WATCH Joe Biden speaks to Million Muslim Votes Summit: “I wish we taught more in our schools about the Islamic faith.”

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As if there wasn’t enough proselytizing, obfuscating and dissembling about Islam to American school children.

Can you imagine if any politician, let alone a Presidential candidate suggested with teach more Judaism or Christianity in the public schools. All hell would break loose.

“Hadith from the Prophet Muhammad instructs, ‘Whomever among you sees a wrong, let him change it with his hand. If he is not able, then with his tongue. If he is not able, then with his heart.’” Joe Biden

Biden wishes American schools ‘taught more’ about Islamic faith

by Naomi Lim, Political Reporter | Washington Examiner | July 20, 2020:

Joe Biden lamented the lack of Islamic education in American school curricula at a Muslim voter outreach forum.

“I wish we taught more in our schools about the Islamic faith. I wish we talked about all the great confessional faiths. It’s one of the great confessional faiths,” Biden said Monday.

Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee and two-term vice president, told Emgage Action’s Million Muslim Votes Summit that he would end President Trump’s “vile” travel ban targeting Muslim nations on the first day of his administration should he win the White House in 100 days on Nov. 3.

The 36-year Delaware senator added that he would work with Congress to pass anti-hate-crime legislation and reiterated his support of a two-state solution in the Middle East.

“I’ll continue to champion the rights of Palestinians and Israelis to have a state of their own — as I have for decades. Each of them, a state of their own,” he said.

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Republican Senate panel seeking subpoenas in Biden, Ukraine Burisma probe

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The effort to seek subpoenas appears to be intensifying after panel’s unsuccessful attempts to get voluntary testimony.

So what took so long?

Republican Senate panel seeking subpoenas in Biden, Ukraine Burisma probe

The effort to seek subpoenas appears to be intensifying after panel’s unsuccessful attempts to get voluntary testimony

By: Joseph Weber, Just The News, July 2020:

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is considering subpoenas to get testimony regarding his probe into the connection between the Ukraine gas company Burisma and Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is considering subpoenas for current and former Joe Biden advisers because they won’t comply with his request for them to give voluntary depositions, as reported by Politico. 

Republicans’ focus on Biden and his son has intensified as Election Day 2020 is now about 100 days away.

GOP leaders and others want to know more about the relationship between Burisma and Blue Star Strategies, a Democratic public affairs firm that did consulting work for the gas company, for which Hunter Biden was a board member.

Blue Star reportedly wanted to leverage Hunter Biden’s board membership to get a meeting at the State Department under the Obama administration, for which Joe Biden was the vice president.

The Bidens have denied wrongdoings.

Johnson, Wisconsin, is seeking testimony from former Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a senior foreign policy adviser on Biden’s campaign; former special envoy for International Energy Amos Hochstein; and former senior State Department officials Victoria Nuland and Catherine Novelli, according to Politico.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘Primary Subsource’s’ for Bogus Russia Dossier: Igor Danchenko – Soros Connected Associate of Lying Schiff Star Witness Fiona Hill

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

PODCAST: How is the Fight for Florida Shaping Up?

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It’s time for me to begin making preparations to do my annual statistical analysis on voting in Florida. This is when I dust off my spreadsheets and ready myself for the influx of voting data from the state. August 18th is the Florida Primary, and early voting for it is August 8th – 15th. As I’m sure you are aware, Florida is a swing state, just as it was in 2016.

In preparation for the primary, I wanted to check on registration by party affiliation to get a sense of who will be voting in the Fall. Not long ago (June 16th) I read a report titled, “Florida Among Group of States Seeing Decline in Voter Registration.” I would really like to know how the reporter came to this conclusion as I found just the opposite, as there are more people registered as of today than in all of 2016.

As usual, I visited the web site of the Florida Division of Elections (under the Secretary of State), which is the agency charged with maintaining such data. Here is what I found:

GOP DEM INDEPENDENT  
2020 4,851,116 5,127,920 3,595,208 as of April 30th
2016 4,577,406 4,914,593 3,129,277 Total
+6% +4% +15%

Note: The registration deadline to vote in the Florida primary ended yesterday (July 20th) and I do not yet have the final numbers.

The data reveals an upswing in registration by Republicans (up 6%), the Democrats (up 4%), and Independents (up a whopping 15%). Similarly, my county (Pinellas) is also showing a slight upswing in registration by both parties.

From studying the data, I can make the following observations:

  • Even though Republicans were behind the Democrats in terms of 2016 registrations, the state went to Donald Trump for two reasons; first, actual voting by Democrats lagged behind Republicans, and; second, Mr. Trump won the vote of the Independents.
  • Today, both parties are making gains over 2016 and will likely set new records in voting, but the biggest increase is that of Independents. The big question in 2020 is, “Will the Independents still support President Trump?” The Democrats say No, but I believe otherwise. In 2016, they went with Mr. Trump as they knew the nation’s capitol is broken and, instead of electing another politician, they gave an outsider a try. To his credit, the president kept many of his campaign promises, including moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, exterminating ISIS, energy independence, reducing government bureaucracy thereby allowing America to go back to work in record numbers, and, an overall improvement in the economy.
  • In 2020 though, the Independents are fed up with the helter-skelter of the congressional Democrats, and the hate emanating from the far-Left anarchists, including an attempted elimination of our history and sweeping changes to our culture. Independents will likely say, “Enough is enough!” at the ballot box. In other words, the Silent Majority, which includes Independents, will carry the day.
  • Next, the press contends Republicans are gravitating away from Mr. Trump and turning to former VP Joe Biden. I hear just the opposite; moderate Democrats have had it with the socialist agenda of the far-Left and have no faith in Mr. Biden’s abilities to govern. I have personally heard this on multiple occasions from older Democrats who would like to see the party turn the clock back to the 20th century.
  • The last thing I learned from studying this, is how wrong the “Fake News” can be. Finding the actual data from the State is incredibly easy, so why does the reporter in the article claim Florida is “experiencing a major decline in new voter registration numbers compared to this time in 2016.” This is just plain sloppy reporting. It also means “Fake News” is still alive and well in the Tampa Bay area, as well as across the United States. This is why we created “Tampa Bay Conservatives” (TBC) web site to report REAL news. The site can be found at: TBCtampa.com

So, how is Florida shaping up for the 2020 election? If the Republicans and Independents continue making gains in registration, President Trump should have no problem in being re-elected. And as Florida goes, so goes the country.

Keep the Faith!

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. This is the perfect gift for youth!

EDITORS NOTE: This Bryce is Right podcast is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. All trademarks both marked and unmarked belong to their respective companies.

11 Incidents in Which Lawful Gun Owners Made a Difference

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As the Supreme Court continued its decadelong silence in protecting the Second Amendment, Americans last month nevertheless proved that they understand the importance of the right to keep and bear arms.

