Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin slammed the idea of defunding the police Monday, an idea some Democrats have run with after the death of George Floyd.
“You can’t defund the police, that’s stupid, it’s crazy and anyone who talks about that is nuts,” Sen. Joe Manchin told Politico. “You have to have the police.”
This comes after The Daily Caller contacted every Senate Democrat asking if they would consider defunding the police after a majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledged to “dismantle” the city’s police department as a solution to police violence after George Floyd’s death. Not one Democrat responded or condemned the Minneapolis City Council for pushing to defund law enforcement.
City Council President Lisa Bender, City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins and council members made the announcement at a rally, saying they plan to “dismantle” their police department. The money for the police would instead go towards a “community-based public safety model,” according to the local TV station KSTP.
Earlier Sunday morning, Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker was asked about defunding the police, to which he responded by saying he would not defend or use the term but that he does believe the U.S. is “overpoliced as a society.”
Former Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon, who now leads the left-wing group Demand Justice, tweeted out his support for defunding the police Wednesday. Protesters then booed Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey Saturday after he wouldn’t say he would abolish the city’s police department.
Protesters began chanting, “Go home Jacob, go home! Go home Jacob, go home!”
WATCH:
“Go home,” protesters yell at Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey because he said he doesn’t want to defund the police pic.twitter.com/00MIM60P5L
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2020-06-09 05:30:062020-06-10 08:12:09‘Anyone Who Talks About That Is Nuts’: Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin Slams The Idea Of Defunding Police
Unsurprisingly, Rowling, author of the “Harry Potter” series, was attacked by LGBT activists.
JK Rowling continues to align herself with an ideology which willfully distorts facts about gender identity and people who are trans. In 2020, there is no excuse for targeting trans people.
The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more >>
Trans women are women. Trans Black people & trans non-Black people are discriminated against every single day. They’re dying. We’re fighting for Black people & trans people and you’re doing this? https://t.co/2l5PHDCpKD
If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time there’s been a push to say that it’s not true that only women have periods. We’re reprinting a Daily Signal article from 2019 that looked at why this was such a big push among certain activists.
A friend of mine has an amusing tale of a heated fight she got in as a child with her then-teenage brothers that culminated in her accusing them of getting periods.
Needless to say, my friend didn’t end up with the upper hand in that particular sibling squabble.
But maybe she was just ahead of her time with her gender-neutral vision on periods.
Always, a brand of period pads, recently announced it will take the Venus symbol off its products. Always is “committed to diversity and inclusion and are on a continual journey to understand the needs of all of our consumers,” the brand noted in a statement.
Because in 2019, it’s apparently controversial to say that only women get periods.
For years, woke activists have been pushing for language to shift on the issues of periods and pregnancy. Thinx, a brand of underwear designed to be worn during periods, apologized during “Transgender Awareness Week” in 2015 for focusing too much on women.
“We feel it is our responsibility to send a reminder that menstruation is not a trait of, nor a defining factor of, a specific gender. It is something that can occur amongst all people,” the brand wrote at the time.
Two years later, Glamour magazine approvingly covered the open-mindedness of new menstruation products company Aunt Flow: “There’s also the recognition that it’s not just cisgender women who get periods: Trans men and people who don’t identify as one gender get them too, so the company has eliminated the gendered pronouns of her and she from their materials.”
In 2016, the Twitter hashtag #IfMenHadPeriods was controversial—for suggesting that men didn’t have periods.
Of course Planned Parenthood has jumped on the bandwagon, too, carefully talking about periods on its site in a gender-neutral way: “Not everybody who gets a period identifies as a girl or woman. Transgender men and genderqueer people who have uteruses, vaginas, fallopian tubes, and ovaries also get their periods.”
So now if you wear a kimono or don a Native American headdress—no matter how respectfully—that’s cultural appropriation and inappropriate if you are not Japanese or Native American.
But if you want to label a female experience—one that is dependent on having female body parts at birth—as being gender-neutral, that’s A-OK.
So at least for today, ethnic appropriation gets you hurled into cancel culture. But gender appropriation gets you celebrated.
How is that fair?
As someone who has dealt with many an Always pad caked with my blood, I’m done with this nonsense.
Too much information? Well, sorry, but perhaps it’s our era’s almost Victorian prudishness about our bodies that has gotten us in this absurd Orwellian experiment where the appropriate way to talk is to discuss inherently female realities, like periods and pregnancies, as gender-neutral.
They simply are not.
It’s girls who are told that someday, they’ll have to deal with bleeding every month. It’s women who attend classes and hold jobs and juggle a million other things while their insides are churned and every last drop of blood is wrung out via too often painful cramps. It’s women who have to plan ahead and carry period pads or tampons or other products so they’re not splashing blood around in the course of everyday life. It’s women who stare at the blood, and realize they’re not pregnant—whether that’s welcome or unwelcome news.
This isn’t a universal experience, or one shared by men.
If someone who identifies as gender-neutral or male has a period, it’s because that person was born with female body parts—parts associated for millennia with women.
But of course, LGBT and other woke activists are ready to erase thousands of years of shared female experience just to ensure that a transgender or nonbinary person never has to be challenged in his worldview that perhaps our bodies are relevant to our gender.
So here’s a thought: Maybe if the language of women getting periods or a big company slapping a Venus symbol on menstruation products threatens you that much, it’s because you’re trying to silence something within you.
Everyone holds beliefs that aren’t celebrated by society. My religious views are constantly criticized or targeted by atheists or people of another faith. So are my political views. (Try telling people that you like some of President Donald Trump’s policies in, oh, any blue state.) Sometimes I speak back. Other times I hold my tongue.
A couple of years ago, I needed to buy shoes for a hike of several days that I was going on. I have wide feet, and after trying on a bunch of different pairs of shoes, I realized the pair that fit the best was a style of men’s shoes, not women’s. I was mortified: Why couldn’t the company have made women’s shoes in wide instead of me needing to wear men’s shoes?
Then I realized I was being absurd. I knew I was a woman, no matter what some company’s shoe sizing showed.
So I kept the shoes. And no, I never called the company and demanded they start identifying the shoes as gender-neutral.
Because at the end of the day, it wasn’t keeping me up at night.
Transgender people should be treated with respect and love, just like everyone else. But that does not mean all of society—from companies to individuals—should be forced to kowtow and affirm their preferred version of reality.
There are differences between men and women, and menstruating is one of them.
In our digital-dominated world, we seem to be veering further and further away from biological realities. We’re told it’s our minds and our spirits that determine our gender, not our actual bodies. We are ramping up the artificial-intelligence abilities of sex robots so no one has to be hassled by needing a real person for sexual gratification.
Writer Bridget Phetasy, speaking on Joe Rogan’s podcast in a recent episode, mentioned hearing a panel a few years back discuss whether eventually life itself would leap from its current carbon form to some new material.
So here’s a revolutionary idea: Our bodies matter.
Women having periods matters, and menstruation is a part of the female experience—no matter how inconvenient that fact is for transgender people who want to identify as female (but don’t have a period) or identify as male (but do have a period).
Every company in America, and in the world, can change their language and symbols to make it appear that periods are gender-neutral.
But that won’t erase the reality that they’re not.
And once today’s activists realize that, there’s going to be a lot of disappointment.
With the recent conservative victories related to tax cuts, the Supreme Court, and other major issues, it is easy to become complacent.
However, the liberal Left is not backing down. They are rallying supporters to advance their agenda, moving this nation further from the vision of our founding fathers.
If we are to continue to bring this nation back to our founding principles of limited government and fiscal conservatism, we need to come together as a group of likeminded conservatives.
This is the mission of The Heritage Foundation. We want to continue to develop and present conservative solutions to the nation’s toughest problems. And we cannot do this alone.
