Sure, defund the police; what could go wrong?

I'd say the violence and destruction in our cities has us in the grip of "Stockholm Syndrome"

Karen Bass: ‘Defund the Police’ Means ‘Refund the Communities’ . . . "Bass called for funds removed from law enforcement to be transferred to “community-based organizations,” a term she did not define." . . .

Minneapolis Charter Commission Blocks City Council Effort To Abolish Police Department   . . . The City Council said they were disappointed by the decision.
“ 'We’ve had an unprecedented outpouring of demand for change, demand for justice, unprecedented involvement from folks who are getting engaged in city government for the first time and I don’t want people to feel too discouraged,” City Council President Lisa Bender said. “I’m disappointed and I share the disappointment that I’m sure people are feeling, but we have more ways to move forward as we continue to build this work.' ”

Big City Mayors ESCALATING Quarantine CRACKDOWNS: Checkpoints, Water and Power SHUTOFFS, Steep Fines  . . . "But cities' coronavirus measures go beyond that. Many places, including Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York City and others now have rules requiring people coming from coronavirus hotspots to self-quarantine for 14 days after their arrival. In Chicago, this is communicated by ubiquitous variable-message road signs above the highway warning travelers that if they are arriving from a place with elevated coronavirus case counts, they are not welcome until they isolate for 14 days.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the isolation requirement includes 22 states plus Puerto Rico, as of Wednesday.
"According to the Chicago Tribune, this is enforced with fines of between $100 and $500, per day." . . .

Bill de Blasio Confesses to Violating NYC Permit Process to Paint Black Lives Matter Mural  . . . "The mural, which was partially painted by de Blasio himself and professional race-baiter Al Sharpton for a photo-op, has since become the site of numerous heated confrontations between conservative demonstrators and far-left agitators. Several activists have performed acts of civil disobedience by throwing paint on the mural.   . . .

Susan Rice is the Sleeper Candidate of the Joe Biden Veepstakes

Rice in a Democrat administration would be another term for Obama. TD

Legal Insurrection

“to our political class, Rice is the opposite of an outsider. She’s the home team. Like almost everyone in Washington, she is above all, a fervent neocon”

"When it comes to Joe Biden’s eventual running mate, Kamala Harris has drawn the most speculation from pundits, but former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice is a very real possibility.

"With two former members of the Obama administration on the ticket, this would definitely be like a third term for Obama.

"Rice has some weaknesses. Her insistence that the Benghazi attack was caused by a YouTube video is a liability, as is her possible involvement in the Russia collusion hoax, but she would still be a serious contender.

"Tucker Carlson recently talked about this. From FOX News:

As of right now, Susan Rice appears to be in the lead for the VP slot. That’s an interesting development.

Say what you will about Susan Rice and we’re about to, but she is not a buffoon.

Susan Rice is smart. She is hard-eyed. She is experienced.

Susan Rice knows exactly what she wants and she understands the system well enough to get it.

She is a threat.

So what exactly does Susan Rice believe? Well, in a sentence, Susan Rice believes what everyone else in permanent Washington believes. Because above all, Rice is a product of D.C. She grew up there.

So to our political class, Rice is the opposite of an outsider. She’s the home team. Like almost everyone in Washington, she is above all, a fervent neocon.

As a member of Obama’s cabinet, she pushed for the counterproductive killing of Muammar Qaddafi in Libya.

. . .
Tucker Carlson discusses her as only he can...

The Democrats are already hinting at, almost 90 days out, at what they intend to do when Trump wins.;

The past is prelude, and the Floyd riots (or the 1619 riots, if you prefer) were merely practice sessions, wargaming, if you will, for what will come in the weeks preceding the election.