The FBI conducted a record-high 3.9 million background checks for firearms sales and transfers in June. The previous record of 3.7 million was set just this past March.

It is little surprise that, during these difficult and uncertain times, many Americans who never before considered the prospect of gun ownership are coming to appreciate their Second Amendment rights. Even in “normal” times, Americans often rely on their firearms to protect themselves and others.

According to a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost every major study on the issue has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times a year. There’s good reason to believe that most of these defensive gun uses never are reported to police, much less make the local or national news.

Two regimes are fighting an ideological war in America today. But what side are you on? And how can you sharpen up on how to defend your position? Learn more now >>

For this reason, The Daily Signal each month publishes an article detailing some of the previous month’s many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read accounts from 2019 and 2020 here).

The following examples of defensive gun use represent only a small portion of the stories we found in June. You can explore more examples in The Heritage Foundation’s interactive Defensive Gun Use Database.

  • June 1, Edinburg, Virginia: A Virginia pastor drew his handgun to protect himself from five trespassers who assaulted him on his property. Police said the pastor had noticed two of them apparently disposing of large items illegally in a dumpster at an apartment complex he owns, and asked the two to leave. They became angry and returned with three others, surrounding the pastor. The five threatened him with racial slurs, and one head-butted him. The pastor defended himself with his handgun and called 911. After an unfortunate mix-up in which police initially detained the pastor, officers arrested the threatening individuals and charged them with hate crimes.
  • June 4, Gustavus, Ohio: A homeowner spotted a man underneath a car in his driveway late at night, and grabbed a shotgun to confront him. The man, who police suspect was trying to steal car parts, rushed at the homeowner, who shot and wounded him. Investigators later discovered that the would-be thief possessed several power tools and had put a jack under the homeowner’s car.
  • June 5, Dudley Shoals, North Carolina: When two armed men tried to rob a convenience store, the clerk drew his own gun and fired at them until they fled. The store’s security camera captured the drama, police said.   
  • June 6, Lake Elsinore, California: A store owner intervened with his firearm to protect a woman from an assailant, police said. The store owner had seen the man punch and kick the woman. The attacker left when the store owner attempted to stop him, but returned minutes later holding a metal object. When the store owner stood between the man and the woman, the assailant pushed him to the ground and began to beat the woman again. The store owner retrieved his firearm and shot the man, who fled. Police later arrested him.  
  • June 13, Ogden, Utah: A vengeful ex-boyfriend drove to the residence of his former girlfriend shared with her new boyfriend and, after an argument, opened fire on them. The woman, who police said was the past victim of domestic violence by him, drew her own handgun and fired in self-defense. Police later arrested the man and charged him with numerous felonies.
  • June 14, Rome, New York:  A good Samaritan with a shotgun came to his neighbors’ rescue when he realized their apartment had been broken into by an armed intruder, police said. The intruder entered through a bedroom window and pistol-whipped a woman. The neighbor went into the apartment and fired at the intruder, who fled.
  • June 16, Delta Township, Michigan: A concealed-carry permit holder intervened to defend himself and other motorists when a mentally distressed man began firing a handgun at cars on a highway. Emergency dispatchers received at least 10 calls about the man before he jumped in front of the permit holder’s car and pointed a gun at him, police said. The permit holder, who had been on his way to enjoy a round of golf, shot and killed the man.   
  • June 20, Turner, Maine: A homeowner held two suspected burglars at gunpoint until law enforcement could arrive and arrest them. The homeowner, who had noticed a back door was forced open and a lock ripped off, saw the two leaving the residence with items in their hands. He drew his handgun, detained them, and called police.
  • June 23, Spokane, Washington:  An armed mother used her firearm to protect her teenage son after a meet-up to buy a cellphone turned into an attempted robbery. Her son had agreed to meet the[MK1]  sellers in a grocery store parking lot, but the cellphone was not as advertised. When he declined to buy it, the men assaulted the teen and tried to take money from his pocket. Police said the boy’s mother, who had parked nearby, saw what was happening, drew her firearm, and fired at the men—who promptly got into their vehicle and fled.
  • June 27, Louisville, Kentucky: When a man opened fire on a crowd protesting the police shooting of Breonna Taylor in her apartment, armed bystanders fired back, wounding the shooter. Eventually, several protesters were able to hold the shooter at gunpoint and convince him to drop his weapon. Police said the shooter had been arrested twice in previous weeks on riot-related charges. Earlier that day, other protesters had asked the man to leave because of his “disruptive behavior.”
  • June 29, North Freedom, Wisconsin: Parents shot their adult son in self-defense after he fired rounds at their home and broke in during the early morning hours.  Police said the parents called 911 to report that someone was shooting at their bedroom windows. They attempted to retreat to the basement when their son entered the home, but ultimately shot and wounded him. Police charged the son with attempted murder and other felonies. He already was facing charges for other violent offenses.

Sometimes, lawful gun owners get it wrong and end up in the national news for using their guns irresponsibly. But more often, they get it right and few of us hear about it.

Many of us don’t hear about mothers defending their sons, or good Samaritans coming to the rescue of innocent neighbors.

Many of us don’t hear about the protesters whose Second Amendment rights saved the lives of those exercising their First Amendment rights.

Many of us don’t hear about the countless others whose lives and livelihoods were protected because of lawfully owned firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens.

As the silence from the Supreme Court reaches deafening levels, we promise to keep telling these stories and highlighting the importance of protecting the right to keep and bear arms.

COMMENTARY BY

Amy Swearer

Amy Swearer is a senior legal policy analyst at the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Twitter: .

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In America, the System Trends Toward Justice

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When you get access to this course today, you’ll learn key takeaways like what it means to be a conservative, what “modern progressivism” is, how a conservative worldview differs from a progressive one, and much, much more.

You will come away from this online course with a better understanding of the differing points of view, how they align with your principles, and how to defend your beliefs.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Vandalizing American History: A List of 64 Toppled, Defaced, or Removed Statues

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The list of American statues and other monuments that have been toppled, decapitated, defaced, or removed since the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis grew longer almost daily through June and into July.

A mob cheered as it pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In Washington, D.C., rioters used ropes to tear down a bronze depiction of Albert Pike, a Confederate general, and then set the 11-foot statue on fire.

Vandals have not discriminated among the monuments they target, defacing statues of Confederate and Union soldiers alike, and going after those that have no association with racism, such as an 120-year-old statue of an elk in Portland, Oregon.

Vandals defaced—and/or officials removed—at least four statues and monuments in each of three states: Alabama, New York, and Texas. Five such incidents occurred in North Carolina, nine in California, and 11 in Virginia.