We are looking for a select few conservatives to become a Heritage Foundation member. With your membership, you’ll qualify for all associated benefits and you’ll help keep our nation great for future generations.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Signalhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Signal2020-06-09 04:41:262020-06-09 04:43:01‘It Isn’t Hate to Speak the Truth’: J.K. Rowling Bravely Defies Political Correctness
Antifa has been identified as the primary driver of the violent riots engulfing American cities. But there is a critical second arm of this unholy alliance that has been around longer and has deep roots, along with possible foreign connections. Communists.
It shouldn’t be shocking. Communists domestic and foreign have been trying to undermine and destroy America for many generations. And we’ve seen a disturbing rise in American public support for Socialism and Communism. That support translates into resources and manpower on the ground and it is being put to use.
And yet the Communist element in the riots is getting virtually no media coverage. They’re not as outfront as Antifa and Black Lives Matters, but their role may be as big — and longer lasting. Because while Antifa and BLM may fade, apparently we’ll always have Communists in our midst — at least as long as we have universities infiltrated the way they are.
But they’re not hiding the ball. They weave their Marxist-Socialist agenda in with racial tensions to fan the flames, create chaos and destabilize. We’re seeing them do this in cities across the country, and in smaller cities where there is no violence but the Communists still play on the racial tensions.
Let’s start where this started, in the Twin Cities, where the largest Communist organization has a solid foothold. The Democrat Socialists of America (DSA) in Minneapolis has been supporting the rioters with resources and organization while participating in the “protests.” They use the classic Marxist language, tweeting “support the ongoing mass working-class uprising!” and later tweeting: “For all community members, fuel up to fight the fascists & police state today, join us @ Lake & 30th Ave for free hot meals & groceries! Justice & nutrition for the frontlines.”
See how they conflate the two. Here’s their official statement:
“Racist police violence is not incidental to the capitalist system, it is necessary to maintain its operation. We recognize that as we fight for a better world, it will be the police who threaten our protests, the police who will break up our picket lines, the police who selectively wield their monopoly on violence against Black people and working-class people to protect those with power and privilege.”
DSA is known to be involved in rioting in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle and Memphis. It’s highly likely they are in other cities also.
But they are only one Communist group.
The Workers World Party (WWP) is also in several cities as part of the chaos. The WWP openly supports China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea and Iran — essentially anyone that is an enemy of the United States. The Stalinist group has active chapters in 15 cities. WWP leader Monica Moorehead wrote May 28 an article with the headline, “Against police violence and capitalism, to rebel is justified:”
“Workers World salutes all the brave protesters in Minneapolis, currently ground zero against police terror. We also salute those activists in Los Angeles, Memphis and other cities who are organizing protests and braving the pandemic to be in the streets or in car caravans to show solidarity with the demand: Justice for George Floyd and all victims of police violence.”
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) has organized protests in smaller cities around the U.S., including Columbia, S.C., Sarasota, Fla., Ashland, N.C., Richland, Wash. as well as San Antonio, Texas and several in the Los Angeles region. In a statement on its website May 26, the PSL said it cannot rely on the FBI for justice in the Floyd case: “The FBI is a violent state institution that has been wielded as a weapon against the liberation movement of black people in the United States.”
Interestingly, the PLS website does not have an About page, so they don’t spell out the radical revolutionary ideology, although the content of their site certainly does. They lament the Soviet Union is no more, celebrate the Chinese Communist revolution and mourn the death of Castro.
According to Wikipedia: “The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a communist party in the United States established in 2004 after a split in the Workers World Party (WWP).”
More from Wiki: “The party’s goal is to lead a revolution paving the way towards socialism, under which a ‘new government of working people’ would be formed.”
And finally, there is the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), a self-identified Maoist Communist organization, is calling for “a movement for an actual revolution” on the coattails of the Floyd murder and is participating in riots. This group published a statement titled “To YOU who are sick and tired of the madness, and ready to be part of a movement for an ACTUAL REVOLUTION:
“If you’re sick of watching video after video of these murders by police… you need to join with a movement for an actual revolution, to prepare for a time when it will be possible to lead millions to bring this system down, and replace it with a new society based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.”
The RCP wraps itself in leftist causes with coalition groups such as the Stop Patriarchy, October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Stop Mass Incarceration Network and Refuse Fascism. Again, they conflate racial tensions with class warfare to leverage more chaos.
These four groups have long histories and are as radical as Antifa. They are not getting the headlines because Antifa is more blatantly violent. But they revel in the violence and burning cities and will continue to sew unrest and turmoil to overthrow America.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Rod Thomsonhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngRod Thomson2020-06-08 06:07:012020-06-09 04:29:14The Four Communist Machines Behind The Floyd Protests
The murder of George Floyd, as everyone knows, was only a pretext for the riots that have now taken several lives and caused billions of dollars in property damage. Their seeds were planted decades ago. And now the question before us, if we wish to preserve the United States as a free society, is what must be done to address the deeply rooted problems that got us into this fix in the first place.
No, I don’t mean “systemic racism” or any of the other Leftist talking points making the media rounds these days. As many have noted, Americans fought a civil war to end slavery and have a longer, fuller record of legally fighting racism than virtually any other country in the world. “White privilege” is a Leftist myth designed to sow distrust and division, as well as shame at the nation’s culture and heritage.
But there are deep systemic problems. One is the Left’s long march through the institutions, which began in the 1960s and has ended in total victory: The Left controls the establishment media, the educational system, the corporate culture, the entertainment industry, and more. Richard Nixon was complaining about the biased press coverage of his campaign for Governor of California in 1962 when he said “You won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore,” but the propaganda machine that did him in was just in its infancy then.
Now, decades later, no one bats an eye when Democratic Party operatives such as George Stephanopoulos and Donna Brazile, and a host of others, go into the “news” business. It is taken for granted that every reporter for every major publication, every one, is a hard-Left ideologue.
This has consequences far beyond simply giving only one side of the story and doing everything possible to make President Trump look as bad as possible. Government and law enforcement officials at all levels today have no problem appearing at functions of groups such as the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which the media consistently portrays as a “civil rights” organization when its agenda is in fact deeply subversive.
But they would never be caught dead at a conference of a group opposed to jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women, and if they did have the temerity to show up at such a gathering, they would have to answer to a hysterical media lynch mob enraged at their appearing at a meeting of a “hate group.”
And that’s just one very small aspect of the problem. The Leftist stranglehold on the educational system is another. Our children have been taught to hate the land of their birth. Who didn’t think this would bear bitter fruit? There was some indignation among conservatives over the 1619 Project, which portrays the entire American enterprise as racist, oppressive, and hateful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, but that was just the culmination of decades of miseducation and propaganda disguised as education.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2020-06-08 05:02:082020-06-08 05:07:18What Is To Be Done About the Left’s Anti-Americanism?
“You have a choice. There are two alternative futures for America. In the launch at Cape Kennedy, you saw America leading the fourth industrial revolution, American capital, American workers, American made. And late at night you saw what can happen breaking down to anarchy and racial division. It’s law and order predicated upon a robust economy and this means American capital brought back to America to stop financing our enemies.” – Steve Bannon
“What we witnessed in Ferguson, in Baltimore, and in Baton Rouge was a collapse of social order. So many of the actions of the Occupy movement and Black Lives Matter transcend peaceful protest and violates the code of conduct we rely on. I call it anarchy.” – David A. Clarke, Jr.