Apocalypse Election  . . . "Most Americans, however, do not understand this about the Democrats. People believe all Americans have only the best intentions and would never deliberately harm the nation and its citizenry merely to obtain political power.
"Therefore, people can only look on with incredulity as Democrats blatantly strive to keep Democrat-controlled state economies on lockdown -- and, with the help of teachers unions, keep most schools closed in an attempt to deliberately immiserate Americans and their families in the hopes their suffering can be used against Trump.
"With schools closed its been estimated that as many as 20 million workers will not be able to return to employment because they lack childcare, not to mention the irreparable damage the children will suffer. Combined with the lockdowns, this will only aid in ensuring a hobbled economy with which they can blame and batter President Trump to deny him a second term as president.
"And now, the Democrats are deliberately backing a candidate with not only obvious diminished mental capacity but also clear signs of dementia, despite the danger a senile president might present to the country, world, and humanity." . . .

At this point, an apocalypse is probably unavoidable. The Democrats want it that way.

The New George Wallace: Barack Obama

The American Spectator 
                      Ex-president uses John Lewis funeral to play the race card.

"And I say … segregation today … segregation tomorrow … segregation forever.”

"Fifty-seven years ago, the newly sworn-in Democrat governor of Alabama, George Wallace, delivered those words in his inaugural address.

"In other words: George Wallace, who was a product of a political party that built its political power by supporting every imaginable policy that divided Americans by race, was at it again. Using the momentary pulpit that was a governor’s inaugural to play the race card — again.

"Yesterday there was a new George Wallace. He appeared in an Atlanta church to eulogize the late Democratic Congressman John Lewis, Lewis a certifiable hero of the 1960s civil rights movement.

"There were, in fact, three former presidents there, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. But it was former President Barack Obama and Obama alone who chose to use the literal pulpit to divide by race. Among things said by the former president were these gems:

George Wallace may be gone. But we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. 

We may no longer have to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power, who are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision — even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that’s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick.

"Say what? First, the protests in question have hardly been peaceful. And vandalizing a federal building named for, as Karl Rove has pointed out over in the Wall Street Journal, a Japanese-American named William Kenzo Nakamura is a disgrace. Mr. Nakamura was sent to an internment camp in 1942 when he was 20 — with his family — at the direction of Democrat FDR’s internment policy. Race card playing to the max. Nakamura made a point of enlisting in the U.S. Army anyway, was sent to Europe, and lost his life at the hands of Nazi soldiers as he managed to destroy two enemy machine gun nests. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously." . . .

Barack Obama's Filibuster Hypocrisy  . . . "The filibuster complements the constitutional checks and balances that have historically made American governance effective. A strong minority has always been a distinguishing feature of the upper house. Because when thin majorities ram through massive centralized federal laws that affect all states, as Democrats plan to do, it not only undermines political stability but self-governance as well. The blowback to the heavy-handed passage of Obamacare, an event that has a lot to do with the exceptionally frayed and acrimonious tone we see in Washington today, should have been instructive. The more divergent our views become, the more imperative it is to build consensus rather than rely on political domination." . . .  More...

Conrad Black: Obama Defends Mob Rule

To the extent that he approves of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, President Obama creates some distance between his own views and those of Antifa and the more radical sections of Black Lives Matter. This is a small consolation, and the episode shows how terminally morally and intellectually decayed the Obama-Clinton-Biden Democratic Party has become.

Black Americans, vote your values

"Lagniappe" from Rich Terrell

Earick Ward  . . . "Black Lives Matter and Antifa have been on a multi-city crusade to "defund the police," presumably on behalf of black people, and other persons of color in Democrat-run cities.  Turns out, not so much.

In a recent Gallup poll, black Americans voted overwhelmingly (61%) to retain current local levels of police presence in their communities, with 20% wanting to see an increased presence.  Eighty-one percent of black respondents voted to maintain or increase, not defund, policing in their communities.  

It's ironic that BLM and Antifa, both predominantly run (and manned) by suburban, Millennial white leftists, have the temerity to advance what they think is in the best interest of non-white people.  