Two regimes are fighting an ideological war in America today. But what side are you on? And how can you sharpen up on how to defend your position? Learn more now >>

Here is a list of 64 statues and other monuments vandalized or removed since May 30, according to news reports. The list may not be complete, so numerous are the incidents.

1. May 30: Edward Carmack, Tennessee 

Rioters pulled down a statue in Nashville, Tennessee, depicting 19th-century newspaper editor Edward Carmack. According to the Tennessee State Museum, Carmack criticized Ida B. Wells, an African American journalist and civil rights advocate who wrote against racial injustice.

2. May 30: Confederate monument, Mississippi

Vandals painted red handprints on the University of Mississippi’s Confederate monument in Oxford, Mississippi, along with the words “spiritual genocide.”

3. May 31: Charles Linn, Alabama 

A mob toppled a statue of Charles Linn, a Confederate navy captain who was one of the founders of Birmingham, Alabama. The vandals set afire and defaced the depiction of Linn once it was on the ground.

4. June 1: Gen. Robert E. Lee, Alabama 

Police arrested and charged three men and one woman in connection with toppling a statue of Robert E. Lee outside a high school in Montgomery, Alabama, that bears the name of the celebrated Confederate general. Authorities dropped charges of first-degree criminal mischief against all four June 11.

5. June 2: Gen. Robert E. Lee, Maryland 

Someone applied graffiti to deface the plaque in front of the statue of Lee at Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Maryland.

6. June 2: “Appomattox,” Virginia

The United Daughters of the Confederacy removed the “Appomattox” statue in Alexandria depicting a lone soldier to commemorate all of the city’s Confederate soldiers. The bronze statue had stood in Old Town Alexandria since 1899.

7. June 3: Confederate Cemetery, South Carolina

A vandal or vandals defaced a Confederate monument at a cemetery in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, by painting a swastika, the letter “X,” and the letters “USA” on it.

8. June 3: Mayor Frank Rizzo, Pennsylvania 

Workers removed a statue of Frank Rizzo, the Democratic mayor of Philadelphia in the 1970s, from the steps of the Municipal Services Building. Someone had spray-painted the bronze statue of Rizzo, also a former Philadelphia police chief. Rizzo allowed violence against black Americans while mayor from 1972 to 1980, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

9. June 4: Gen. Robert E. Lee, Virginia 

A judge blocked the efforts of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, to remove a 60-foot statue of Lee from Monument Avenue in Richmond. Vandals had covered the statue in graffiti, and its location has been the site of numerous protests since Floyd’s death.

10. June 5: Orville Hubbard, Michigan 

Officials in Dearborn, Michigan, removed a statue of Orville Hubbard, the city’s mayor from 1942 to 1978. Hubbard was a firm advocate of racial segregation, accrding to the Detroit Historical Society. The family of the late mayor now possesses the statue, which had stood outside the Dearborn Historical Museum.

11. June 5: Adm. Raphael Semmes, Alabama

Crews removed a statue of Raphael Semmes, an admiral in the Confederate navy, in downtown Mobile, Alabama. “Moving this statue will not change the past. It is about removing a potential distraction so we may focus clearly on the future of our city,” Mayor Sandy Stimpson, a Republican, said.

12. June 6: Williams Carter Wickham, Virginia 

Demonstrators toppled a statue of Williams Carter Wickham, a Confederate general, in Richmond’s Monroe Park. Graffiti reading “BLM” (an acronym for Black Lives Matter) covered the base of the statue, which had stood in the park since 1891.

13. June 8: Confederate monument, Virginia 

Rioters littered a Confederate monument in Norfolk,  Virginia, with toilet paper and graffiti, including the letters “BLM.” City officials said they planned to remove the monument.

14. June 8: Confederate monument, Indiana 

Indianapolis city workers removed a monument dedicated to Confederate soldiers who died in a Union prison camp in Indianapolis during the Civil War. “We must name these instances of discrimination and never forget our past—but we should not honor them,” Mayor Joe Hogsett, a Democrat, said.

15. June 8: John Breckinridge Castleman, Kentucky 

City crews in Louisville, Kentucky, removed a statue of John Breckinridge Castleman, a Confederate officer, from the center of the Cherokee Triangle neighborhood. Castleman became a brigadier general in the U.S. Army after the Civil War and was instrumental in setting up Louisville’s segregated park system, The Courier-Journal reported. Officials planned to move the statue to Cave Hill Cemetery, where Castleman is buried.

16. June 8: Confederate monument, North Carolina 

The City Council of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, approved removal of a Confederate monument featuring a soldier standing atop a tall pillar.

17. June 8: Confederate statue, Florida

Crews removed a statue of a Confederate soldier from Hemming Park in Jacksonville, Florida. “We’ve got to find a way to come together,” Mayor Lenny Curry, a Republican, said the next day. “We’re not going to agree on everything—that’s just not human history, human nature. We’ve got to find common ground.”

18. June 9: Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Texas

A man spray-painted the word “racist” and the acronyms “BLM” and “ACAB” (an acronym for “All Cops Are Bastards”) on a statue of Lawrence Sullivan Ross, a Confederate general, on the Texas A&M campus in College Station. The man also placed a rainbow wig on the statue’s head.

19. June 9: Confederate monument, Texas

A small group of demonstrators used black spray paint to cover a plaque at a monument reading “In memory of our Confederate patriots 1861-1865,” outside the Walker County Courthouse in Huntsville, Texas.

20. Early June: Matthias Baldwin, Pennsylvania

Vandals defaced a statue of inventor, manufacturer, and abolitionist Matthias Baldwin in Philadelphia with graffiti reading “COLONIZER” and “MURDERER” on an unknown date in early June. They also covered the face of the statue with red paint.

21. June 10: Jefferson Davis, Virginia 

Demonstrators used ropes to pull down a statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, in Richmond, Virginia, which was the capital of the Confederate States of America. The bronze depiction of Davis originally was placed along Monument Avenue in 1907.

22. June 10: Confederate monument, Virginia 

A large crowd beheaded statues of four Confederate soldiers, all part of the same monument, in Portsmouth, Virginia. Rioters covered the monument with graffiti and pulled down one figure, which hit a man in the head, landing him in a hospital.

23. June 10: Christopher Columbus, Massachusetts

Vandals beheaded the statue of Columbus in Boston’s North End, prompting the city to remove it. Vandals previously had defaced the statue with paint in 2015 and beheaded it in 2006.

24. June 10: Christopher Columbus, Virginia

Rioters pulled down the statue of Columbus that had stood in Richmond, Virginia, since 1927. They placed a burning American flag on top of the statue before throwing it into a nearby lake.

25. June 10: Christopher Columbus, Minnesota

Protesters gathered outside the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul used rope to pull down a 10-foot bronze statue of Columbus.

