expected to speak on Biden’s behalf at DNC

Just the guy CNN wants to interview, the mailman's son

"And my dad was a mailman"

Fox5, Ohio  " In the four months since Joe Biden effectively won the Democratic presidential nomination, he has focused on consolidating the party’s divergent and often warring factions. As the closing stretch of the campaign nears, that effort will expand to include Republicans disaffected with President Donald Trump.

"Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican and frequent Trump critic, has been approached and is expected to speak at the Democratic National Convention on Biden’s behalf next month, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans who insisted on anonymity to discuss strategy.
"Kasich is among a handful of high-profile Republicans likely to become more active in supporting Biden in the fall.
"Trump, meanwhile, is doing virtually nothing to expand his appeal beyond his most loyal supporters. Some GOP operatives believe the suburbs are lost while a contingent of high-profile Republicans are openly questioning the president’s reelection message. In an acknowledgment of the mounting challenges, Trump named a new campaign manager last week.
"With about 100 days until Election Day, there’s time for sudden developments that could shift the trajectory of the campaign. The Friday announcement that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s cancer has returned was a reminder of the potential volatility ahead. In 2016 Trump effectively used the prospect of Supreme Court appointments to win over conservatives who otherwise found him distasteful." . . .

Mailman's son and Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich says he’s now for impeaching Trump 

Democrat-sanctioned riots  "It would be less than accurate to say that rioters have taken over Portland, Oregon. Democrat Mayor Ted Wheeler turned the city over to rioters. They are his shock troops.
"Democrat Governor Kate Brown, and Democrat Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum now are protecting Wheeler's violent mob from federal officers.
"The media is complicit in this, insisting on describing the takeover by looters and rioters as a protest." . . .