So I’m reading the new anti-Kavanaugh book by shockingly (really) biased reporters at NYT. All claimed anonymous sources are anti-Kavanaugh while all but a tiny few on-record sources are downright effusive. Just interesting how highly they contradict each other.
Supporting evidence for this nothing story with no witnesses despite taking place, supposedly, at a large public event? Literally nothing. But she did tell mom, allegedly, years later, and I quote: “something happened at Yale.”
They are trying to say she is apolitical and even a former Republican (her friends reported she was “crazy liberal” on social media prior to a professional scrub last year) … before admitting she literally took part in a pussy hat March. I’m not exaggerating.
The book notes, quietly, that the woman Max Stier named as having been supposedly victimized by Kavanaugh and friends denies any memory of the alleged event. Seems, I don’t know, significant.
The @senjudiciary worked to pursue any and all substantive leads. Staff members spoke with 35 individuals. More than 20 Committee staffers contributed to investigative efforts. The Committee did not receive any evidence that corroborated claims made by Ford or Ramirez. https://t.co/WEmyYC4taJ
In response to Ms. Ramirez’s allegations, Chairman Grassley’s staff contacted Ms. Ramirez’s counsel 7 times seeking evidence to support claims made in the New Yorker. Ms. Ramirez produced nothing in response and refused a Committee request for an interview.
Committee staff nevertheless pursued the investigation. Staff lawyers interviewed multiple witnesses with relevant information. Committee staff also investigated the public statements of other individuals and found they had no knowledge of the alleged event.
Many people are buzzing about a "new allegation" about Kavanaugh. But this is even weaker than the others. The alleged victim HERSELF denies any knowledge of it. Has this smear campaign really gotten that ridiculous? https://t.co/fkQAHe8gvq
This is the blockbuster "new allegation" against Kavanaugh. Except it's not actually new. It was shopped to Senate Democrats at the time and they apparently found it impossible to nail down, so they ignored it – the same Senators who found the "rape boat" allegations plausible. pic.twitter.com/0183DKr0q2
“Robbery victims targeted for cellphones, beaten in downtown Minneapolis”
“The Minneapolis Police Department has arrested more than a dozen suspects involved in crime ring that focused on robbing cellphones from intoxicated people and then beating the victims.
According to a report provided by Minneapolis police spokesperson John Elder, a three-day sweep conducted two weeks ago ended with police arresting 16 people between the ages of 13 and 25. The suspects are seen on surveillance video punching, kicking and riding over one man with a bike.
The robberies occurred near Hennepin, First and Second avenues, between Third and Sixth streets, and happened between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m.
The suspects were mostly boys and men, with a female sometimes present. They would ‘finesse’ the victim — looking for an easy target, such as someone who was intoxicated and alone, looking at their cellphone at times. Elder said half of the assailants are juveniles.
One of the incidents happened on Aug. 3 near Target Field. According to the criminal complaint, the footage shows approxiamtely 12 males attempting to take a cellphone from a male victim, viciously beating him. The suspects are seen ripping the vicitim’s shoes and pants off and then going through his pockets. The victim is noted to be punched and kicked in the head several times throughout the altercation. At one point, the complaint states the victim is thrown to the ground — left motionless — then repeatedly jumped on, hit with planting pots and ridden over with a bicycle. Once police arrive, the victim and all suspects involved are gone.”
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The part left out is that the assailants were all one color, the victims all another. You can tell which is which by the fact is was left out.
“Julian Castro Plays the Victim After Attacking Biden’s Mental Capacity in Debate
“I spent every second on last night’s debate stage fighting for you — and now I’m being viciously attacked for it””
“Joe Biden is running for the Democratic nomination and that means he is fair game for his opponents. That does not mean, however, that no one is allowed to notice the nasty way Julian Castro went after him in the last debate on Thursday night.
In case you missed it, Castro basically tried to catch Joe Biden in a “gotcha” about his ability to remember something he had said minutes before. It was obviously a planned attack, and it came off as dirty. The audience gasped loudly in surprise.
“McCarthy promises accountability as Barr reviews IG’s FISA report: ‘The closest we’ve ever seen to a coup’”
“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., promised that guilty parties will be held accountable after Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz releases his report on the FBI’s alleged abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in the Russia investigation, and predicted that former bureau leaders James Comey and Andrew McCabe will face criminal charges after what he described as an attempted “coup” to take down President Trump.
The report will address concerns with whether or not the FBI acted improperly in obtaining a FISA warrant to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in the early stages of their investigation of Russian election interference and possible Trump campaign connections. The Inspector General’s office has already turned over a draft of its findings to Attorney General Bill Barr, and a final report is expected in the near future.
“We came the closest ever to this country having a coup, and now we need accountability,” McCarthy told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “I respect this attorney general so greatly, that the way he has handled this, he believes in accountability, but more importantly, he believes in the rule of law.”
When asked if there will really be accountability, McCarthy promised, “Yes.”
James Comey and Andrew McCabe, who were the director and deputy director of the FBI when the Russia probe began, have been the subjects of separate IG investigations, and McCarthy believes they will both face consequences.”
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As they should. They are traitors to their country and president.
“President Donald Trump suggested on Sunday that the U.S. military could be used to respond to the terrorist attacks on oil sites in Saudi Arabia, for which U.S. officials say Iran was responsible.
“Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked,” Trump tweeted. “There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!”
“Based on the attack on Saudi Arabia, which may have an impact on oil prices, I have authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if needed, in a to-be-determined amount sufficient to keep the markets well-supplied,” Trump said several minutes earlier. “I have also informed all appropriate agencies to expedite approvals of the oil pipelines currently in the permitting process in Texas and various other States.”
Based on the attack on Saudi Arabia, which may have an impact on oil prices, I have authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if needed, in a to-be-determined amount….