Turns out that thinking non-white people understand the importance of law and order and the responsibilities that police have in trying to maintain order.  It is not a perfect system, and it is wrought with opportunities for improvement, but, as black people (seemingly) understand, dismantling it under the guise of "social justice" will fall hardest on non-white people and communities.   

"Where liberalism has flourished — NYC, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Portland, Seattle, D.C. — the state of black (and more broadly lower/middle income) America is in decline." . . .

Also by Earick Ward:

Thank you, Don Lemon  . . . "Again, thank you, Don Lemon.  You've exposed Black Lives Matter for the Marxist organization that it is.  They don't care a whit a[bout] black lives.

Lemon

As a side note, y'all know that Karl Marx was a blatant racist, right? " . . .

Black Lives Matter and  a list of their demands:

• All black Americans should receive a guaranteed minimum income, health care, schooling, food, real estate, genital mutilation if they want to pretend to be members of the opposite sex, and abortion.
• Bring an "an end to all jails" as we know them.
• Disrupt the traditional family.
• Demand reparations on behalf of foreign nations.
• Form a "global liberation movement" that will "overturn US imperialism [and] capitalism."

Basketball poster in Portland mistaken for 'white supremacist' symbol by Antifa

They were trolled royally.

Andy Ngo

"An image of a hand posed in an "okay" symbol inside the window of a Portland federal courthouse was mistaken for a "white supremacist" and Ku Klux Klan sign by Antifa social media accounts." 

"An image of a hand posed in an "okay" symbol inside the window of a Portland federal courthouse was mistaken for a "white supremacist" and Ku Klux Klan sign by Antifa social media accounts.
"The video uploaded to Twitter on Saturday by Morgan McKniff, a Portland-based Antifa activist and self-described "citizen journalist," claims to show a racist symbol in the window of the Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse, a building targeted during weeks of violent demonstrations by Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters.
""White Power symbol in window outside the US Court House," McKniff tweeted along with the video. Her tweet was quickly shared by other Antifa accounts, racking up thousands of video views within hours. Antifa group Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front tweeted out an image of the hand, adding, "Inside the Federal Courthouse in Portland: White Power symbol on a background of 3s— '33' being used to signify 'KKK.'" 

However, as it turns out, the image is not a white supremacist or KKK symbol but rather a poster for the Trail Blazers NBA basketball team produced by NBC Sports Northwest. The three fingers symbolize three points.

. . . More

Trolling silly people consumed with guilt and need to virtue-signal
4chan trolling turned the OK sign into a symbol of hate

. . .  "In February 2017, 4chan users started the hoax "Operation O-KKK," a call to spread the sign around the internet and claim it as a symbol of white supremacy. The anonymous 4channer who started it added a graphic demonstrating how the gesture could spell out the letters WP for "white power." The same month, Media Matters for America accused Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft, who made the gesture in a photograph in the White House press briefing room, of using a "hate symbol."

"Leftists have dug so deep down in their lunacy, we must force [them] to dig more," the 4channer wrote in their post. "Until the rest of society ain't going anywhere near that s**t." Just look at the documentation." . . .

Like Beto O'Rourke, our guilt has led us into so much silliness...and even into serious destruction by trolling gullible liberals into thinking a particular statue or monument is offensive. The ignorant susceptibles may cause us to look back in laughter, embarrassment, or worse, disgust at what our virtue-signaling has wrought, yet one has to be concerned for this generation and the damage they seem to be doing to our nation.  TD