“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.” – John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the United States of America, 1787
Professional criminal anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests against the death of George Floyd which is a result of approved Minneapolis police training. We’re now dealing with the virus of Antifa and anarchy…far more dangerous than Covid-19. The World Health Organization’s overblown death rates were promoted by Pence, Fauci and Birx, and cost American’s dearly. Organized professional anarchists are now destroying property and lives, extending the misery and not enough is being done to stop them. Attorney General Barr says the DOJ now has evidence that Antifa and other extremist groups are instigating the rioting.
Antifa is an international organization who is overtly authoritarian; if you don’t agree with them, you, your country, and your property should be smashed to bits. They are not a domestic organization; it is an international network of people. They have infiltrated governments, police departments and anti-hate groups who fund their violent actions around the world. They have access to cash, to great legal resources, access to government officials and to media.
Antifa’s Joseph “Jose” Alcoff
Smash Racism DC organizer Jose Alcoff, aka Jose Martin and “Chepe,” is a radical communist and Antifa leader operating in the U.S. He advocates for the violent overthrow of the government and for the murder of the rich and claims to have international involvement in left-wing movements. The Tennessee Star wrote a brilliant expose on Martin in late 2018. He is a communist revolutionary out to destroy our capitalist society, and is regularly hosted by a variety of democratic politicians including Diane Feinstein, Tammy Baldwin, Don Bayer, and has been picturedalongside Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters.
Alcoff is pictured in the green shirt next to Maxine Waters.
What Antifa and their likeminded groups want is dictatorial totalitarian communism. Smash Racism DC is the Antifa group that protested in front of Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s house and berated Sen. Ted Cruz at a restaurant until he and his wife were forced to leave. It is only one of the Antifa leader’s radical left-wing projects. “We have got to dispense with nonviolence,” he said as Chepe on Radio Dispatch in December 2016 during a discussion on how to approach those he perceives as fascists.
He has used his Jose Martin identity to make public appearances to promote socialism, once calling for a society without police. He may get his wish as Minneapolis council members aim to “dismantle” the police department and replace it with “a transformative new model for public safety.” But his communist Chepe alias makes his Jose Martin identity seem moderate, using it to advocate for violence to achieve his goal of eliminating capitalism and the U.S. government.
It could be argued that the ideological distance between Antifa and the now-defunct National Socialist German Workers’ Party or Nazi Party, is so slight it can be measured in millimeters. Antifa are the new SA paramilitary forces who carried out Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass.
James O’Keefe of Project Veritas just released a shocking video exposing Antifa assault training.
Antifa views America and those who safeguard its free institutions as fundamentally illegitimate. ItsGoingDown.org advises activists to “build a culture of non-cooperation with law enforcement.” “If you have any intention of working with the police, FBI, or other agencies,” it continues, “or if you publicly condemn anti-fascists who break the law: don’t call yourself an anti-fascist.”
Managed Decline
Steve Bannon’s program on Newsmax is exemplary; you can find them archived at https://pandemic.warroom.org/. Much of the following information comes from one of Bannon’s recent episodes.
Antifa violence is not about George Floyd; peaceful protests are legitimate. Freedom of assembly is guaranteed in our constitution and is one of our most basic rights. America is built on protests and peaceful protests are during daylight hours, evil hides in darkness. The lockdown protests were always during the day. Antifa operates at night.
Antifa protests are thoroughly coordinated and their people are highly trained. They are professional revolutionaries and anarchists and their issue of the revolution is the revolution. Black Bloc partners with them, and they are dedicated, disciplined, organized and well financed. This is not the amateur division. These groups are professional anarchists. They are part of worldwide managed decline.
Managed decline looks like this: The Lincoln Memorial and the WWII Memorial have been defaced by these so-called “peaceful protestors.” They’ve burned St. John’s Church and they tried to burn the Hay Adams Hotel, named after Secretary of State to Lincoln during the Northern War of Aggression. This is managed decline and it must be watched…Antifa is out to destroy this country, to destroy freedom, our founders and our way of life. It is all planned, and these are the very same ilk who were destroying and burning after Martin Luther King was murdered and the Democratic Convention held in Chicago in 1968. And yes, military force was used to quell the riots.
Bannon says we have a choice. “We can have a new renaissance like Cape Canaveral. That’s Elon Musk and Space X along with their partners in NASA. That’s the future we want and need.”
“Or do you want Minneapolis on Friday and Saturday night? Last Friday night we lost when the President of the United States went to the bunker. That was a win for the anarchists.”
I agree with Bannon when he asks where the hell were the secret service, why the hell was this allowed to become this terrifying in America’s capitol? The head of the Secret Service, of Homeland Security should be fired, people have to be held accountable. They let the entire situation with these anarchists get totally out of control.
Antifa has been around for 20 years, they are in London, in Brazil, all over the world; they are well established. They are very sophisticated, very organized and a very well-funded operation. The communist organizing Action Network supports The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund. The connection between Antifa and George Soros and the Open Society Foundations is being made.
Planned Destruction
Anarchists bring along aluminum baseball bats and should be immediately arrested because they are there to do property and personal damage and if they’re from out of town, that’s a federal offense. The New York Police Dept. (NYPD) Deputy Commissioner for Intel and Counterterrorism, John Miller, said there is a high level of confidence within the NYPD that these unarmed groups had organized scouts, medics and supply routes of rocks, bottles and accelerants for groups to commit vandalism and violence.
There are strong indicators they planned in advance for violence using at times encrypted communication and one out of every seven arrested was from out of state. Social media platforms are also used for organizing. There are suitcases down alleyways and behind buildings which are filled with projectiles, medical equipment, and supplies for the anarchists.
The alleyway behind St. John’s Church was a staging area for the violence against the White House. How could DC police not know that? The graffiti on the wall behind St. John’s said, “Kill Cops,” a tenet of Black Lives Matter (BLM). They also praised Fidel Castro, spitting in the face of Cubans who lost their lives, their family, their home because of this murderous dictator.
Dumpsters were set on fire and pushed into police lines. Reporters from both left and right organizations were seeing all of this but not getting their heads around it. Antifa shows up with equipment, with communications. They have strategies and when the 11 p.m. curfew struck, that’s when they started lighting fires.
NYPD has a highly efficient system against terrorism, but they’re falling down on the job with Antifa violence and destruction. Law and order need to be held accountable for competence.
Antifa hijacked the peaceful protest issue and what they want is more police violence they can point to, but what often happens when police stand down, is that they end up getting hurt or killed themselves. Antifa infiltrates and motivates the peaceful protestors to join them in throwing bricks through windows, writing graffiti on buildings, burning down stores and looting. Their job is to recruit and embolden others.
Justine Damond, a Minneapolis white woman ran up to the police car of a black officer for help and he shot and killed her. Mohammed Noor, an American Somali officer shot and killed Justine who had phoned the police for help. There were no riots in Minneapolis when a black officer murders a white woman. Noor is spending twelve years in prison.
Antifa Terrorism
When President Trump said he was going to declare Antifa as a terrorist organization, the mainstream media immediately said, “You can’t do that because they’re just domestic.” That’s a lie. They are worldwide and have been for 20 years.
When President Trump said he wanted to call out the National Guard, he was right, and 28 states have done so to protect their citizens from these violent haters of God and freedom.
Chicago 1968
Downtown Chicago during the Democratic Convention in August of 1968 was under military lockdown. At the time, I worked downtown and lived at the Playboy mansion on State Parkway. There was a 10 p.m. curfew. The city was on fire.
Mayor Richard Daley had called out the National Guard. Fire Departments had called in all off-duty firemen. I watched the street from my girlfriend’s third floor apartment and saw tanks with armed soldiers moving down State and Division Streets. Apartment buildings were boarded up and locked. Managers told residents to keep their shades down, but we watched. At the time, I was dating a fireman, Danny Moriarty, and he was working 24/7 extinguishing fires throughout our huge city, fires started by the same people who are again rampaging our country. The destruction was massive. I can still see it clearly in my mind’s eye…it was a watershed event.