“The Saturday attacks knocked out over 5% of global oil supply and it could take Saudi Arabia months to recover from the attack, which a senior U.S. official told Reuters potentially involved cruise missiles.
“The U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said there were 19 points of impact in the attack on Saudi facilities and that evidence showed the launch area was west-northwest of the targets — the direction of Iran — not south from Yemen,” Reuters added. “The official added that Saudi officials had indicated they had seen signs that cruise missiles were used in the attack, which is inconsistent with the Iran-aligned Houthi group’s claim that it conducted the attack with 10 drones.””
“Perhaps we should back off from the Third Reich analogies and begin to take our duties as citizens seriously.”
“When Donald Trump was elected president of these United States — or, more properly, president of the federal government of the United States of America, a distinction worth keeping in mind — some of those who were disappointed by his election declared their intention to, in the now-inescapable word, “Resist.”
Few of them thought very much about what that word implies. (American political partisans are the world champions in not thinking very much about things.) Not only had 2016 seen the election of Donald Trump as president but it also saw another unlikely occurrence — the making of a new Star Wars movie that was pretty good. The word “resistance” sounded cool, and it was further attractive for rhetorically linking angry and alienated progressives to the French heroes who fought against and sabotaged the illegitimate Nazi occupation government during the Vichy era.
The creed of “resistance” was — and is — founded on a lie, that President Trump came to power through illegitimate means, that the election was somehow “stolen” by Republicans in cahoots with Moscow. But there is no evidence that the Kremlin’s screwball, Boris Badenov–worthy campaign of dank memery had any meaningful effect on the 2016 election. The endless investigations into Trump and his campaign have turned up a great deal of unseemly behavior and bad judgment — these being traditional Trump trademarks — but there’s a reason the effort to impeach him is going nowhere. And it is really something to see Stormy Daniels thrown in the president’s face by many of the same people who defended Bill Clinton’s shenanigans on grounds of sophistication (American rubes could learn something from more worldly Europeans, you’ll remember them telling us at the time, and take a more indulgent view of the ways of powerful men).
The Democrats strive mightily to invent a crisis surrounding Trump — Russia, his travel habits, the emoluments clause, etc. — but the only real crisis for them is that they lost the 2016 election. They may lose the next one, too: Senator Warren should keep in mind that her party already has proven itself entirely capable of losing to Trump by nominating an elderly white woman with an undistinguished Senate career, bad ideas, and the soul of a hall monitor.
Trump is an unusual president in that he comes from the world of celebrity and entertainment rather than from the world of politics or the military, but he is not Adolf Hitler, a white nationalist, or the second coming of Theodore Bilbo, and political rivalry with him is nothing like resistance to the Third Reich — it is only ordinary partisan opposition dressed up with excessive self-regard.”
“Trump’s starting to win big on controlling the southern border”
“To listen to most Democrats, they’ve got President Trump on the run when it comes to immigration.
The “big beautiful” wall he promised to build along the border with Mexico hasn’t gone up, and House Democrats will no longer fund even the border-security projects they supported in the past. Federal courts have also been preventing Team Trump from pushing through its efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants, let alone to attempt to fix a broken asylum system gamed by economic migrants from Central America who don’t fit the traditional definition of refugees fleeing for their lives.
But anyone who believes sanctuary-movement backers and Dems seeking to decriminalize illegal immigration are beating the president needs a reality check.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled to permit the administration to go on refusing to accept applications for asylum from migrants who have passed through another country without being denied asylum there, while a case challenging this common-sense policy works its way through the courts.
That comes on the heels of the court’s decision in July to allow Trump to use money from the defense budget to build the border wall. It was yet another significant victory for the administration’s initiatives and a sign that the left’s judicial guerrilla war that had been stymieing the president is starting to crumble.
Expect liberal efforts to prevent Trump from overturning President Barack Obama’s executive orders that effectively granted amnesty to millions of illegals to meet the same fate.
Fact is, despite the beating Trump has continued to take from the media about government tactics aimed at stemming the surge of illegal immigrants over the southern border, his policies have started to show signs of success.
While no one expects Mexico to pay for Trump’s wall, it is doing something more important: using its resources to stop its people from crossing over into the United States illegally. It has, for example, reinforced security on its southern border and set up checkpoints on highways leading north, dispatching 21,600 police and troops across the nation in the effort.
So far in 2019, the US Border Patrol has arrested more than 400,000 migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for crossing the border illegally. But only 4,300 Mexicans were caught doing so.
It’s all strong evidence that, far from ignoring or rejecting Trump’s efforts to jawbone them into doing something to stop the flood of illegals, America’s most important southern neighbor is listening to him. Recall that Mexico stepped up actions to control the migrants in a bid to avoid tariffs Trump had threatened to impose.
The message has also gotten through to those seeking to come to the United States illegally. Mexican officials have said there has been a “significant decrease” in the number of Central Americans entering their country this year for the purpose of illegally immigrating to the United States.”
It is rumored by someone who isn’t identified, that Kevenaugh, when he was a student somewhere, conducted an unspecified offense on someone who doesn’t remember the incident.
But it’s the seriousness of the charge. If it can be specified, that endangers this man’s career.
No. I don’t know what it’s about.
I think this country has lost it’s way.
It’s hard for me to understand why he released the strategic oil reserves when the country is awash in natural gas and the price of most energy is falling. I believe the US is currently exporting more oil than most every other country in the world.
And they weren’t really released yet. Trump simply tripped the mechanism for allowing it. It will be up to Rick Perry’s Energy Dept. when and if they actually get released that will do it. It’s SOP.
““I think we’re yet a little premature in making in comments on … whether or not the SPR’s going to be needed,” Perry tells CNBC.
President Trump authorized the use of the nation’s emergency oil reserve to offset a surge in oil prices if needed.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, rose as much as 19.5% to $71.95 per barrel after drone strikes on Saudi oil facilities over the weekend.