26. June 10: Christopher Columbus, Florida 

Rioters spray-painted black-power fists, a hammer and sickle, and the initials BLM over a plaque beneath the statue of Columbus in Miami. They also covered the statue’s face and hands in red paint. Police arrested seven suspects shortly afterward.

27. June 10: Juan Ponce de León, Florida 

Vandals spray-painted a statue of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León in Bayfront Park, the same Miami park where someone defaced the Columbus statue. Authorities said a protest began peacefully, but quickly grew violent.

28. June 10: Confederate monument, Alabama 

The Madison County Commission voted to remove a Confederate monument outside the courthouse in downtown Huntsville, Alabama.

29. June 11: Don Juan de Oñate, Texas 

Vandals spray-painted obscenities and other words on a sculpture of Spanish conquistador Don Juan de Oñate outside El Paso International Airport in Texas.

30. June 11: “One Riot, One Ranger,” Texas

A city work crew removed a statue of a Texas Ranger entitled “One Riot, One Ranger” that had stood at Love Field airport in Dallas since 1963.

30. June 11: Philip Schuyler, New York 

Officials decided to remove a statue of Philip Schuyler, a Revolutionary War general, from in front of Albany City Hall. In a tweet, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, a Democrat, said Schuyler reportedly was “the largest owner of enslaved people in Albany during his time.”

32. June 12: Christopher Columbus, Pennsylvania

Vandals defaced the base of a Columbus statue with red handprints and graffiti reading “MURDER” and “OG PIG” in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park. The incident marked the third time the statue has been defaced in recent years.

33. June 13: Christopher Columbus, Rhode Island

Workers removed a statue of Columbus in Providence, Rhode Island, after rioters splashed red paint across it and hung a sign reading, “STOP CELEBRATING GENOCIDE.” The city officials were determining whether they would relocate the statue.

34. June 13: Christopher Columbus, Illinois 

A vandal or vandals spray-painted the acronym BLM on a statue of Columbus on Chicago’s Museum Campus.

35. June 14: George Washington, Illinois 

Vandals defaced a statue of the Founding Father and first president in Washington Park, covering the base in red spray paint reading “SLAVE OWNER” and “GOD BLESS AMERIKKKA.” The perpetrators also placed a white gown and hood on the sculpture.

36. June 14: John Greenleaf Whittier, California 

A vandal or vandals spray-painted a statue of 19th-century Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier in the city named after him, writing “BLM” and “— Slave Owners” on it.  Whittier was a delegate to the first meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Convention, the Whittier Daily News reported.

37. June 15: Don Juan de Oñate, New Mexico

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, a Democrat, announced the removal of a statue of Spanish conquistador Don Juan de Oñate after the shooting of a man during rival protests around it. The next day, crews removed the statue from outside Albuquerque Museum.

38. June 15: John Sutter, California 

Workers removed a bronze depiction of California settler and businessman John Sutter from Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento after vandals defaced it with graffiti. Sutter abused and enslaved Native Americans in the 1840s, according to HistoryNet.

39. June 16: Howitzer Monument, Virginia 

Rioters toppled Richmond’s Howitzer Monument and littered it with graffiti. The monument, built in 1892, commemorates a Confederate artillery unit known as the Howitzers, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

40. June 19: Francis Scott Key, California 

Rioters toppled a statue of Francis Scott Key, author of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” on the day known as Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 that slaves in Texas learned Lincoln had freed them a year and a half earlier.

41. June 19: St. Junipero Serra, California  

A mob pulled down a statue of St. Junipero Serra, an 18th-century Roman Catholic priest and missionary, that had stood in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for over a century. Some sources say the Spanish missionary abused Native Americans on the West Coast and subjected them to forced labor.

42. June 19: Ulysses S. Grant, California

Rioters toppled a bust of Ulysses S. Grant, the Union general and later president who played an integral role in ending slavery in America. A crowd of 400 gathered and watched in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park as vandals pulled down the monument. Police were present, but made no arrests.

43. June 19: Albert Pike, District of Columbia

A crowd cheered as rioters toppled a statue of Albert Pike, apparently the only Confederate statue in Washington, D.C. The group gathered around the fallen statue shouting, “Black lives matter” before setting it on fire with lighter fluid.

44. June 19: Confederate monument, North Carolina

Demonstrators pulled down statues of two Confederate soldiers from a monument just outside the State Capitol in Raleigh. They dragged a bronze depiction of a cavalryman down the road with a rope around its neck and hung the statue from a lightpost. They dragged the statue of an artilleryman to the front of the Wake County Courthouse. Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, ordered work crews to remove what was left of the monument.

45. June 20: Henry Lawson Wyatt, North Carolina

Crews removed a statue of Henry Lawson Wyatt, believed to be the first Confederate soldier killed at the start of the Civil War, from its location in Raleigh. Gov. Roy Cooper ordered the statue removed in the interest of public safety.

46. June 20: Women of the Confederacy, North Carolina

By the governor’s order, workers removed a monument dedicated to the women of North Carolina who lived during the Civil War.

47. June 20: St. Junipero Serra, California 

A crowd shouted “Take it down! Take it down!” as rioters toppled a bronze depiction of St. Junipero Serra in Father Serra Park in downtown LA. The Los Angeles Times reported that Native Americans of various ages gathered around the face-down statue as some doused it with red paint.

48. June 22: Andrew Jackson, District of Columbia

Rioters attempted to tear down a statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square near the White House, but police intervened. Vandals did succeed in defacing the base of the statue with graffiti reading “KILLER” and “RACIST SCUM,” among other things. The Justice Department on July 2 charged four men with defacing the statue, including a man identified as a ringleader.

49. June 24: John C. Calhoun, South Carolina 

Workers removed a statue of former Vice President John C. Calhoun from Marion Square in Charleston. The City Council had voted unanimously June 23 to remove the statue.

50. June 29: George Washington, New York 

A man and a woman threw balloons filled with red paint on two statues of Washington that stand on either side of the famed arch at Washington Square Park in Manhattan. One depicts Washington as president, the other as a Revolutionary War general.

51. June 30: Lincoln Emancipation Statue, Massachusetts

Boston’s Art Commission voted to remove a statue of President Abraham Lincoln holding the Emancipation Proclamation while a freed slave rises from a kneeling position with broken shackles on his wrists. Citizens began a petition drive to keep the statue at its Park Square location.

52. June 30: New York City Hall, New York 

Rioters used black spray paint and tape to deface statues of three figures standing on the side of New York City Hall in Manhattan. On and around the statues, they wrote phrases such as “ALL COPS LIE,” “You f— a— cops are getting abolished,” and “NO JUSTICE NO PEACE.”

53. July 1: Elk statue, Oregon 

A mob set fire to an iconic, 120-year-old statue of an elk atop a fountain in Portland, which also had been covered with graffiti in recent weeks. The city removed the statue the next day, citing safety concerns.