Little Rock, Arkansas 1957
Can you imagine armed troops blocking you from going to school? That’s what happened in Little Rock, Arkansas in the fall of 1957. Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent black students from enrolling at the all-white Central High School.
The 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Topeka made segregation in public schools illegal. Governor Faubus defied this decision. He also defied a 1955 ruling (Brown II). The 1955 decision ordered that public schools be desegregated with all deliberate speed.
President Eisenhower wanted to uphold the law, but he didn’t want bloodshed. He met with Governor Faubus who agreed to allow black Americans into the high school, but then he withdrew his promise. Eisenhower had kept the National Guard at the school to enforce the order of integration. When nine black children slipped into the school and enrolled, a full-scale riot erupted. The Mayor of Little Rock appealed to the President for help. Crowds formed outside the high school.
Eisenhower knew he had to act boldly. He placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and sent 1,000 U.S. Army paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to assist them in restoring order in Little Rock. The daring tactic worked and the black American students were enrolled without further violent disturbances. The law had been upheld, but Eisenhower was criticized both by those who felt he had not done enough to ensure civil rights for African Americans and those who believed he had gone too far in asserting federal power over the states.
Military Hierarchy
Our President is in much the same predicament today as previous presidents and has been excoriated by none other than former Secretary of Defense General James Mattis, former Chief of Staff General Kelly, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen, and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunsford. Even his Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper has disparaged the president’s attempt to stop the carnage in American cities by using the military, which by the way, has been used twelve times before by previous presidents.
President Trump has extolled our military, and helped them in so many ways, and yet these top leaders abuse him for wanting to protect Americans from anarchist forces.
These military men should be willing to do anything to quell this violence, yet they damn our president. Police in democratic held cities are told to stand down and let the violence and destruction happen despite the fact that 307 police officers have been injured, two have been killed and former police Captain was gunned down and killed in St. Louis when he tried to stop looters.
Conclusion
Washington DC Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser had BLACK LIVES MATTER painted in huge yellow letters down 16th Street leading to the White House.
Other Americans’ lives apparently don’t matter to Bowser, and only some black lives matter because many are murdered in their mother’s wombs.
Bowser also renamed the plaza “Black Lives Matter” honoring the terrorist group. The BLM movement needs to be exposed for what it is: a racist, violent hate group that promotes the execution of police officers. This is why they’ve joined with Antifa; both are anarchists. Bowser also wants all National Guard troops out of DC leaving the White House unprotected. She is kowtowing to anarchists.
Journalists are demanding the police protect them at the George Floyd protests, but apparently the rest of us don’t count.
In a recent article by Congressman Andy Biggs, he wrote, “The thin blue line tries to protect every person’s rights. They need to show force. They need to make arrests. They need the support of the National Guard. They need the support of political leaders.”
Senator Tom Cotton said, “If local politicians will not do their most basic job to protect our citizens, let’s see how these anarchists respond when the 101st Airborne is on the other side of the street.”
Our president is right, force is the only thing the anarchists understand.
Imagine for a moment that Ilhan Omar really is a pro-jihad subversive working to destroy America from within, as many have charged. How would she behave any differently from how she is behaving? If the Minneapolis police force, or any police force, were disbanded, the result would be chaos, anarchy, and violence, with the rich hiring private police forces and the poor having to fend for themselves. Who would want an America like that?
The Minneapolis Police Department has proven themselves beyond reform.
It’s time to disband them and reimagine public safety in Minneapolis.
There's a lot of "riot videos" out there that are horrible. This is among the worst because it involves a child leaving a Children's Hospital https://t.co/xVmMQXea6j
— ✭ Wayne Dupree ✭ (@WayneDupreeShow) June 7, 2020
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2020-06-07 07:49:572020-06-07 07:54:21Ilhan Omar Calls for Disbanding of Minneapolis Police Department
So Wuhan hit the United States and every public Mass was canceled. Every public Mass was canceled and anarchy broke out.
This is the beginning of what a world without God looks like. We say “beginning” because it is just that — beginning. The war is ramping up toward its final battle of this epoch. Time may flow in even strokes — seconds into minutes, minutes into hours and days, but history does not. There’s an expression: “There are decades in which nothing happens, and weeks in which decades happen.” And here we are, in the heat of such a moment.
And the great fear is that the Marxists marauding through both the streets and the halls of power understand the moment while namby-pamby conservatives and Catholic lightweights will not have the courage to rise to the moment.
The entire reason, in fact, the world has been brought to this moment in history is precisely because of mealy-mouthed conservatives and wimpy Catholics. Their weak-kneed response in the face of evil these past decades enabled and emboldened the evildoers and has pushed the nation to the brink.
But underlying the reality of all this is the simple reality that too many of the shepherds of the Church have joined the ranks of the Marxists. Their collective fall from grace has had a catastrophic impact on the Church. The Catholic Church was established by the Son of God to be the means of salvation, the only instrument men can employ to conquer evil.
Evil ultimately derives its power from the Demon and not a person on earth, not all of humanity collected together, can present any kind of match for the Demon. As St. John records for us in his Apocalypse: “But woe to you, earth and sea, for the Devil has come down to you in great fury, for he knows he has but a short time.”
But destruction of the Catholic Church has been the aim of the Demon since Pentecost — or even earlier — because the Demon knows the power and authority She has over him — an authority given to Her by the Savior who defeated him.
But the actual activity of the Demon, while originating supernaturally, plays out through human agents in the natural world. Order and peace are from God, so their opposites — disorder and war — are demonic in their origins.
One of the most effective ways the Demon has of presenting himself is as the Angel of Light — a perversion and deception of his original role as Lucifer — Light Bearer. In short, he makes things appear to be one thing when they are actually the other. The Prince of Darkness presenting as the Angel of Light is the mega-trend of diabolical activity. So when he comes, deceiving about wanting peace and unity and using human agents to advance his deception, he appears righteous and well-intentioned and even, shall we say, virtuous.
The Demon is the supreme virtue-signaler, which is why you see the method so often employed in the words and actions of his offspring here on earth, his human offspring spoken of in the Garden of Eden by God. Few, if any on the Left ever stand up publicly and say something like “evil must not win out.” No, they speak of peace and unity.
Take for example the Marxist gang in the media and their surrogates they interview non-stop. They accuse Trump of being a divider, with liberal after liberal saying he is destroying America with his politics of division. Even General Mattis, nicknamed Mad Dog, came out earlier this week and said he has never seen a president who so actively divides America as Donald Trump. But is that statement true? No, it’s not even close.
And we here at Church Militant have a great deal of experience in this area, being called dividers and accused of sewing division for personal gain — click bait, donations, whatever. The charge is ludicrous both in the case of us as well as President Trump.
First, the crowd always preaching “tolerance” is the first to ascribe dirty motives to actions of those on the right, be it theological or the political right. We get accused of doing what we do for money, ultimately. Trump gets accused of pandering to his base for votes. But the underlying assumption of the Marxist crowd is baseless. Neither we, nor Trump create or cause division. Each, in our own sphere, simply shines a light on the already pre-existing division that, actually in truth, was created by the Marxists to begin with. They react so violently because they are being called out for their actions, the fruits of their decades of deceit.
For example, a non-stop narrative of the Left is racism — white guilt and so forth — and further that America is ablaze because of a grassroots uprising. Well all of that is a lie deliberately meant to create division along racial lines. It was a race issue a half-century ago, but now it is nothing other than a class issue evidenced by the total lack of concern — or even a mention in the mainstream media— of the black cops who have been murdered by rioters.