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry told CNBC on Monday that it’s too soon to say whether the U.S. will need to use its emergency crude reserves to offset the surge in oil prices stemming from drone strikes on Saudi Arabia’s oil processing plants over the weekend.
“I think we’re yet a little premature in making in comments on … whether or not the SPR’s going to be needed until we get a real handle on the length of time that this facility is going to be down,” Perry told “Squawk on the Street.”
The attack hit an oil processing facility at Abqaiq and the nearby Khurais oil field, knocking out production of 5.7 million barrels a day, or half of Abqaiq’s daily volume. President Donald Trump in response authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the nation’s emergency oil reserve, should it be needed to stabilize crude prices.
“I think the Saudis are already saying that they’re going to be able to get a third of this production back before the closing of business today,” Perry said. “There’s going to be a spike in this, but again, I want to be really clear that the market out there has a fairly substantial amount of oil available,” referring to globe reserves.”
“Family Finds Over 2,200 Preserved Murdered Babies in Dead Abortion Doctor’s House
To the shock of no one, the man had a laundry list of problems with the state authorities and health department when he worked as an abortion doctor.”
“Did the left really think Kermit Gosnell was an isolated incident? That’s what they wanted to believe. I can tell you as a former pro-choicer and regular Planned Parenthood donor that we choose to remain ignorant. Ignorance is the only way to blind yourself to the horrors of abortion.
Let me introduce you to the now-deceased Ulrich “George” Klopfer from South Bend. His family found over 2,200 well-preserved bodies of the babies he murdered when he was an abortion doctor.
Klopfer died on September 3. His family did what every family does when one of them dies.
Usually, when you go through a home you will find a treasure trove of family history. My mom unearthed our Italian past when her father passed away, revealing linens my great-grandmother made on her adventure to America and pictures of her old life in Italy.
Klopfer’s family unearthed a true house of horrors. From The South Bend Tribune:
The attorney for Klopfer’s family called authorities on Thursday, when family members found the 2,246 fetal remains as they went through Klopfer’s home in unincorporated Will County, according to the Sherrif’s Office. Klopfer died Sept. 3.
Sheriff’s deputies, crime scene investigators and the county coroner went to the home, found the remains and took possession.
Will County authorities said there was no evidence that medical procedures were conducted on the property, and the family is cooperating in the investigation. Will County is about 45 miles southwest of Chicago.
Klopfer was a longtime doctor at the Women’s Pavilion clinic in South Bend, where he provided abortions for decades. He also performed abortions at clinics in Gary and Fort Wayne. He was believed to be Indiana’s most prolific abortion doctor, with thousands of procedures in multiple counties over several decades.”
“The permanent investigation and torment of Brett Kavanaugh follows a well-worn Democrat path.”
“Donald Trump was elected president. But it wasn’t over.
There immediately launched an attempt to pressure Electors to change their votes, then an FBI-Democrat collusive attempt to undermine the presidency before it began, and a slow-motion coup to prevent the administration from governing. It’s still not over, as Democrats hurl themselves towards the cliff of impeachment.
Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court after a brutal smear campaign which saw accusation after accusation fall apart when subjected to scrutiny. But it wasn’t over.
After confirmation, but before the midterms, Dianne Feinstein promised to reopen the investigation of Kavanaugh if Democrats retook the Senate (they didn’t). Soon after the 2018 midterms after Democrats gained control of the House, incoming House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler signaled an intention to impeach Kavanaugh.
There have been organized attempts by Democratic operatives to get him fired from a law teaching position, and by Democrats in Congress to dig up old National Archive records in an attempt to create a public relations campaign to get him to recuse from future abortion decisions.
Today’s NY Times hit piece, which left out key details about a new accusation and the old discredited Ramirez accusation casting doubt on the reporting, has ignited calls from several leading Democrat presidential candidates and the social media mob to impeach Kavanaugh.
It’s never over.
It wasn’t and isn’t over for Clarence Thomas, who continues to be maligned some 27 years later. The permanent investigation and torment of Brett Kavanaugh follows a well-worn Democrat path.”
One of the best articles on homelessness in California that I’ve read. It also gives (based on what else I’ve read on the subject) a pretty accurate view of what happened to our mental health care system.
There is an ongoing argument about whether the trigger for all of our street encampments is a lack of housing or addiction/mental health issues. Back and forth it goes. And, as usual, there’s no nuance allowed in the argument.
Why California Keeps Making Homelessness Worse
Michael Shellenberger
I write about energy and the environment.
On Tuesday, fifteen officials from the White House toured Skid Row in Los Angeles with the head of a local homeless shelter. “Four or five of them were from the Environmental Protection Agency,” Rev. Andy Bales of Union Mission church told me. “That’s because human waste flows into storm sewers.”
California is home to some of the world’s toughest environmental and public health laws, but skyrocketing homelessness has created an environmental and public health disaster. The 44,000 people living, eating, and defecating on the streets of L.A. have brought rats and medieval diseases including typhus. Garbage is everywhere. Experts fear the return of cholera and leprosy.
And homelessness is making people violent. “We are seeing behaviors from our guests that I’ve never seen in 33 years,” said Bales. “They are so bizarre and different that I don’t even feel right describing the behaviors. It’s extreme violence of an extreme sexual nature. I have been doing this for 33 years and never seen anything like it.”
Bales says he was one of the people who urged the US Government’s Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to intervene. “We’ve been crying out for a National Guard-like response,” said Bales, whose church provides food, showers, and shelter to 1,350 people camped nearby. In 2016 Bales lost the lower half of his leg to a flesh-eating bacteria from contamination on Skid Row.
How did things get so bad in California? The state has long prided itself on being humanistic and innovative. It is home to some of the world’s largest public health philanthropies, best hospitals, and most progressive policies on mental health and drug addiction. The Democrats have a supermajority. What went wrong?