54. July 2: Matthew Fontaine Maury, Virginia

Work crews in Richmond removed a graffiti-covered statue of Matthew Fontaine Maury, a Confederate naval officer during the Civil War who is more broadly known as the “Father of Oceanography.”

55. July 4: St. Junipero Serra, California 

Rioters toppled and set fire to a statue of St. Junipero Serra, an 18th-century Roman Catholic priest, outside the California State Capitol in Sacramento. They also pounded the statue with sledgehammers.

56. July 4: Christopher Columbus, Connecticut

Someone decapitated a statue of Columbus outside Waterbury City Hall.

57. July 4: “El Soldado,” California 

Someone spray-painted the words “F— Colonizers” on the base of a statue honoring Mexican-American soldiers in Sacramento. The act was a “hate crime,” Chris Marzan, spokesman for the California Mexican American Veterans Memorial Foundation, said.

58. July 4: Christopher Columbus, Maryland 

Rioters toppled a white marble statue of Columbus and threw it into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Crews lifted the remains of the sculpture from the water the following Monday.

59. July 5: Frederick Douglass, New York 

Someone ripped a statue of Frederick Douglass from its base in Rochester on the 168th anniversary of the celebrated abolitionist’s famous speech there titled “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” The statue suffered significant damage, authorities said.

60. July 7: Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, Virginia 

Workers used a crane to remove a statue of J.E.B. Stuart, Confederate general, from Richmond’s Monument Avenue. Rioters had spray-painted the bronze monument of the general atop a horse.

61. July 7: Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella, California

Crews removed a statue known as “Columbus’ Last Appeal to Queen Isabella” from the rotunda of the State Capitol in Sacramento. The sculpture had been on display since 1883.

62. July 7: Confederate monument, North Carolina 

Police arrested three suspects in connection with the vandalism with graffiti of a 111-year-old Confederate monument in front of a United Methodist church in Cornelius.

63. July 8: Confederate Soldiers and Sailors, Virginia 

Workers removed a 100-foot monument known as “Confederate Soldiers and Sailors” from Libby Hill Park in Richmond. Vandals had covered the base of the monument—featuring a Confederate soldier atop a pillar—with graffiti.

64. July 11: The Virgin Mary, Massachusetts 

Someone set fire to artificial flowers in the hand of a statue of the Virgin Mary at Saint Peter’s Parish Church in Dorchester. Flames charred the statue’s face and upper body.

COLUMN BY

Virginia Allen

Virginia Allen is a news producer for The Daily Signal. She is the co-host of The Daily Signal Podcast and Problematic Women. Send an email to Virginia. Twitter: @Virginia_Allen5.

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A Note for our Readers:

These are trying times in our nation’s history. Two regimes are fighting an ideological war in America today, with polar opposite viewpoints on public policy and the government’s role in our lives.

Our friends at The Heritage Foundation asked world-class speaker, educator, and researcher David Azerrad to walk you through his research and outline the differences between the “two regimes” in our society today—conservatism and progressivism—and their primary differences.

When you get access to this course today, you’ll learn key takeaways like what it means to be a conservative, what “modern progressivism” is, how a conservative worldview differs from a progressive one, and much, much more.

You will come away from this online course with a better understanding of the differing points of view, how they align with your principles, and how to defend your beliefs.

Don’t wait—start taking “The Case for Conservatism” course online now.

GET YOUR FREE ACCESS NOW »

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Nearly 50% Of Americans Believe Mail-In Voting Is Vulnerable To Significant Levels Of Fraud: Poll

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Nearly 50% of American voters believe mail-in voting is likely to result in significant fraud as officials search for ways to secure the electoral system amid the coronavirus pandemic, a Washington Post/ABC poll published Sunday found.

Only 43% of people surveyed in the poll think there are adequate protections against potential instances of fraud. The WaPo/ABC poll also showed that 38% of Americans say they prefer to vote through mail, while another 59% want to vote in person.

By contrast, 24% of Americans voted by mail in 2016, ABC reported, citing data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

The poll, conducted between July 12-15, randomly sampled 1,006 adults and carries a partisan divide of 30-24-39% for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, respectively. It has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Voters’ concerns appear to mirror those expressed by President Donald Trump in recent months. Twitter flagged one of the president’s tweets for suggesting in May that California’s mail-in ballots will be “substantially fraudulent.”

The WaPo/ABC poll also show Vice President Joe Biden making major gains as the pandemic surges. Polls from three months ago showed Trump and Biden in a virtual tie on ways to approach the pandemic, ABC reported Sunday.

A recent increase in coronavirus cases in the South resulted in a change in fortunes, with Biden now leading the president on the issue, 54-34%, according to the poll.

There have been reported problems related to mail-in ballots in New York and New Jersey.

New York officials have not yet counted mail-in absentee ballots tallied during three New York primary election, The New York Times reported Friday. The count has been slow and hard to track, with no account of the vote totals, according to the TheNYT.

Such reports come amid news of mail-in ballot fraud stymying election results in New Jersey.

Only 13,557 of the 16,747 vote-by-mail ballots in Paterson, New Jersey, were counted, a local NBC affiliate in New York reported in May. More than 800 ballots in the city were invalidated for appearing in mailboxes tethered together. One mailbox reportedly had hundreds of ballots tied together.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal consequently filed voter fraud charges in June against two Paterson city officials who allegedly engaged in a mail-in ballot scheme during a special election in May.

“Today’s charges send a clear message: if you try to tamper with an election in New Jersey, we will find you and we will hold you accountable,” Grewal, a Democrat, said in a statement to InsiderNJ. “We will not allow a small number of criminals to undermine the public’s confidence in our democratic process.”

COLUMN BY

CHRIS WHITE

Tech reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Ken Blackwell: Democratic Mayors Avoiding Responsibility For Cities ‘Wrecked By Violence And Lawlessness’

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Ken Blackwell, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and currently a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, spoke with the Daily Caller’s Vince Coglianese about violence in Democrat-run cities, the Black Lives Matter movement and more.

Civil unrest and violence continue throughout the nation, including in many major cities such as Portland, Oregon.

“The lawlessness and the unrest that we now see that prevails in these cities,” Blackwell said, “are not only crippling these cities and putting public lives at risk, what they’re doing is — it’s becoming killing fields. At a time when we have the resources and the history to convert killing fields into fields of dreams, these mayors have basically tried to blame the lawlessness that’s happening on their watch on COVID-19 or the president. Never accepting the responsibility that they have.”

Blackwell also commented on the leadership of cities across the country.

“If you take a hard look at the cities that are now wrecked by violence and lawlessness,” Blackwell said, “many of these cities are lead by blacks. Their police chiefs are blacks, their police forces are representative of the communities.”

“When these mayors and these safety forces retreat, that’s just a signal to the anarchists, to the petty criminals, to the disrupters that the field is theirs,” Blackwell said.