[Transcript unavailable]
There are many black business owners whose life’s work has gone up in flames along with their businesses by the rioters.
Rioters, by the way — and let us distinguish between them and the peaceful protestors who are right to demand justice for George Floyd’s murder — are Marxist agitators who aren’t from the communities they are burning down. All across America, hundreds of police officers have been either killed, shot, attacked, injured or even run over, and many of those officers are black. So when it comes to the Marxism-inspired group Black Lives Matter, they should alter their signage to read “Some Black Lives Matter” — the ones that are useful to us creating division.
Have you noticed that overnight, all over the country, the exact same signs are in the crowds — same dimensions, same font size, same writing? From coast to coast, even all the shirts are the same. What a coincidence.
In Napa California, police confirmed that this week, 400 BLM activists were bused in, held their demonstration, hopped on their buses and went back to Marxist land. The same thing happened in Detroit, where the “mostly peaceful protestors” — as the Marxist left media keeps calling them — were arrested on orders from Detroit’s black police chief James Craig, who said he will not tolerate these out-of-towners stirring up riots.
So exactly who is causing all this division — the rioters in the streets as well as the spiritual rioters in the Church, or those who are pointing to the division and calling it out for what it is? There are essentially two Americas and two Catholic Churches. One in each realm is completely fake. Each of the fake ones wraps itself in supreme indignation — virtue-signaling off the charts, declaring moral superiority — which is the dead giveaway for which one is fake.
Imagine a Catholic archbishop being ticked off by this picture — a president of the United States, not Catholic, with his Catholic first lady, kneeling down and praying for the country. Yet that is exactly what happened as the homosexual archbishop of Washington, D.C. Wilton Gregory issued an incendiary statement against Trump, not to mention the Catholic first lady. How exactly is that not divisive?
The issue is simple: Just like Russia, Russia, Russia and then the impeachment and then the Wuhan all started making the Marxist agenda become much more clear, so too has the Marxist-inspired rioting and looting and attacks and killings of police officers all around the country. Calls from the lefties for unity are total BS.
The only unity they want — and they use violence to accomplish it — is the eradication of the United States as it was founded, because America and authentic American values are the last great stumbling block to their goal of world domination and a globalist agenda.
This division needs to be accentuated for the time being, because division is revealing the truth, and every last thing on earth must be in service to the truth. And that especially includes the lying, cheating, thieving shepherds we have right now.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Church Militanthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngChurch Militant2020-06-06 07:52:292020-06-06 07:52:29VIDEO: The Vortex — Some Black Lives Matter
All the forces arrayed against free society are coming together in these riots.
The Soros Fellowship is here. And here yet again, note that the New York Post refers to Hamas-linked CAIR as “an organization that critics call anti-Israel and supportive of terrorism but which describes itself as “America’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization.” That’s much better than most establishment media coverage, which usually goes only with how CAIR describes itself. But the Post’s Bob Frederick misleads when he suggests that CAIR’s unsavory ties are only allegations of its “critics.” CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named not by “critics,” but by the Justice Department. CAIR officials have repeatedly refusedtodenounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim “Honest Ibe” Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements about how Islamic law should be imposed in the U.S. (Ahmad denies this, but the original reporter stands by her story.) CAIR chapters frequently distribute pamphlets telling Muslims not to cooperate with law enforcement. CAIR has opposed virtually every anti-terror measure that has been proposed or implemented and has been declared a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates. CAIR’s Hussam Ayloush in 2017 called for the overthrow of the U.S. government. CAIR’s national outreach manager is an open supporter of Hamas.
Why the silence on all that, Mr. Fredericks?
“Ex-analyst under Obama guarantees bail for alleged bomb-throwing lawyer,” by Bob Fredericks, New York Post, June 4, 2020:
A former intelligence analyst who worked in both the State and Defense departments during the Obama administration guaranteed bail for a New York lawyer who allegedly firebombed an NYPD vehicle — calling her “my best friend.”
Salmah Rizvi, an NYU Law grad who now works for the prestigious DC firm Ropes & Gray, helped secure the release of fellow lawyer Urooj Rahman by agreeing to be a suretor for her bail during a bail hearing in Brooklyn federal court Monday, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
“Urooj Rahman is my best friend and I am an associate at the law firm Ropes & Gray in Washington, DC. I earn $255,000 a year,” Rivzi told the judge, who sprang Rahman over prosecutors’ objections.
Rizvi’s intelligence work for the feds involved “focusing primarily on sanctioned finance operations,” according to her bio on Ropes & Gray’s website, which also touts her pro bono legal work.
She “maintains an active civil rights and human rights pro bono practice, focused on prison reform, LGBTQ equality, and immigration. She represents asylum seekers at various stages of litigation,” it says.
Her LinkedIn page says she worked for the feds from May 2008 to August 2013.
She also worked as a legal intern for the NYCLU from September 2014 to May 2015, and for the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan from September 2015 to January 2016, according to the page.
Colinford Mattis and Rahman are accused of driving around near the 88th Precinct stationhouse in Fort Greene on Friday night and early Saturday and trying to pass out Molotov cocktails to crowds protesting the death of George Floyd who were clashing with police.
Shortly before 1 a.m., Rahman allegedly got out of the minivan that Mattis was driving and tossed one of the firebombs into an empty cop car near the stationhouse.
They were arrested nearby and charged federally with causing damage with fire and explosives to a cop car.
Prosecutors decried Rahman’s release during Monday’s hearing.
“We don’t believe this is the time to be releasing a bomb-thrower like the defendant into the community,” argued federal prosecutor Ian Richardson….
Reports on the ground indicate that intelligence given to President Trump – that Antifa has used the unrest over the killing of Geroge Floyd by a policeman to instigate a violent insurrection – is correct.
There are, of course, other elements involved, specifically the looters who have joined Antifa and delight in smashing and burning anything in their way (and taking free stuff).
In the following report, we break down
What Antifa wants for America
How Antifa Plans to Get What They Want
How Antifa has sparked the loss of confidence in the government to keep Americans safe and how everyday Americans are arming themselves
The future of the police and our country
What Antifa Wants
Antifa is an extremist movement that demands nothing less than the destruction of America and its democratic system of government.
Put succinctly by Clarion’s National Correspondent Shireen Qudosi:
What would the country look like if their agenda was met? The details listed in the manifesto of the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement (part of the Antifa movement) below:
Antifa, like their “counterparts” on the Far Right, wants to stoke a race war to hasten the disintegration of America. They prey on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which has peaceful and violent elements.
Antifa thrives on stoking violence and instigating within the BLM movement and inventing propaganda in the name of BLM to instill fear and hate.
As journalist Laura Logan points out:
THIS IS HOW ANTIFA ANARCHISTS ARE TRYING TO SPREAD FEAR AND CREATE A RACE WAR. That is what professional agitators do – provoke people into acting while they and their political backers stoke the fires of hate. These people seek to divide – not unite. Just ask them. I have pic.twitter.com/uYPKmLzQqi
Rebel News reporter Anna Slatz, who has been covering the unrest in Washington, D.C., watched firsthand and recorded how peaceful protests turned violent after Antifa showed up after dark (however, it should be noted that due to a 7 p.m. curfew in the city, any protester on the street at night was most likely looking to participate in violent activity).
The following is a taste of the typical modus operandi of Antifa:
Do decent, grieving people take these items to a peaceful protest? America, turn the lights on. The people you say you care about are being used as shields for a violent, extreme political agenda. https://t.co/Ij1J54Sys0
Based on the disinformation campaigns like the one above and others, Antifa’s strategy seems to also include getting the police to do their “dirty work.” For example, Antifa tries to provoke the police to the point where the police end up being accused of using “excessive force” or killing a rioter (whether on purpose or accidentally, it doesn’t matter to Antifa, as long as the police officer is white and the victim is black).