According to Bales and other experts, California made homelessness worse by making perfect housing the enemy of good housing, by liberalizing drug laws, and by opposing mandatory treatment for mental illness and drug addiction.
Other states have done a better job despite spending less money. “This isn’t rocket science,” said John Snook, who runs the Treatment Advocacy Center, which advises states on mental health and homelessness policy around the country. “Arizona is a red state that doesn’t spend a ton on its services but is the best scenario in every aspect. World-class coordination with law enforcement. Strong oversight. They don’t let people fall apart and then return to jail in 30 days like California does.”
What happened in California isn’t the first time that we progressives let our idealism get the better of us. To understand how the current disaster unfolded, we have to go back in time, back to the post-World War II era when progressive reformers convinced themselves and others that they could destroy the country’s system for dealing with the mentally ill and replace it with a radically different and wholly unproven alternative. …
______________________________________
OPINION DECLARATIONS
Everyone Knows the Truth About Politics
The Democrats are scrambling, Trump is a screwball and the sane center is getting ignored.
By Peggy Noonan
… For instance:
Everyone knows Donald Trump can be taken in 2020, but everyone doubts the ability of the current Democratic field to do it. Everyone knows Elizabeth Warren has successfully created and inhabited a persona—the determined, high-energy fighter full of plans—and is killing it. She knows she has gone too far left for the general electorate and will introduce nuance and an air of greater moderation once she gets the nomination. Everyone knows this.
Everyone knows the Democratic moderates are going nowhere and cluttering up every stage, but no one minds their being there because they make the party look sane. …
… Shall we be rude? Oh, let’s. Everyone knows Donald Trump is a mental case, including I believe Donald Trump. Why else does he keep insisting he is an “extremely stable genius”? It’s as if he knows a lot of people are certain he’s neither.
It would be nice here to say, “I don’t mean mental case. I mean his mind is a raucous TV funhouse; that he is immature, unserious, and at the mercy of poor impulse control; that he doesn’t exercise power intelligently but emotionally, and with an eye, always to personal needs.” But mental case will do. …
… To Thursday night’s debate:
The great question isn’t who got the most time or who got in a good shot, those things are rarely as important as they seem at the moment. The real question is: Did the candidates in the row of podiums show any sign that they are aware they’re going too far left? That they have come across in previous debates as extreme and outside the mainstream?
Maybe a little. There seemed to be some recalibrating. …
… I close with a last thing everyone knows, if they only think a minute. When we talk about politics we all obsess on alt-right and progressive left, those peas in a sick pod, and no one speaks of the center, which is vast and has something neither way-left nor way-right has, and that is a motivating love for America itself, and not for abstractions and ideologies and theories of the case. As a group they are virtually ignored, and yet they are the center of everything. …
… In this cycle they continue to be the great ignored. And everyone knows.
________________________________
The ooey gooey center full of fence sitters Noonan speaks of is a myth.
Look, you have two choices. What Noonan and her ilk consider Trump/hard right or Dem/hard left, they are the only real choices. No wishy washy middle grounders are even on anyone’s radar. There is no electable middle of the ideology spectrum candidate. There is no one that both parties would find adequate for their agenda and would vote for. That’s the reality of politics today.
And we know she’ll side with Warren either way. She’s already trying to convince herself.
“Everyone knows Elizabeth Warren has successfully created and inhabited a persona—the determined, high-energy fighter full of plans—and is killing it. She knows she has gone too far left for the general electorate and will introduce nuance and an air of greater moderation once she gets the nomination. Everyone knows this.”
—————
But when it comes to Trump…..
” “I don’t mean mental case. I mean his mind is a raucous TV funhouse; that he is immature, unserious, and at the mercy of poor impulse control; that he doesn’t exercise power intelligently but emotionally, and with an eye, always to personal needs.” But mental case will do. …”
—————
Even when she pretends to be middle of the pack, she can’t pull off the charade.
We are trapped in a culture of sheer partisan folly.
She’s never supported Trump, that’s not surprising. But many conservatives are in that boat as well. And I suspect there are plenty of centrist Democrats now shaking their heads as well. The middle is, indeed, substantial if quiet. The two extremes dominate.
I agree with a number of Trump’s decisions, but am haunted by the feeling that they’ve been made on the fly without a lot of thought or political consistency. Unpredictable is I think an accurate assessment of his temperament.
But I am even less enthralled with the Democrats. So here I sit, admittedly somewhat alienated but not alone in that, watching the rather bizarre political parade that has become our national election cycle.
Carry on. At least it’s entertaining and often even gasp-worthy.
DJ – I agree that a lot of us ordinary folk are more centrist or moderate, either center-left or center-right, and not happy with the far-left or far-right. And the far-left and far-right tend to denigrate the moderates. There are also liberals and conservatives who aren’t centrists, but also don’t like the extremists on their side.
As AJ pointed out, there seem to be no candidates for the more moderate among us.
And we should recognize that all of us have differing political views as Christians. It’s OK if we see the political landscape, politicians and even some issues differently.
Politics is never really talked about at my church, other than with regard to some issues such as abortion. Even then, the focus is on the issue of life itself, not this or that legislation of politician.
My sense is there are quite a few of us who are somewhat dismayed — ‘pearl clutching’ as AJ would call it, I suppose — by how our political culture and discourse has devolved into a black-and-white, “take no prisoners” demeanor. You’re with us or you’re against us.
It’ll pass. I hope.
But probably not for some time. As AJ would also say, we “own” it now, we built this.
I was watching some of the previews for upcoming fall shows last night and apparently the lead character in Madam Secretary (who supposedly was selected a few years ago to resemble Hillary Clinton) will become president. A sincere, attractive, blonde and liberal woman president.
Then I realized that this upcoming television season will be leading right up to the 2020 election. How many plot lines will be sending us political messages? Probably more than a few — and from just one side.
Wandering Views 
More lies and libel from the NY Times.
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All fluff, no stuff.