“There is not a systemic racism problem in the police forces across the country,” Blackwell explained. “Yes, they have bad actors, bad apples that need to be rooted out and the president and the attorney general are speaking to that. But to say there is  a systemic racism problem is following suit of the 1619 Project of the New York Times.”

Blackwell also discussed the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s definition of “whiteness,” President Trump and the 2020 election and more.

WATCH:

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column and video is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: Minneapolis Police Officer Rich Walker testifies before Senate, ‘Officers afraid of going TO JAIL’

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RELATED:

EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column posted by is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

The Stone Commute Highlighted Democrats’ Hypocrisy––But Now They’re Waking Up

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“Trump Spares Stone from Imprisonment, Sparking Howls of Amnesiac Democrats” was the colorful headline of a recent Wall St. Journal by journalist, author and former Asst. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY, Andrew C. McCarthy.

The “Stone” in the headline referred to Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Trump who was sentenced to 40 months in prison two years ago for lying to Congress, among other counts, during the failed fiasco of the Mueller investigation into the non-existent collusion of then-candidate Trump with Russian operatives to rig the 2016 election in his favor.

Stone, now 67, was arrested in a predawn raid on his home by a heavily armed SWAT team, a saga that was “coincidentally” caught by a CNN camera crew who just happened to be parked outside his home at 4 a.m. Imagine that.

According to Jan Wolfe from Reuters, Stone had connections to the WikiLeaks website, which released damaging emails about Trump’s election rival Hillary Clinton. Uh oh…can’t have those damning e-mails released. Hence the sadistically harsh sentence––the original recommendation was seven-to-nine years––and the brouhaha about Stone’s commutation.

Of course, the leftwing media were “outraged,” “shocked,” “appalled” at President Trump’s miscarriage of justice, although interestingly the president didn’t issue a full pardon, so the felony conviction of Mr. Stone still stands, as does his appeal.

GLARING HYPOCRISY

But you would think, as reported by investigative journalist Mark Hyman, that he had just pardoned two-dozen FALN Puerto-Rican terrorists who murdered at least 24 people.

Or commuted the 58-year sentence of far-left terrorist Susan Rosenberg after only 16 years. It is so consistent with her hate-America mindset that today, Rosenberg is a member of the board of directors for the left-wing group that handles the donations made to the Marxist-front organization, Black Lives Matter (BLM).

Or pardoned Marc Rich, who renounced his U.S. citizenship, traded illegally with Cuba, did business with Iran while it held 52 U.S. hostages, and with Libya which was responsible for the Pan Am 103 bombing that killed 189 Americans.

Oops, that was Pres. Bill Clinton. Just before good ole boy Bill issued the pardons, Rich gave $450,000 to the Clinton Library and his wife Denise donated over a million dollars to the Democrat Party and the Clinton Foundation. Imagine that.

But there is more. According to Spectator journalist Hyman, “the 56 clemency petitions Clinton approved during his first term were the fewest of any president since Thomas Jefferson, the nation’s third commander-in-chief, who issued a mere 45 clemencies. Consider Jefferson’s clemencies were given when the U.S. had a population of only 5 million compared to the 285 million during Clinton’s first term.”

But everything changed when Hillary decided to run for U.S. Senator from New York. After her decision, Hyman says, “Bill doled out 380 pardons and commutations. Clemency was dished-out in return for money, gifts, and influence…Hillary stockpiled financial and political IOUs and cashed-in when she ran for political office, including the presidency.” Imagine that.

Again, not one word of outrage from the craven media.

A FATAL ATTRACTION TO MISCREANTS

Many of Barack Obama’s pardons and commutations were for drug dealers and violent offenders. He pardoned Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning, the traitor who leaked hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents to WikiLeaks and was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison. He pardoned the convicted terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera, the leader of the FALN, responsible for 130 attacks in the U.S., who was serving a 70-year sentence when Obama set him free, the list is long. That is the very very short list.

Remember the media’s indignation? Me neither.

But Stone’s mortal sin was that he lied to––guess who?––the proven pathological liars in the Obama regime’s FBI, CIA, DOJ, et al, who were trying to frame candidate and then President Trump. Nothing less than the guillotine for him!

MEDIA MALFEASANCE

Well, whaddaya know? The entire uproar is already off the radar as the corrupt media are now back to:

ARE THE TABLES TURNING?

The vast American public out there already knows of the Democrats’ double standards.

They see the breakdown of law and order in Democrat-run cities and its encroachment into the suburbs and don’t want any of that wanton violence in their state, city, or the block they live on.

Even Regressives are horrified by the No-Bail laws enacted by Democrat legislators when they see that the psychopathic criminals who are setting cars on fire and committing violent assaults walk free, as did the thugs who attacked and smashed the faces of high-ranking police officials in NY City the other day.

And they are watching Joe Biden’s rapid and pitiful devolution.

On the positive side, President Trump is opening up America and, happily, the Democrats themselves are now waking up! According to an article in The New York Times, “Two-thirds of battleground state voters who chose Trump in 2016 but selected Democrats in the midterms say they will return to the president” [in 2020].

©All rights reserved.

Harvey Weinstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein: These People Are Sick

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Yes, I will get to Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein in a moment but first this. Pedophilia is the Achilles Heel of the Deep State. I encourage you to click on the link and read the article and the resources within. This may be a good place to start.

The President is well aware of the pedophilia and child sex trafficking and you should be too. And if you are, excellent, then pass this on to inform others. This brief article does not dive down deep. It’s purpose is to raise the awareness of one of the biggest scars of humanity. Perhaps it may inspire you to dig deeper. No worries, it’s all beginning to come out. Watch what happens over the next few years.

So what does President Trump know and what is he doing about this? You must watch the video link below dating back to 2016 and read about HR1865, Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017. President Trump’s bill HR1865 was passed into law which will grant powers to facilitate the tracking of these offenders as well as measures to prevent such acts. This law most famously shut down sections of both Craigslist and Back Page but in fact accomplishes much more than this.

WATCH: Trump on Clinton & Epstein Island

To gain a more in depth understanding on the subject of child sex trafficking you must become familiar with Jaco Booyens. I had an in depth, powerfully moving and informative discussion with Jaco and you can listen to this by clicking on the link below.

WATCH:

These People Are Sick

Those that follow the President as closely as I do,know that he has stated numerous times that these people are sick. Well they are. Below is an image of those excerpted from the Epstein flight log. Yes, these people are sick and they are now being exposed. This is the exposure stage on this and many other deep state related fronts. We are now at steps 6-11 on the Scale of Discovery and Action.