Once this happens, they will let the mainstream media (who has largely given them a pass) as well as Democrat politicians and celebrities (who have been paying their bail) continue working for them as they have by condemning the police and calling for the dismantling of police forces.
How Antifa has sparked the loss of confidence in the government to keep Americans safe and how everyday Americans are arming themselves
It is ironic to note that, in all but one city where the riots are occurring, Democrats — who largely share the belief of many of the protesters that American society is racist to its core — are running the show.
The Democrat mayors also largely subscribe to the “venting” philosophy. Most have made the decision to let violent protesters riot, loot and burn and told their police departments to stand down.
Antifa, which is highly organized at the local level in terms of calling the shots at the riots (and supplying rioters with bricks as well as incendiary devices), has noted the decisions of the mayors and taken advantage of them.
This has made the American public terrified as they see the violence getting closer to home.
Indeed, one Clarion source reported a 50-person lineup at a local gun store in an upscale neighborhood on Long Island:
Spent most of the first 30 years of my life on Long Island. The only people who really own guns are veterans and cops. Most other people believe guns are extreme. Totally out of line with most of the country. This is major. People are terrified.https://t.co/MfkhWvCciA
Another tweeted: “This is a sign that people are exercising their constitutional rights. It’s also a sign that New York’s leadership has utterly failed the people and deserves to be thrown out of office in unforgiving disgrace.” @BrianDeanWright
The future of the police force in America
While positive moments were recorded during the protests of police and peaceful demonstrators giving support to each other, news came that at least five police officers had been shot in St. Louis alone.
One, a black father, grandfather and 38-year-old retired veteran of the force, David Dorn, was left to bleed out on the street until he died. Another is in critical condition after being shot in the head.
Journalist Tucker Carlson correctly wondered what would be the long-term effect on the police force:
“How many more nights like this can we take? How many more nights like this before no one in America will serve as a police officer?” Carlson asked. “It’s not worth it. The people in charge hate you. The job doesn’t pay enough. At that point, who will enforce the laws? Who will be in charge?”
Carlson also lambasted “politicians, celebrities, corporate leaders, clergy, news anchors, professional athletes, almost every person in this country that we were raised from childhood to look up to and respect … [for] siding with the people burning police stations,”
Carlson continued:
“So the question is, how did murdering David Dorn advance the cause of racial justice? … No one explains, Biden didn’t. Meanwhile, Biden’s staff continued to send money to the rioters. Other Democrats followed in perfect sync.”
Carlson also had sharp words for CNN host Don Lemon and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for dismissing law enforcement and, in Tlaib’s case, supporting a post calling for the defunding of the police.
Watch the full clip:
There is one thing we know with certainty about the current situation: Extremists have permanently changed the face of America. The riots of 2020 will be a watershed moment in our country’s history. There is no going back to the “old normal.” The question is, will we be able to go forward?
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Clarion Projecthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngClarion Project2020-06-04 07:37:552020-06-04 07:37:55Guns, Police and Fear: How Antifa is Changing the Face of America
CNN's Chris Cuomo: "Please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful."
As riots and looting have broken out in cities across the country, this is the message the brother of New York governor Andrew Cuomo shares at the top of his show. pic.twitter.com/ZZ47zpyVlx
On his show Tuesday, CNN blowhard Chris Cuomo encouraged more nationwide rioting and looting because nowhere is it written that “protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful,” he said.
“Now, too many see the protests as the problem,” Cuomo declared. “No, the problem is what forced your fellow citizens to take to the streets: persistent, poisonous inequities and injustice.” No, the problem is that the protests have nothing to do anymore with the death of George Floyd in police custody. They have become violent, anarchic class warfare.
“And please show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful,” Cuomo added idiotically. “Because I can show you that outraged citizens are what made the country what she is and led to any major milestone… Police are the ones required to be peaceful, to deescalate, to remain calm.”
Wrong again. Police are the ones required to enforce the law. Protesters are legally and constitutionally required to be peaceful. Cuomo is inciting violence.
Characterizing Donald Trump As “A Virus”
In a March 2018 interview with Cuomo, former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci explained that President Trump’s effort to “drain” the proverbial “swamp” of Washington politics was a difficult task because “the immunological system around the swamp is so powerful that it will reject a disruptive move to change the system.” In response, Cuomo suggested that “maybe adding a virus into that system … wasn’t the … appropriate change mechanism.”
Comparing President Trump to a North Korean Dictator
Following President Trump’s March 2018 announcement that he wished to hold a military parade on Veterans’ Day to honor all the people who had ever served in the U.S. Armed Forces, Cuomo characterized the idea as one “that you usually see in North Korea.”
Praising Antifa
In May 2019, Cuomo, speaking about the radical anarchist/Marxist organization Antifa, said: “There are certainly aspects of them that are true to a cause, that is a good cause, they want social justice, they want whatever they want in that context.”[14]
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Discover The Networkshttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDiscover The Networks2020-06-04 06:37:552020-06-04 06:39:25Chris Cuomo: Protesters Aren’t Supposed to be Polite and Peaceful
Three things occurred to me as I watched rioters and looters burn American cities following the tragic George Floyd incident:
First, it was a nifty way to cure COVID-19.
The virus was forgotten faster than President Trump’s impeachment. Not only is the American public tired of COVID-19, so is the news media. It has become glaringly obvious, people want to return to the economic prosperity we enjoyed prior to the COVID-19 panic. The Dow is already rebounding and we will put people back to work, much to the chagrin of the Democrats. Plain and simple, the people want the prosperity we had before and have had enough of the media’s shenanigans.
Second, the destructive element in the Floyd protests was triggered by far-left agitators, namely Antifa, a group of zealous young people bent on destroying the country.
President Trump is now pushing to have Antifa declared a terrorist group, thereby allowing the government to address them under the Patriot Act. This must be approved by Congress thereby presenting an interesting dilemma for the Democrats; Antifa ultimately represents the paramilitary arm of the Democrats, and includes a substantial number of voters. Should they be declared terrorists, this will stain the reputation of the Democrats. In addition, if Congressional Democrats vote to declare Antifa terrorists, they will lose a lot of their own voters in the fall, but if they don’t declare them terrorists, they will be viewed as supporting terrorism in general. In other words, it is a “lose-lose” proposition for the Democrats.
As an aside, the image of Antifa members incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay is very appealing to me. Through interrogation, they would likely name George Soros as the mastermind behind it all. Go figure.
Third, all of this means an assured Trump victory in the Fall.
The American people want peace and prosperity, not helter-skelter. If the Floyd people had protested peaceably, there would have probably not been a problem. The fact looters and rioters showed their ugly faces doesn’t sit well with the public, and since they are more identified with Democrats as opposed to Republicans, this means it is going to hurt the Democrats in November. It has also set race-relations back once again.
Democrat Mayors and Governors who allowed the violence to occur will pay a heavy political price in the fall, as well as city councils and state assemblies. By allowing this violence to fester and grow, the Democrats should be worried as they most likely lost the House, the Senate, and the White House, not to mention governor mansions and mayoral seats.
If people had just protested peacefully, the Democrats would have had no problems. The fact they didn’t just cost them the election.
P.S. – Also, I have a NEW book, “Before You Vote: Know How Your Government Works”, What American youth should know about government, available in Printed, PDF and eBook form. DON’T FORGET GRADUATION DAY. This is the perfect gift!
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Tim Brycehttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngTim Bryce2020-06-04 06:13:052020-06-04 06:21:16PODCAST: The 3 Political Consequences of George Floyd
Will SpaceX be the first step towards colonising the solar system?