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Womp, womp, womp……
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They’re not even trying anymore.
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Maybe Omar should clean up her own district first.
CONTENT WARNING: The video is graphic
https://amp.kstp.com/articles/robbery-victims-targeted-for-cellphones-beaten-in-downtown-minneapolis-suspects-arrested-police-5488467.html?__twitter_impression=true
“Robbery victims targeted for cellphones, beaten in downtown Minneapolis”
“The Minneapolis Police Department has arrested more than a dozen suspects involved in crime ring that focused on robbing cellphones from intoxicated people and then beating the victims.
According to a report provided by Minneapolis police spokesperson John Elder, a three-day sweep conducted two weeks ago ended with police arresting 16 people between the ages of 13 and 25. The suspects are seen on surveillance video punching, kicking and riding over one man with a bike.
The robberies occurred near Hennepin, First and Second avenues, between Third and Sixth streets, and happened between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m.
The suspects were mostly boys and men, with a female sometimes present. They would ‘finesse’ the victim — looking for an easy target, such as someone who was intoxicated and alone, looking at their cellphone at times. Elder said half of the assailants are juveniles.
One of the incidents happened on Aug. 3 near Target Field. According to the criminal complaint, the footage shows approxiamtely 12 males attempting to take a cellphone from a male victim, viciously beating him. The suspects are seen ripping the vicitim’s shoes and pants off and then going through his pockets. The victim is noted to be punched and kicked in the head several times throughout the altercation. At one point, the complaint states the victim is thrown to the ground — left motionless — then repeatedly jumped on, hit with planting pots and ridden over with a bicycle. Once police arrive, the victim and all suspects involved are gone.”
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The part left out is that the assailants were all one color, the victims all another. You can tell which is which by the fact is was left out.
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Castro isn’t a serious contender, but he is angling to be Warren’s VP nominee. So he played the role of Lizzy’s attack dog. Quite well too.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/09/julian-castro-plays-the-victim-after-attacking-bidens-mental-capacity-in-debate/
“Julian Castro Plays the Victim After Attacking Biden’s Mental Capacity in Debate
“I spent every second on last night’s debate stage fighting for you — and now I’m being viciously attacked for it””
“Joe Biden is running for the Democratic nomination and that means he is fair game for his opponents. That does not mean, however, that no one is allowed to notice the nasty way Julian Castro went after him in the last debate on Thursday night.
In case you missed it, Castro basically tried to catch Joe Biden in a “gotcha” about his ability to remember something he had said minutes before. It was obviously a planned attack, and it came off as dirty. The audience gasped loudly in surprise.
Watch:”
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It’s coming.
Yet more proof of how wrong (and lying) the Never-Trumpers and Dems were.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mccarthy-promises-accountability-as-barr-reviews-igs-fisa-report-the-closest-weve-ever-seen-to-a-coup
“McCarthy promises accountability as Barr reviews IG’s FISA report: ‘The closest we’ve ever seen to a coup’”
“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., promised that guilty parties will be held accountable after Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz releases his report on the FBI’s alleged abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in the Russia investigation, and predicted that former bureau leaders James Comey and Andrew McCabe will face criminal charges after what he described as an attempted “coup” to take down President Trump.
The report will address concerns with whether or not the FBI acted improperly in obtaining a FISA warrant to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in the early stages of their investigation of Russian election interference and possible Trump campaign connections. The Inspector General’s office has already turned over a draft of its findings to Attorney General Bill Barr, and a final report is expected in the near future.
“We came the closest ever to this country having a coup, and now we need accountability,” McCarthy told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “I respect this attorney general so greatly, that the way he has handled this, he believes in accountability, but more importantly, he believes in the rule of law.”
When asked if there will really be accountability, McCarthy promised, “Yes.”
James Comey and Andrew McCabe, who were the director and deputy director of the FBI when the Russia probe began, have been the subjects of separate IG investigations, and McCarthy believes they will both face consequences.”
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As they should. They are traitors to their country and president.
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Iran continues it’s terrorism.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/51798/trump-signals-military-action-over-attack-saudi-ryan-saavedra
“President Donald Trump suggested on Sunday that the U.S. military could be used to respond to the terrorist attacks on oil sites in Saudi Arabia, for which U.S. officials say Iran was responsible.
“Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked,” Trump tweeted. “There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!”
“Based on the attack on Saudi Arabia, which may have an impact on oil prices, I have authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if needed, in a to-be-determined amount sufficient to keep the markets well-supplied,” Trump said several minutes earlier. “I have also informed all appropriate agencies to expedite approvals of the oil pipelines currently in the permitting process in Texas and various other States.”
“The Saturday attacks knocked out over 5% of global oil supply and it could take Saudi Arabia months to recover from the attack, which a senior U.S. official told Reuters potentially involved cruise missiles.
“The U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said there were 19 points of impact in the attack on Saudi facilities and that evidence showed the launch area was west-northwest of the targets — the direction of Iran — not south from Yemen,” Reuters added. “The official added that Saudi officials had indicated they had seen signs that cruise missiles were used in the attack, which is inconsistent with the Iran-aligned Houthi group’s claim that it conducted the attack with 10 drones.””
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Resistance is futile.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/resistance-politics-degrades-civic-life/
“Perhaps we should back off from the Third Reich analogies and begin to take our duties as citizens seriously.”
“When Donald Trump was elected president of these United States — or, more properly, president of the federal government of the United States of America, a distinction worth keeping in mind — some of those who were disappointed by his election declared their intention to, in the now-inescapable word, “Resist.”
Few of them thought very much about what that word implies. (American political partisans are the world champions in not thinking very much about things.) Not only had 2016 seen the election of Donald Trump as president but it also saw another unlikely occurrence — the making of a new Star Wars movie that was pretty good. The word “resistance” sounded cool, and it was further attractive for rhetorically linking angry and alienated progressives to the French heroes who fought against and sabotaged the illegitimate Nazi occupation government during the Vichy era.