Yes this is hard to read. I covered this one of my recent live news broadcasts and you can see the image there on the screen. You can also find it here at QMap.Pub. Here are but a few names on the list. Alan Dershowitz, Alec Baldwin and Anderson Cooper. Barak Obama, Ben Affleck and Beyonce Knowles. Bill Clinton, Bill Murray and Charlie Sheen. Chelsie Handler, Chrissy Teigen and Courtney Love, (I will get to Teigen in a moment). Demi Morre, Gwen Stefani and Jim Carrey. Jimmy Kimmel, John Cusack and John Legend. Kathy Griffin, Katy Perry and Kevin Spacey. Larry Summers, Naomi Campbell and Oprah Winfrey. Quentin Tarantino, Pharrel Williams and Robert Downy Jr. Steven Spielberg, Steven Tyler and Steven Colbert. Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and Wanda Sykes. Will Ferrell, Will Smith and no surprise here, Woody Allen. Oh and Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton, who have been to the island, have not come forward to assist in anyway shape or form. AG Barr has stated that in this ongoing investigation, that anyone complicit should not rest well at night. Well there are a lot of collective hours of sleepless nights.

Watch this clip – no joke

Chrissy Teiegen American model and TV personality made the flight log list. She is also the wife of singer, Trump hater, John Legend who also made the flight list. It’s been reported that Chrissy Teigen deleted 28,000 tweets and blocked 1 million accounts. She had far too many reference to eating human flesh and pedophilia related comments. Check out this clip of her below at time marker 8:30.

Must See

“Ask Prince Andrew About It”: Trump Warned Epstein’s Island Was “Absolute Cesspool” In 2015.

WATCH

What’s Next?

And with the apparent “suiciding” of Jeffery Epstein, this brings us to Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell’s alleged victims are coming out of the woodwork. Alleged victims of the longtime associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein testified at the defendant’s arraignment and bail hearing. Two of the alleged victims had not spoken to law enforcement until 2019. Their stories, according to the prosecutors, share remarkably similar details about Maxwell. “The powerful testimony of these victims, who had strikingly similar experiences with Maxwell, together with documentary evidence and witness testimony, will conclusively establish that the defendant groomed the victims for sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein,” the prosecutors’ memo states.

When you do the deeper dive research, you begin to understand that Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were part of a Mossad and CIA op. One of the reasons the Epstein Island existed besides satisfying their sick appetites, was to keep everyone in check as blackmail in order to control the powerful elite. Well now, the video footage, photos and surveillance tapes are in the hands of the justice department. This story has just begun and remember Pedophilia is the Achilles heel of the deep state. So what’s next? I’ll tell you what’s next. Stay tuned.

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NRA-PVF Endorses President Donald Trump for Reelection

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Disney and ESPN Sign Kaepernick to Educate Our Youth on Racial Injustice in America

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Turning down a contract with the National Football League (NFL) to become a full-time social justice warrior has proven to be a profitable decision for Colin Kaepernick. The controversial former 49ers quarterback was offered a lucrative deal with The Walt Disney Company (1.57) and ESPN (1.71) to produce “scripted and unscripted stories that deal with race, social injustice, and the quest for equity.”

Kaepernick became a household name after kneeling during NFL games’ playing of the National Anthem to oppose alleged racism in America. He has since worn socks that depict police officers as pigs, has expressed admiration for communist dictator Fidel Castro, and has supported organizations that are dedicated to aborting unborn black lives.

After entering the spotlight, Kaepernick told NFL media, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color…”

Despite Kaepernick’s radical positions, the senior vice president of ESPN’s “The Undefeated” platform has said teaming up with Kaepernick will “elevate important stories of lives too often unseen…We want to continue to call attention to the issues of racial injustice that America is wrestling with, and do that in new, compelling ways.”

Jemele Hill, a former ESPN host who was terminated for disparaging remarks about President Donald Trump, will be a producer for the project. Hill’s firing was related to Disney CEO Bob Iger’s decision to tone down the network’s political content. Disney has consistently been one of the worst companies tracked by 2ndVote that pushes leftist viewpoints, but Iger appeared to realize that people do not want politics mixed in with their entertainment.

Sadly, the epiphany does not appear to have stuck.

The long-term partnership between Kaepernick and Disney/ESPN will be part of the company’s “The Undefeated” platform, which “focuses on matters of race in sports.” Further collaboration with Kaepernick may extend to other Disney properties, such as Pixar and Hulu. Even though his only real accomplishment has been creating division, Kaepernick will assist with developing “culturally impactful” content to “inspire the youth.”

2ndVote Americans can remind ESPN and Disney that we don’t want corporations engaging in historical revisions and political controversy. We want them to help our families relax, not ratchet up racial tensions.

EDITORS NOTE: This 2ndVote column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Tweets of Washington Journalists Betray ‘Groupthink,’ Study Finds

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Washington journalists’ tweets and interactions on Twitter show that those delivering news on government and politics to most Americans live in “more insular microbubbles than previously thought,” according to a new study.

These journalists display a “vulnerability to groupthink and blind spots,” the study says.

The study, by journalism professors Nikki Usher and Yee Man Margaret Ng of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, doesn’t directly assert that the “groupthink” is liberal.

However, it refers to traditional perceptions of the news media going back to at least 1964 and establishes what it calls the “peer-to-peer dynamics” of journalists. Media bias and promoting narratives has been a particular issue in recent years.

Two regimes are fighting an ideological war in America today. But what side are you on? And how can you sharpen up on how to defend your position? Learn more now >>

The study, published June 30, measured these dynamics through Twitter and concludes:

The dangers of journalists having limited perspectives are real. While this study does not purport to show possible worsening over time, it does provide support that shows siloed communities of journalists and thus offers an important, empirically grounded caveat about their vulnerability to groupthink and blind spots.

The study identifies nine clusters of news organizations, called “communities of practice,” that routinely retweet and interact with fellow members of their group. These include:

—The “elite/legacy community” is made up of journalists from The Washington Post, NPR, The New York Times, NBC News, and Politico.

—The “congressional journalism community” includes journalists from Bloomberg, Politico, the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, CQ Roll Call, and C-SPAN.

—The TV cluster includes journalists from ABC News, Fox News, and CBS News.

Separately, the study gives CNN its own cluster because so much of the Twitter interaction is between or among CNN employees:

In particular, it is concerning that CNN journalists are tweeting mostly to other CNN journalists about CNN. Even if this is an organizational mandate, it nonetheless serves as a powerful echo chamber that leaves CNN’s internal sense about what news matters unchecked and reconfirmed by those who work there.

The “critique of ‘Eastern Liberal Media’ generally dates to [Sen.] Barry Goldwater in the 1960s,” the report notes, referring to the Arizonan who was Republicans’ 1964 presidential nominee and adding that “‘elite media’ and ‘coastal elitism’ have reached a fever pitch in the Trump era.”