Journalist Warns Congress Antifa Plans to Spread Violence Across America

Andy Ngo

The Epoch Times   "Independent journalist Andy Ngo and his family have been so threatened by the “violent, insurrectionary” group Antifa that he feared testifying before Congress, but he said he was even more afraid “of remaining silent.”
"Ngo, who has covered Antifa since 2016, told a hearing on Aug. 4 of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution that “unless we take action, what is happening in Portland today will soon be happening in cities across the country.”
"That’s because, Ngo said, “what we have witnessed are almost daily violent protests and riots led by Antifa. Even when they aren’t starting fires, using explosives, and trying to maim officers, they leave threatening messages like decapitated pig heads outside the courthouse.”
"Ngo was referring to the more than two months of nightly destructive rioting seen in the Oregon city organized and led by the radical left-wing group, using as its pretext the nation’s outrage over the May 25 death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police.
"As editor-at-large of The Post Millennial digital news site, Ngo’s highly detailed and well-sourced reporting has exposed Antifa’s decentralized organizational structure, fundraising methods, recruitment of new members, training in violent tactics, and insurrectionary plans to destroy the United States and replace it with a totalitarian regime." . . .

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the subcommittee’s chairman, repeatedly challenged Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), the panel’s ranking minority member, to reject violence specifically by Antifa, but she refused to do so, saying only, “We all agree to reject violence by groups of any stripe.”When Cruz repeated his challenge toward the end of the hearing, Hirono got up and left the hearing, prompting the Texas senator to remark: “She declined to speak, so that is the position of the Democratic Party. I would note also that of the seven Democratic senators who spoke, not a one of them apologized for or denounced multiple Democrats calling law enforcement officers storm troopers and Gestapo.”

Full article here.

Andy Ngo’s Congressional Testimony About Antifa

"Sen. Ted Cruz held a congressional hearing Tuesday on the subject of Antifa. Andy Ngo was given an opportunity to testify and he gave a five minute speech followed by a Q&A with lawmakers.

“ 'Unless we take action, what is happening in Portland today will soon by happening in cities across the country,” Ngo said. He went on to say, “In Portland the violence has been organized and led by the local chapter of the Youth Liberation Front, a shadowy Antifa organization with secret membership.” . . .

Tucker Carlson calls Obama 'one of the sleaziest and most dishonest figures' in US political history

Tony Branco

The Hill  . . . "Carlson also described the former president as "a greasy politician" for calling on Congress to pass a new Voting Rights Act and to eliminate the filibuster, which Obama described as a relic of the Jim Crow era that disenfranchised Black Americans, in order to do so.
""Barack Obama, one of the sleaziest and most dishonest figures in the history of American politics, used George Floyd's death at a funeral to attack the police," Carlson said before showing a segment of Obama's remarks.
"Obama gave lengthy remarks about Lewis at Thursday's funeral, but the part that got the most attention was his vehement push for Congress to pass a new Voting Rights Act, which was an issue that Lewis had pursued. The Supreme Court in 2013 struck down the heart of the 1965 law, allowing nine states, mostly in the South, to change their voting laws without federal approval.

Obama and Farrakhan

" 'Bull Connor may be gone. But today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans. George Wallace may be gone. But we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators," Obama said. 
"Conner was the commissioner of public safety in Birmingham, Ala., and in the 1960s directed the use of fire hoses and attack dogs on people demonstrating for civil rights. He's since become a symbol of that era's most racist leaders.
Carlson cut off the clip at that point with his own commentary, decrying Obama for comparing today's police officers to such a noxious historic figure. 
" 'Bull Connor?" Carlson stated. "The country falling apart, riven by racial strife and tribalism, and one of the most respected people in the whole country decides to pour gasoline on that and compare the police to Bull Connor? As if America or Minneapolis is like Birmingham, Ala., in 1963? It's insane. It's reckless." . . .

Razor tweeted:

Public gatherings to burn Bibles: OK

Public gatherings to read Bibles: BANNED https://t.co/pOySao961L

— Razor (@hale_razor) August 1, 2020

Ian Miles Cheong

@stillgray

Left-wing activists bring a stack of Bibles to burn in front of the federal courthouse in Portland. https://twitter.com/Shelldrayk/status/1289481822414413827/video/1

Exclusive from Gen. Flynn: This Is My Letter to America

WJ  "We are witnessing a vicious assault by enemies of all that is good, and our president is having to act in ways unprecedented in decades, maybe centuries.