The creed of “resistance” was — and is — founded on a lie, that President Trump came to power through illegitimate means, that the election was somehow “stolen” by Republicans in cahoots with Moscow. But there is no evidence that the Kremlin’s screwball, Boris Badenov–worthy campaign of dank memery had any meaningful effect on the 2016 election. The endless investigations into Trump and his campaign have turned up a great deal of unseemly behavior and bad judgment — these being traditional Trump trademarks — but there’s a reason the effort to impeach him is going nowhere. And it is really something to see Stormy Daniels thrown in the president’s face by many of the same people who defended Bill Clinton’s shenanigans on grounds of sophistication (American rubes could learn something from more worldly Europeans, you’ll remember them telling us at the time, and take a more indulgent view of the ways of powerful men).
The Democrats strive mightily to invent a crisis surrounding Trump — Russia, his travel habits, the emoluments clause, etc. — but the only real crisis for them is that they lost the 2016 election. They may lose the next one, too: Senator Warren should keep in mind that her party already has proven itself entirely capable of losing to Trump by nominating an elderly white woman with an undistinguished Senate career, bad ideas, and the soul of a hall monitor.
Trump is an unusual president in that he comes from the world of celebrity and entertainment rather than from the world of politics or the military, but he is not Adolf Hitler, a white nationalist, or the second coming of Theodore Bilbo, and political rivalry with him is nothing like resistance to the Third Reich — it is only ordinary partisan opposition dressed up with excessive self-regard.”
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The wins continue to pile up. 🙂
https://nypost.com/2019/09/13/trumps-starting-to-win-big-on-controlling-the-southern-border/
“Trump’s starting to win big on controlling the southern border”
“To listen to most Democrats, they’ve got President Trump on the run when it comes to immigration.
The “big beautiful” wall he promised to build along the border with Mexico hasn’t gone up, and House Democrats will no longer fund even the border-security projects they supported in the past. Federal courts have also been preventing Team Trump from pushing through its efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants, let alone to attempt to fix a broken asylum system gamed by economic migrants from Central America who don’t fit the traditional definition of refugees fleeing for their lives.
But anyone who believes sanctuary-movement backers and Dems seeking to decriminalize illegal immigration are beating the president needs a reality check.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled to permit the administration to go on refusing to accept applications for asylum from migrants who have passed through another country without being denied asylum there, while a case challenging this common-sense policy works its way through the courts.
That comes on the heels of the court’s decision in July to allow Trump to use money from the defense budget to build the border wall. It was yet another significant victory for the administration’s initiatives and a sign that the left’s judicial guerrilla war that had been stymieing the president is starting to crumble.
Expect liberal efforts to prevent Trump from overturning President Barack Obama’s executive orders that effectively granted amnesty to millions of illegals to meet the same fate.
Fact is, despite the beating Trump has continued to take from the media about government tactics aimed at stemming the surge of illegal immigrants over the southern border, his policies have started to show signs of success.
While no one expects Mexico to pay for Trump’s wall, it is doing something more important: using its resources to stop its people from crossing over into the United States illegally. It has, for example, reinforced security on its southern border and set up checkpoints on highways leading north, dispatching 21,600 police and troops across the nation in the effort.
So far in 2019, the US Border Patrol has arrested more than 400,000 migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for crossing the border illegally. But only 4,300 Mexicans were caught doing so.
It’s all strong evidence that, far from ignoring or rejecting Trump’s efforts to jawbone them into doing something to stop the flood of illegals, America’s most important southern neighbor is listening to him. Recall that Mexico stepped up actions to control the migrants in a bid to avoid tariffs Trump had threatened to impose.
The message has also gotten through to those seeking to come to the United States illegally. Mexican officials have said there has been a “significant decrease” in the number of Central Americans entering their country this year for the purpose of illegally immigrating to the United States.”
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Justice Kavenaugh should certainly be impeached:
It is rumored by someone who isn’t identified, that Kevenaugh, when he was a student somewhere, conducted an unspecified offense on someone who doesn’t remember the incident.
But it’s the seriousness of the charge. If it can be specified, that endangers this man’s career.
No. I don’t know what it’s about.
I think this country has lost it’s way.
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The Russians certainly had something to do with this.
Whatever it is.
Chas
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It’s hard for me to understand why he released the strategic oil reserves when the country is awash in natural gas and the price of most energy is falling. I believe the US is currently exporting more oil than most every other country in the world.
But what do I know?
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It’s about keeping the price stable Michelle.
And they weren’t really released yet. Trump simply tripped the mechanism for allowing it. It will be up to Rick Perry’s Energy Dept. when and if they actually get released that will do it. It’s SOP.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/16/energy-secretary-rick-perry-says-its-premature-whether-strategic-petroleum-reserve-is-needed.html
““I think we’re yet a little premature in making in comments on … whether or not the SPR’s going to be needed,” Perry tells CNBC.
President Trump authorized the use of the nation’s emergency oil reserve to offset a surge in oil prices if needed.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, rose as much as 19.5% to $71.95 per barrel after drone strikes on Saudi oil facilities over the weekend.
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry told CNBC on Monday that it’s too soon to say whether the U.S. will need to use its emergency crude reserves to offset the surge in oil prices stemming from drone strikes on Saudi Arabia’s oil processing plants over the weekend.
“I think we’re yet a little premature in making in comments on … whether or not the SPR’s going to be needed until we get a real handle on the length of time that this facility is going to be down,” Perry told “Squawk on the Street.”
The attack hit an oil processing facility at Abqaiq and the nearby Khurais oil field, knocking out production of 5.7 million barrels a day, or half of Abqaiq’s daily volume. President Donald Trump in response authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the nation’s emergency oil reserve, should it be needed to stabilize crude prices.