It says:

Journalists widely predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election. The aftermath prompted renewed interest among journalists and scholars focused on the United States as to whether political journalists, particularly those in Washington, were in a ‘media bubble.’ …

U.S. journalists are more likely to be insulated in liberal political bubbles in big cities that are growing ‘bluer.’

The researchers do not try to say whether each journalist leans left or right based on Twitter. But, the study says the “clusters” suggest that journalists now tend to interact “within even smaller communities of like-minded journalists that have been previously considered.” 

“If journalists are talking to even smaller groups of journalists who share similar orientations,” the study says, “there is a real concern about the limitations of these epistemic communities in generating knowledge and information for the public.”

COLUMN BY

Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Lucas is also the author of “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections.” Send an email to Fred. Twitter: @FredLucasWH.

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A Note for our Readers:

These are trying times in our nation’s history. Two regimes are fighting an ideological war in America today, with polar opposite viewpoints on public policy and the government’s role in our lives.

Our friends at The Heritage Foundation asked world-class speaker, educator, and researcher David Azerrad to walk you through his research and outline the differences between the “two regimes” in our society today—conservatism and progressivism—and their primary differences.

When you get access to this course today, you’ll learn key takeaways like what it means to be a conservative, what “modern progressivism” is, how a conservative worldview differs from a progressive one, and much, much more.

You will come away from this online course with a better understanding of the differing points of view, how they align with your principles, and how to defend your beliefs.

Don’t wait—start taking “The Case for Conservatism” course online now.

GET YOUR FREE ACCESS NOW »

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Angela Davis: Biden is the ‘Candidate Who Can Be Most Effectively Pressured’

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In an appearance Monday on Russia Today’s Going Underground, radical Marxist and former Black Panther Angela Davis explained that she is supporting empty-suit Joe Biden for president because he is the “candidate who can be most effectively pressured.”

“I don’t see this election as being about choosing a candidate who will be — who will be able to lead us in the right direction,” Davis states in a video shared on social media. “It will be about choosing a candidate who can be most effectively pressured into allowing more space for the evolving anti-racist movement.

“Biden is very problematic in many ways, not only in terms of his past and the role that he played, and pushing toward mass incarceration…” Davis continued, “but – I say but – Biden is far more likely to take mass demands seriously – far more likely than the current occupant of the White House.”

Davis is correct — far from being a “moderate,” the cognitively-challenged Biden will be simply a puppet for a strong, more radical vice-president and advisers.

Angela Davis

100 Known Connections

Davis delivered the keynote address at an April 2009 event where the Chicago branch of the NAARPR presented its highest honor, the Human Rights Award, to Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Davis’s speech emphasized such themes as the evils of capitalism, the intransigent nature of American racism, and the injustices of the “prison-industrial complex.” Some noteworthy excerpts:

  • “The election of [Barack] Obama was a millennium transformation, and we’re in a new historical conjunction in 2009.”
  • “Many assume Obama is going to save capitalism, but a lot of us here have other ideas about changing the system.”
  • “[T]here is [a] reason why we still have the prison industrial complex, and its called racism.”
  • “The question of race is so essential to the history of this country. And working against the prison-industrial complex and the death penalty will help us to understand the markings and history of U.S. slavery.”
  • “Not another prison should be constructed in this country. Because the solution is not putting perpetrators behind bars. Sending people to jail does not help heal society’s problems.”

To learn more about Angela Davis, click here for the profile link.

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The Antidote to Cancel Culture

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Each week brings more bad news on “cancel culture”—primarily individuals losing their jobs for one alleged offensive statement. Cancel culture is about shutting people down based on passing, momentary ideological fads.

  • The communications director of Boeing was forced to abruptly resign because someone complained about an article he wrote in 1988 arguing against women serving in combat.
  • J.K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter, is being attacked by cancel culture for her pointing out the obvious—men do not menstruate. Even if a man becomes a transgenderized “female,” he still will not menstruate. “Off with her head!” declare the snowflakes.
  • Professor Dr. Mike Adams was drummed out of the University of North Carolina because of a few politically incorrect tweets.

Cancel culture, which is political correctness on steroids, demands rigid conformity to a stifling, ever-changing set of rules, so that things that were uncontroversial a decade ago are now fireable offenses. It requires yesterday’s heroes to live up to today’s momentary standards–and if they don’t, we need to tear them down.

Have we now become a nation of what one judge called “eggshell plaintiffs”?

The phrase goes back to a case in the early 1990s, in Bloomingdale, Michigan, when a painting in a public school was removed. The painting was that of Christ, and it had been hanging in that high school since 1962, when the doors first opened.

An agnostic student claimed he suffered “psychological damage” by seeing the portrait. The ACLU sued on his behalf. The court agreed, even though one concurring judge in the case said it regrettably creates “a class of ‘eggshell’ plaintiffs”—-plaintiffs who get offended too easily. The painting came down.

Recently, a group of liberal writers and academics posted a now famous open letter on Harpers calling effectively for an end to cancel culture because it is stifling free speech and robust debate.

This letter signed by J. K. Rowling, Noam Chomsky, Salmon Rushdie, and nearly 200 other liberals, asseverates: “Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes.”

Incredibly, this basic affirmation of free speech was viciously attacked by the cancel mob—thus proving the point of the authors.

The ultimate antidote to cancel culture gets back to one of the core messages of Jesus Christ: The Golden Rule.

In His Sermon on the Mount, Christ gave one of the greatest prescriptions for healthy living in one sentence. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. He said this “sums up the Law and the Prophets.” In other words, the whole Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible can be summed up in the Golden Rule.

The cancel culture does the opposite. They tear down statues. They troll people on the internet, looking for ways to destroy reputations—and maybe even get people fired.

We live in God’s world, and He has designed things in such a way that we reap what we sow. If you engage in cancel culture, don’t be surprised if bad things you have done unto others will end up coming unto you.

The Bible also says: You may be sure that your sins will find you out. Even when people take to Twitter in a pseudonym, it will one day be found out. Again to quote Jesus: What you whisper today will one day be shouted from the housetops.

Secular people don’t like the idea of a God who will judge us, but there is a God who will one day judge us. And yet, even secular people speak of Karma. What is Karma, but the idea that we reap what we sow?

Dr. Walter Williams, a columnist and a professor at George Mason University, once told me in an interview that liberty is predicated on courage—even being courageous enough to be possibly offended.

Williams told me, “In order to be for liberty, you have to be a very, very brave person, that is, you have to trust that people will say and do voluntary things with which you disagree….The true test of one’s commitment to free speech doesn’t come when he allows people to be free to say the things that he agrees with; it comes when he allows people to be free to say those things that he finds offensive.”

The problem with snowflakes is that eventually they melt. So here’s a message to any part of the cancel culture: If you don’t want people to cancel you or your work, then stop cancelling the work of others.

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