"The biblical nature of good versus evil cannot be discounted as we examine what is happening on the streets of America.
"It’s Marxism in the form of antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement versus our very capable and very underappreciated law enforcement professionals, the vast majority of whom are fighting to provide us safe and secure homes, streets and communities.
"When the destiny of the United States is at stake, and it is, the very future of the entire world is threatened.
"As Christians, shouldn’t we act? We recognize that divine Providence is the ultimate judge

of our destiny. Achieving our destiny as a freedom-loving nation, Providence compels us to do our part in our communities.
"It encourages us in this battle against the forces of evil to face our fears head-on. No enemy on earth is stronger than the united forces of God-fearing, freedom-loving people.
"We can no longer pretend that these dark forces are going to go away by mere prayer alone. Prayers matter, but action is required.
"This action is needed at the local, state and federal levels. Action is also required in the economic, media, clerical and ecclesiastical realms.
"Decide how you can act within your abilities. Stand up and state your beliefs. Be proud of who you are and what you stand for. And face, head-on, those community “leaders” who are willing to allow dark forces to go beyond peaceful protests and destroy and violate your safety and security." . . .

No Doubt About It: Democrats Are Part Of The Riot Problem

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/

"Either way, the Democrats have demonstrated they are unworthy of a single vote in the fall elections. The fact they will get roughly half when all are counted from every race across the country is discouraging. The Democratic Party has put this country in jeopardy."

I & I Editorial Board  "ui tacet consentire videtur is the Latin phrase that means he who remains silent appears to consent. The Democrats’ silence when asked to condemn Antifa violence is coming through louder than a deranged Joe Biden outburst on the campaign trail.
"New York Democrat Jerry Nadler didn’t hit the mute button when he absurdly claimed Antifa was “imaginary,” then later said its role in the Portland riots was a “myth that’s being spread only in Washington D.C.”
"But the congressman set the tone for his party.
"During Tuesday’s Senate hearing – titled The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble: Protecting Speech by Stopping Anarchist Violence – Democrats had a wide open opportunity to state their position. Instead, they went quiet.
“ 'It is unbelievable the Democrats will not come out and say violence is wrong, breaking the law is wrong,” Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn told Fox News.
"To her credit, Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, asked “how many times have I had to say that we all should be denouncing violent extremists of every stripe?” during the hearing. But when asked by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, the subcommittee chairman, if that included Antifa, she dodged the question.
"“I have the time,” was Hirono’s non-responsive response.
"Apparently rather than be confronted again about the Democrats’ tacit approval of Antifa, Hirono, whose position and power in the Senate Judiciary Committee makes her a de facto spokesman for the party, simply walked out of the hearing.
“ 'Well I appreciate the, as always, kind of uplifting words of Sen. Hirono,” Cruz said as Hirono gathered her belongings. “And I would also note that throughout her remarks she still did not say a negative word about Antifa nor has any Democrat here.”
"It was an ideal forum for Democrats to go on the record. The entire nation would have known by Tuesday night that the party is opposed to the violence and destruction Antifa has wrought with little consequence. Yet they repeatedly declined – Cruz even told Hirono “you’re welcome to say something negative about Antifa right now,” just before she walked away – and in doing so made their affiliation clear.
"Tuesday’s hearing is no isolated instance. Democrats have made their soft spot for violent mob behavior obvious on several other occasions:" . . .

Red Nation Rising

@RedNationRising

· Aug 4

Antifa and BLM are begging people to stop posting videos and pictures of riots because they're getting arrested

"Stop posting pictures of rioters"  "They're helping police arrest us!

After 75 years, it’s time to for everyone to admit the Hiroshima atomic bombing saved millions of lives

Thomas Lifson  . . . "I have no doubt at all that despite the horrors inflicted on innocent citizens of Japan in Hiroshima (and not forgetting thousands of Koreans imported as virtual slave laborers in the factories of that city), President Harry Truman made the correct decision, after prayer, in deciding to launch the nuclear attack. It was horrible, horrible, horrible, unquestionably. But it averted horrors that would have been much worse, had the United States been forced to invade Mainland Japan, after the bloody conquest of Okinawa."...