On Saturday, May 30, American astronauts flew into orbit on an American-made space vehicle for the first time since 2011. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carried Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, both veterans of the old Space Shuttle program, inside the Dragon capsule, and once the capsule separated safely, the first stage returned automatically to earth and landed intact on a barge to be reused.
Meanwhile, the Dragon capsule caught up to the International Space Station (ISS) where the astronauts will stay for the next several months. The return flight in the Dragon capsule is planned to end in the ocean, a mode of re-entry that hasn’t been done for over 40 years.
Many news reports remarked on the contrast between the good news of a successful launch and the general tone of recent US news events: the Covid-19 virus and all its consequences, riots over police brutality, and so on. But this is nothing new.
The space race between the US and the USSR over who would get to the moon first was conducted during what was probably the most tumultuous decade in the last half of the twentieth century. The 1960s were not exactly peaceful: the Vietnam War, antiwar protests, race riots, and the sexual revolution are just a few items of turmoil that come to mind. But amid all the strife, America found the will and the capability to land men on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Engineers are not much into symbolism. But space exploration carries a heavy load of symbolism, and it’s worthwhile considering what that means in light of the huge effort and expense that sending people into space entails.
In retrospect, the Apollo program was mainly a way to carry on the Cold War by peaceful means. Its extraordinary expense was justified not for scientific reasons, although there was some useful science done. But being the first nation to put men on the moon would show our technological superiority to the world, and in an age dominated by technology, that achievement had implications that everyone understood. It took a couple more decades for the USSR to crumble away, but it did.
Nevertheless, in their rough-and-ready way, the Russians maintained their ability to travel into space despite all kinds of political reverses, and once the Space Shuttle program outlived its usefulness, America turned inward with regard to space and paid taxi fare to the Russians to put people on the International Space Station.
When one asks about the ultimate motivations of the younger generation of space cadets—Elon Musk being their spiritual leader—the answer isn’t as clear-cut as it was for my generation. Nationalism pure and simple doesn’t seem to be a big factor, although Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, is enough of an American to take pride in the fact that the rocket was made here and launched from here.
To be sure, profit is a motive as well. That’s why the fact that SpaceX and not NASA was the builder of the rocket is so significant. It may be the case that SpaceX is a long way from turning a profit with direct commercial space activities, as opposed to government-subsidized projects such as the ISS launches. But with ideas such as asteroid mining around, it may be that some of the next great fortunes may be made in space.
If I had to guess, though, I’d say that the new space explorers see themselves taking part in a long-term project that will end up putting significant numbers of people out in space, in places that will be just as habitable as Earth, if not more so.
Every so often I come across a student who wants to get involved in the space program somehow, and there’s often a kind of glitter in their eye when they talk about it. The phrase “manifest destiny” has fallen under a cloud in recent years, as its original meaning that the United States was destined to conquer the whole midsection of the North American continent has been taken to be insensitive to the people (and animals) who were already here.
But presumably, displacing natives is not a big problem in the solar system, at least. And believing that humanity is fated to found colonies on other planets, and perhaps beyond the solar system, seems to be close to an article of faith for many space enthusiasts.
It’s interesting that the word “fate” came up in a quote from Musk himself as he commented on the successful launch yesterday. Remarking on the contrast between Saturday’s successful launch and the earlier attempts that were scrubbed by weather conditions, he said, “Today, I don’t know, it felt like just the fates were aligned.”
Without putting undue weight on what may have been just an offhand remark, I think it’s interesting that the leader of the company that launched Americans into space for the first time in nearly a decade attributes success to the fates being aligned.
Musk mixed his metaphors, for one thing. The usual phrase is to say that the stars are aligned, which harks back to the time when astrology—forecasting auspicious times and events by observing stars and planets—was every bit as respectable as forecasting the progress of pandemics is today. And the Fates were mythological goddesses who presumably determined one’s lifespan and, well, fate in life.
Either way, he was saying that despite all the highly technical and cross-checked planning involved, there is an element in the venture that wasn’t under human control. But we don’t believe in Fates or astrology anymore, do we?
It depends on what you think life and the world are about. If the most one has to look forward to is playing a brief role on a stage where your only hope of immortality is to make a big splash that will be remembered by future generations, then living a Musk-like life makes some sense, especially if humanity is fated to live among the stars. Then you will be viewed by future generations as a Columbus (if that name isn’t too offensive anymore), or someone equally famous for venturing out to discover and eventually populate new worlds.
But if everything we do and are is owing to a supernatural Ground of existence, namely a God who is intensely interested in what we puny humans do, then one has a different perspective on things.
It still may be worthwhile to explore space, and even for some people to live there. But other priorities and other goals may intervene.
Karl D. Stephan received the B. S. in Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1976. Following a year of graduate study at Cornell, he received the Master of Engineering degree in 1977… More by Karl D. Stephan
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00MercatorNet - Navigating Modern Complexitieshttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngMercatorNet - Navigating Modern Complexities2020-06-03 05:43:222020-06-03 05:44:00The sky’s the limit for commercial space flight
With the mayhem following the last Monday death of arrestee George Floyd, many have pointed out that protesting is fine, but rioting is not. While obviously true, something equally so is left unsaid:
There is nothing to protest.
It’s not as with the murder of Justine Damond, where it took eight months to arrest the guilty Minneapolis police officer, Mohamed Noor.
It’s not as with the killing of Virginian John Geer, where it took 23 months to arrest the cop who killed him and later pled down to involuntary manslaughter, Adam Torres.
Of course, Damond and Geer were both white. So not only were there no protests, riots, looting or burning; the incidents weren’t even covered nationally. Nothing to see here — move along.
In contrast, it took mere days for the officer in the Floyd case, Derek Chauvin, to be fired, arrested and charged with 3rd degree murder and manslaughter, and the other three cops involved have also been axed. So what would satisfy the protesters? A summary execution? (In some cases, yes.)
Oh, but there’s the big picture, many say? There sure is, and it’s this:
Far more white than black suspects are shot every year by cops.
This isn’t merely due to whites being far more numerous, either. After all, research finds that police are actually more likely to shoot whites relative to the races’ different homicide rates and the rates at which they feloniously shoot police.
A study also showed that cops are, in reality, more willing to shoot white suspects than black ones.
Note also that approximately 90 percent of black homicide victims are killed by other black people — and, here’s what most don’t know, most of the rest are likely killed by Hispanics. (Hispanics are generally included in the “white” category in crime statistics.) Non-Hispanic white-on-black murder is relatively rare.
So, again, what’s there to protest?
Of course, media propaganda ensures that not only won’t most people know the above truths, but that they’ll live in an inverted world of unreality in which they think the truth is precisely the opposite. This is why the mainstream media are largely responsible for the rioting, destruction and death currently plaguing our country.
Actually, though, there is something to protest: the lockdowns, which, despite being revealed as a cure far worse than the disease, are perpetuated by ignorant, corrupt politicians who know an admission of error indicts their judgment.
Speaking of which, if the shut-down businesses’ owners created mayhem the way the miscreants destroying some of their businesses currently are, would they get the kind of sympathy the establishment Left shows the rioters? Actually, the ignorant, corrupt politicians would probably enjoy rolling over them with a tank — and would be cheered on by their talking-monkey public-relations team (a.k.a. the media).
In reality, it’s likely that many rioters couldn’t even tell you the name of the guy who died in police custody last Monday, and many couldn’t care less about him. They’re driven by their own twisted passions (and there’s astroturfing at work here, too), and should be brought to heel with extreme prejudice.
Instead, all the feckless Minneapolis authorities could do was declare “racism” a national emergency to justify the violence.