“I think the Saudis are already saying that they’re going to be able to get a third of this production back before the closing of business today,” Perry said. “There’s going to be a spike in this, but again, I want to be really clear that the market out there has a fairly substantial amount of oil available,” referring to globe reserves.”
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Like I said Saturday, this is Gosnell 2.0.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/09/family-finds-over-2200-preserved-murdered-babies-in-dead-abortion-doctors-house/
“Family Finds Over 2,200 Preserved Murdered Babies in Dead Abortion Doctor’s House
To the shock of no one, the man had a laundry list of problems with the state authorities and health department when he worked as an abortion doctor.”
“Did the left really think Kermit Gosnell was an isolated incident? That’s what they wanted to believe. I can tell you as a former pro-choicer and regular Planned Parenthood donor that we choose to remain ignorant. Ignorance is the only way to blind yourself to the horrors of abortion.
Let me introduce you to the now-deceased Ulrich “George” Klopfer from South Bend. His family found over 2,200 well-preserved bodies of the babies he murdered when he was an abortion doctor.
Klopfer died on September 3. His family did what every family does when one of them dies.
Usually, when you go through a home you will find a treasure trove of family history. My mom unearthed our Italian past when her father passed away, revealing linens my great-grandmother made on her adventure to America and pictures of her old life in Italy.
Klopfer’s family unearthed a true house of horrors. From The South Bend Tribune:
The attorney for Klopfer’s family called authorities on Thursday, when family members found the 2,246 fetal remains as they went through Klopfer’s home in unincorporated Will County, according to the Sherrif’s Office. Klopfer died Sept. 3.
Sheriff’s deputies, crime scene investigators and the county coroner went to the home, found the remains and took possession.
Will County authorities said there was no evidence that medical procedures were conducted on the property, and the family is cooperating in the investigation. Will County is about 45 miles southwest of Chicago.
Klopfer was a longtime doctor at the Women’s Pavilion clinic in South Bend, where he provided abortions for decades. He also performed abortions at clinics in Gary and Fort Wayne. He was believed to be Indiana’s most prolific abortion doctor, with thousands of procedures in multiple counties over several decades.”
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It’s never over. And the issue is never the issue.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/09/its-never-over-is-it/
“The permanent investigation and torment of Brett Kavanaugh follows a well-worn Democrat path.”
“Donald Trump was elected president. But it wasn’t over.
There immediately launched an attempt to pressure Electors to change their votes, then an FBI-Democrat collusive attempt to undermine the presidency before it began, and a slow-motion coup to prevent the administration from governing. It’s still not over, as Democrats hurl themselves towards the cliff of impeachment.
Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court after a brutal smear campaign which saw accusation after accusation fall apart when subjected to scrutiny. But it wasn’t over.
After confirmation, but before the midterms, Dianne Feinstein promised to reopen the investigation of Kavanaugh if Democrats retook the Senate (they didn’t). Soon after the 2018 midterms after Democrats gained control of the House, incoming House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler signaled an intention to impeach Kavanaugh.
There have been organized attempts by Democratic operatives to get him fired from a law teaching position, and by Democrats in Congress to dig up old National Archive records in an attempt to create a public relations campaign to get him to recuse from future abortion decisions.
Today’s NY Times hit piece, which left out key details about a new accusation and the old discredited Ramirez accusation casting doubt on the reporting, has ignited calls from several leading Democrat presidential candidates and the social media mob to impeach Kavanaugh.
It’s never over.
It wasn’t and isn’t over for Clarence Thomas, who continues to be maligned some 27 years later. The permanent investigation and torment of Brett Kavanaugh follows a well-worn Democrat path.”
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Re: the video with Biden and Castro – Did Biden really say what Castro said he said? Either way, I didn’t like Castro’s manner at all.
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One of the best articles on homelessness in California that I’ve read. It also gives (based on what else I’ve read on the subject) a pretty accurate view of what happened to our mental health care system.
There is an ongoing argument about whether the trigger for all of our street encampments is a lack of housing or addiction/mental health issues. Back and forth it goes. And, as usual, there’s no nuance allowed in the argument.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/09/12/why-california-keeps-making-homelessness-worse/#472074e85a61
_________________________________
Why California Keeps Making Homelessness Worse
Michael Shellenberger
I write about energy and the environment.
On Tuesday, fifteen officials from the White House toured Skid Row in Los Angeles with the head of a local homeless shelter. “Four or five of them were from the Environmental Protection Agency,” Rev. Andy Bales of Union Mission church told me. “That’s because human waste flows into storm sewers.”
California is home to some of the world’s toughest environmental and public health laws, but skyrocketing homelessness has created an environmental and public health disaster. The 44,000 people living, eating, and defecating on the streets of L.A. have brought rats and medieval diseases including typhus. Garbage is everywhere. Experts fear the return of cholera and leprosy.
And homelessness is making people violent. “We are seeing behaviors from our guests that I’ve never seen in 33 years,” said Bales. “They are so bizarre and different that I don’t even feel right describing the behaviors. It’s extreme violence of an extreme sexual nature. I have been doing this for 33 years and never seen anything like it.”
Bales says he was one of the people who urged the US Government’s Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to intervene. “We’ve been crying out for a National Guard-like response,” said Bales, whose church provides food, showers, and shelter to 1,350 people camped nearby. In 2016 Bales lost the lower half of his leg to a flesh-eating bacteria from contamination on Skid Row.
How did things get so bad in California? The state has long prided itself on being humanistic and innovative. It is home to some of the world’s largest public health philanthropies, best hospitals, and most progressive policies on mental health and drug addiction. The Democrats have a supermajority. What went wrong?
According to Bales and other experts, California made homelessness worse by making perfect housing the enemy of good housing, by liberalizing drug laws, and by opposing mandatory treatment for mental illness and drug addiction.