Mushroom cloud over Hiroshima photographed from the Enola Gay (via Wikipedia)

. . . "I won’t go in depth on the details of the argument on the tradeoff, though this article** published yesterday in Human Events does a good job for those who wish to familiarize themselves with the argument. " . . . 

. . .  "Instead, I want to recount an anecdote told to me by an old friend who was an 8-year-old boy living in Kyushu, the Mainland island closest to Okinawa and considered the likely first site for the invasion. My friend is very glad that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were A-bombed, causing Japan to finally give up surrender. The reason is that he was trained to dig a hole, crouch in it with an explosive device as it was covered up with vegetation, and wait for an American soldier, or better yet a truck or a tank, arrive over him, at which point he was to act as a suicide bomber IED.

"Because of the suffering of innocents in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, my friend and millions more other Japanese people and Americans were spared.

"Harry Truman* famously had a sign on his desk reading “The buck stops here.” Thank God we had a man of his courage in place to make the fateful decision 75 years ago and bear the burden of it."

*Back when a Democrat had courage.

**The historical context and military realities of 1945 are often forgotten when judging whether it was “necessary” for the United States to use nuclear weapons.

America's Most Gullible Journalist: 'Visit Portland!'

Ann Coulter  "The entire mainstream media (plus Fox News!) have been assuring us that Portland was a tranquil town, with the occasional peaceful protest … until President Trump’s storm troopers showed up and turned it into a war zone.
"This portrayal contrasts markedly with videos that have been posted on Twitter every night for more than two months now, especially by @MrAndyNgo, showing helmeted psychotics hurling Molotov cocktails at the police, among other acts of mindless destruction.
"Whom to believe? Videos of the riots? Or smug journalists telling us that they saw nothing untoward?
"Luckily, there’s the Newspaper of Record to give us the truth. Unluckily, The New York Times sent … Nicholas Kristof, aka the most easily fooled journalist in America.
"Kristof assured Times readers that the Portland crowds are “entirely peaceful,” until around 11 p.m., when “some protesters begin to shoot fireworks or set small trash fires.”

"Small trash fires."

"Also: the federal courthouse, the Justice Center offices, statues, the Portland police union hall, and a decapitated pig’s head, among other arsons.

"But Kristof also dismissively remarked: “No, they’re not trying to burn down the federal courthouse.” Do not trust the dozens of videos showing protesters trying to burn down the federal courthouse.

Kristof

"He further reports that — just as MSNBC has said! — “the most violent behavior overwhelmingly comes from the federal agents.”
"So there you have it. You can believe the man who said, “Mao’s legacy is not all bad,” or you can believe your lying eyes." . . .

Samples of Mr. Kristof's work: Nicholas Kristof: In Portland’s so-called war zone, it’s the troops who provide the menace

New York Times Columnist Parrots North Korean Propaganda from Pyongyang
. . . "Now columnist Nicholas Kristof is going for the Walter Duranty Useful Idiot Lifetime Achievement Award by filing a string of Instagram posts that cheerfully and uncritically repeat North Korean propaganda." . . .

Kristof’s Dinner With Islamists  . . . "According to Kristof’s hosts, the Brotherhood is a feminist, democratic and non-violent movement that wouldn’t think of imposing its views on its fellow citizens or breaking the peace treaty with Israel. " . . .

Nicholas Kristof: Lazy or Dishonest?  . . . "And just when you think you’ve plumbed the depths of Kristof’s fatuity, you encounter this gem: “extra credit goes to a country that so lovingly preserves old American cars.” It’s like praising Nicolás Maduro for helping the Venezuelan people to lose so much weight over the last couple of years."