Our real national emergency is widespread lack of virtue, with, in particular, the virtues of honesty, courage and justice in terribly short supply.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Selwyn Dukehttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngSelwyn Duke2020-06-02 07:13:352020-06-02 07:51:27On George Floyd: There is NOTHING to Protest
As the 2020 election cycle continues to unfold despite the coronavirus pandemic, it appears that election fraud also continues to be uncovered and prosecuted, even though Twitter apparently thinksno such fraud occurs.
Two cases—one out of Philadelphia, the other out of West Virginia—highlight the problem of election fraud and the immense amount of responsibility placed on public officials tasked with securing the integrity of the voting process.
Take the latest conviction of an election official in the City of Brotherly Love.
Domenick DeMuro formerly served as the “judge of elections”—a local precinct election official—for the 39th Ward, 36th Division in South Philadelphia. DeMuro was responsible for ensuring the sanctity and security of the election process in his ward.
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Instead, he accepted bribes and cheated, allowing the integrity of the elections under his supervision to be corrupted by a political consultant.
DeMuro was charged by the U.S. Justice Department and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to deprive voters of their civil rights after he was found to have stuffed ballot boxes in multiple primary elections for multiple candidates.
He was also charged with, and pleaded guilty to, a violation of the federal Travel Act for using a cellphone to solicit bribes.
According to U.S. Attorney William McSwain, “DeMuro fraudulently stuffed the ballot box by literally standing in a voting booth and voting over and over, as fast as he could, while he thought the coast was clear.”
The scheme between DeMuro and the unidentified political consultant occurred during the 2014, 2015, and 2016 primary elections. Each time, DeMuro was paid from $300 to $5,000 to add the extra votes and authenticate the fraudulent results in his official capacity.
This practice in Philly is known as “ringing up votes.”
The bribes paid to DeMuro ensured not only extra votes for the consultant’s clients—Democratic judicial candidates—but also other Democratic candidates for local, state, and federal office.
In the May 2014 primary election, DeMuro cast 27 bogus ballots out of a total of 118 votes cast at his polling place, 22% of the votes cast there. In the 2015 primary election, he cast 40 fraudulent ballots (15% of the total vote), and in the May 2016 election, he cast 46 fraudulent ballots (17% of the total).
DeMuro is scheduled to be sentenced on June 30. Given that he was bribed by an unidentified political consultant with numerous clients, there are probably more indictments to come.
In this type of conspiracy, the Justice Department usually starts with indictments of the individuals at the bottom of the criminal chain, who are often given plea deals in exchange for testifying against their fellow co-conspirators higher up the chain.
During a press conference, McSwain stated that the political consultant made payments to other election officials, also unidentified, besides DeMuro, and, of course, we don’t know yet whether the candidates—the clients of the political consultant—knew what the consultant was doing or in any way facilitated the commission of those crimes.
There will obviously be more to this story in the days and weeks ahead.
The Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database provides a sampling of cases that demonstrate the vulnerabilities in the electoral process. Currently, the database has 1,285 documented cases of fraud.
While the Philadelphia case involves Democrats, another case out of West Virginia showcases the bipartisan nature of voter fraud.
Although he’s presumed to be innocent at this stage, Thomas Cooper, a postal worker, is currently being prosecuted in state court by the West Virginia attorney general for defrauding the residents of the state out of a fair election by altering absentee ballot requests for a primary election.
According to an affidavit filed May 26 from an investigator in the office of the state attorney general, Cooper obscured, crossed out, or changed at least five absentee ballot requests from Democrat to Republican, which meant they would have been sent a Republican ballot instead of a Democratic ballot for the primary.
The county clerk of Pendleton County became suspicious that the forms were altered because she knew that some of the voters did not affiliate as Republicans.
The clerk alerted the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office after calling one of the voters and confirming he did request a Democratic ballot using blue ink, and neither he nor anyone else in his family requested a Republican absentee ballot.
The clerk detailed how Cooper tampered with the absentee ballot requests: “The word ‘Republican’ was circled in black ink in such a way as to also mark-out a blue-ink line under the word ‘Democrat,’ and the box beside the word ‘Republican’ was also checked in black ink.”
Cooper admitted to changing the party affiliations on the ballot requests, but claims he only did it as a joke.
The affidavit provides a picture of one of the forms marked up by Cooper, and it’s easy to see why West Virginia officials are treating Cooper’s actions as no laughing matter.
Cooper easily gained access to these absentee ballot requests because of his employment with the U.S. Postal Service.
Regardless of the ultimate outcome in the Cooper case, with the growing push for vote by mail, the public needs to understand the vulnerabilities of absentee ballots and the problems caused by their being handled by those who aren’t election officials in an unsupervised setting.
These two cases demonstrate the bipartisan nature of election fraud. As the introduction to The Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database states, “Winning elections leads to political power, and the incentives to take advantage of security vulnerabilities are great.”
That applies to both parties.
As such, it’s important that voters and election officials come together to take reasonable steps to protect the integrity of the elections that are fundamental to self-government.
Hans von Spakovsky is an authority on a wide range of issues—including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, immigration, the rule of law and government reform—as a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and manager of the think tank’s Election Law Reform Initiative. Read his research. Twitter: @HvonSpakovsky.
Kaitlynn Samalis-Aldrich is a research assistant in the Meese Center for Judicial and Legal Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
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The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.
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http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Signalhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Signal2020-06-02 05:57:222020-06-02 05:57:22Prosecutions in Philadelphia, West Virginia Show Voter Fraud Is Bipartisan
One of the lawyers charged with hurling Molotov cocktails at a police cruiser is a 32-year-old Princeton educated lawyer and his partner in (alleged) crime is a 31-year-old “human rights” lawyer and activist who worked on refugee issues in Turkey.
Accused Molotov cocktail hurler is Ivy League-educated lawyer, community board member
A Ivy League-educated lawyer and member of a Brooklyn community board was among those arrested for hurling a Molotov cocktail at a marked NYPD vehicle amid George Floyd protests, it was revealed Sunday.
Colinford Mattis, 32, was allegedly behind the wheel of a tan minivan as his passenger, fellow attorney Urooj Rahman, allegedly hurled the incendiary at an empty NYPD vehicle outside the 88th Precinct station house in Fort Greene early on Saturday.
Mattis, a graduate of Princeton University and New York University law school, is an associate at corporate Manhattan firm Pryor Cashman.
[….]
Rahman, 31, meanwhile, is also registered as an attorney in New York state, who was admitted to the bar in June 2019 after graduating from Fordham University School of Law. It was not immediately clear on Sunday whether she was affiliated with any law firm.
It’s unclear how she and Mattis know each other.
The Brooklyn residents are federally charged with causing damage by fire and explosives to a police vehicle, during demonstrations over the death of George Floyd.
Thanks to a reader for a tip! I bet there is so much more to be learned about this pair.
Urooj Rahman’15 worked with the Refugee Solidarity Network (RSN) and Refugee Rights Turkey (RTT), which, through their legal work, assist and empower refugees fleeing Turkey. Urooj provided direct services to asylum-seekers at the Center for Refugee Rights in Istanbul. As a foreign lawyer in Turkey, she lent her legal assistance mostly to non-Syrians going through the UNHCR refugee status determination procedure. She also served several months in New York with RSN, using her direct service experience to inform her contribution to international advocacy and awareness-raising initiatives.
I’ll try to come back to this story, but after being away, and then due to a storm losing internet service for days, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do!
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Ann Corcoranhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngAnn Corcoran2020-06-01 07:08:332020-06-01 07:08:33NYC: Lawyers to Be Arraigned Today on Federal Charges after Attack on Police