Other states have done a better job despite spending less money. “This isn’t rocket science,” said John Snook, who runs the Treatment Advocacy Center, which advises states on mental health and homelessness policy around the country. “Arizona is a red state that doesn’t spend a ton on its services but is the best scenario in every aspect. World-class coordination with law enforcement. Strong oversight. They don’t let people fall apart and then return to jail in 30 days like California does.”
What happened in California isn’t the first time that we progressives let our idealism get the better of us. To understand how the current disaster unfolded, we have to go back in time, back to the post-World War II era when progressive reformers convinced themselves and others that they could destroy the country’s system for dealing with the mentally ill and replace it with a radically different and wholly unproven alternative. …
______________________________________
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Another provocative piece by Peggy Noonan
https://www.wsj.com/articles/everyone-knows-the-truth-about-politics-11568391426
___________________________
OPINION DECLARATIONS
Everyone Knows the Truth About Politics
The Democrats are scrambling, Trump is a screwball and the sane center is getting ignored.
By Peggy Noonan
… For instance:
Everyone knows Donald Trump can be taken in 2020, but everyone doubts the ability of the current Democratic field to do it. Everyone knows Elizabeth Warren has successfully created and inhabited a persona—the determined, high-energy fighter full of plans—and is killing it. She knows she has gone too far left for the general electorate and will introduce nuance and an air of greater moderation once she gets the nomination. Everyone knows this.
Everyone knows the Democratic moderates are going nowhere and cluttering up every stage, but no one minds their being there because they make the party look sane. …
… Shall we be rude? Oh, let’s. Everyone knows Donald Trump is a mental case, including I believe Donald Trump. Why else does he keep insisting he is an “extremely stable genius”? It’s as if he knows a lot of people are certain he’s neither.
It would be nice here to say, “I don’t mean mental case. I mean his mind is a raucous TV funhouse; that he is immature, unserious, and at the mercy of poor impulse control; that he doesn’t exercise power intelligently but emotionally, and with an eye, always to personal needs.” But mental case will do. …
… To Thursday night’s debate:
The great question isn’t who got the most time or who got in a good shot, those things are rarely as important as they seem at the moment. The real question is: Did the candidates in the row of podiums show any sign that they are aware they’re going too far left? That they have come across in previous debates as extreme and outside the mainstream?
Maybe a little. There seemed to be some recalibrating. …
… I close with a last thing everyone knows, if they only think a minute. When we talk about politics we all obsess on alt-right and progressive left, those peas in a sick pod, and no one speaks of the center, which is vast and has something neither way-left nor way-right has, and that is a motivating love for America itself, and not for abstractions and ideologies and theories of the case. As a group they are virtually ignored, and yet they are the center of everything. …
… In this cycle they continue to be the great ignored. And everyone knows.
________________________________
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Democrats hardest hit. 🙂
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The ooey gooey center full of fence sitters Noonan speaks of is a myth.
Look, you have two choices. What Noonan and her ilk consider Trump/hard right or Dem/hard left, they are the only real choices. No wishy washy middle grounders are even on anyone’s radar. There is no electable middle of the ideology spectrum candidate. There is no one that both parties would find adequate for their agenda and would vote for. That’s the reality of politics today.
And we know she’ll side with Warren either way. She’s already trying to convince herself.
“Everyone knows Elizabeth Warren has successfully created and inhabited a persona—the determined, high-energy fighter full of plans—and is killing it. She knows she has gone too far left for the general electorate and will introduce nuance and an air of greater moderation once she gets the nomination. Everyone knows this.”
—————
But when it comes to Trump…..
” “I don’t mean mental case. I mean his mind is a raucous TV funhouse; that he is immature, unserious, and at the mercy of poor impulse control; that he doesn’t exercise power intelligently but emotionally, and with an eye, always to personal needs.” But mental case will do. …”
—————
Even when she pretends to be middle of the pack, she can’t pull off the charade.
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“That’s the reality of politics today.”
Sadly, yes.
We are trapped in a culture of sheer partisan folly.
She’s never supported Trump, that’s not surprising. But many conservatives are in that boat as well. And I suspect there are plenty of centrist Democrats now shaking their heads as well. The middle is, indeed, substantial if quiet. The two extremes dominate.
I agree with a number of Trump’s decisions, but am haunted by the feeling that they’ve been made on the fly without a lot of thought or political consistency. Unpredictable is I think an accurate assessment of his temperament.
But I am even less enthralled with the Democrats. So here I sit, admittedly somewhat alienated but not alone in that, watching the rather bizarre political parade that has become our national election cycle.
Carry on. At least it’s entertaining and often even gasp-worthy.
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The PBS Ken Burns show on country music, part 2 starts now.
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DJ – I agree that a lot of us ordinary folk are more centrist or moderate, either center-left or center-right, and not happy with the far-left or far-right. And the far-left and far-right tend to denigrate the moderates. There are also liberals and conservatives who aren’t centrists, but also don’t like the extremists on their side.
As AJ pointed out, there seem to be no candidates for the more moderate among us.
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And we should recognize that all of us have differing political views as Christians. It’s OK if we see the political landscape, politicians and even some issues differently.
Politics is never really talked about at my church, other than with regard to some issues such as abortion. Even then, the focus is on the issue of life itself, not this or that legislation of politician.
My sense is there are quite a few of us who are somewhat dismayed — ‘pearl clutching’ as AJ would call it, I suppose — by how our political culture and discourse has devolved into a black-and-white, “take no prisoners” demeanor. You’re with us or you’re against us.
It’ll pass. I hope.
But probably not for some time. As AJ would also say, we “own” it now, we built this.
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I was watching some of the previews for upcoming fall shows last night and apparently the lead character in Madam Secretary (who supposedly was selected a few years ago to resemble Hillary Clinton) will become president. A sincere, attractive, blonde and liberal woman president.
Then I realized that this upcoming television season will be leading right up to the 2020 election. How many plot lines will be sending us political messages? Probably more than a few — and from just one side.
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They better not mess with NCIS.
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