6 Possible Outcomes in Justice Department Probe of Spying on Trump

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White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has predicted indictments in the Justice Department’s probe of the origins of the FBI’s Russia-Trump investigation.

Although U.S. Attorney John Durham of Connecticut has been on the case since May 2019, however, it’s not clear what the precise criminal charges might be, if any.

“I expect indictments based on the evidence I’ve seen,” Meadows told Fox News Channel on Sunday. “You’re going to see a couple of other documents come out in the coming days that will suggest that not only was the [Trump] campaign spied on, but the FBI did not act appropriately as they were investigating.”

“It’s all starting to come unraveled,” the former North Carolina congressman said. “And I tell you, it’s time that people go to jail and people are indicted.”

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 >>

Attorney General William Barr detailed Durham to conduct an investigation that has spanned several countries to determine whether high-ranking officials in the FBI, the CIA, or elsewhere used federal government power to block Donald Trump’s election in November 2016 and, later, to undermine his presidency by promoting a narrative of a conspiracy between the Russian government and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 election.

“This may be literally the greatest abuse of power in history, but it could be hard to identify a specific statute that was violated,” Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice, a conservative legal group, told The Daily Signal.

However, Levey added, “In impeachment, the Democrats were convinced that Trump was guilty of abuse of power even if no identifiable laws were violated.”

Former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, and President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, all have faced questions about alleged misuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and questionable “unmasking” of retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn and other Trump associates whose calls were intercepted under that law.

Lower-level officials in the Obama administration also are potential targets.

Some legal experts anticipate a report that details Durham’s findings, while others expect at least some indictments. Here are six potential outcomes of the U.S. attorney’s probe.

1. A Dud

The COVID-19 pandemic likely slowed down Durham’s probe, legal experts note.

“It slows everything down, just scheduling witnesses for an interview before you even bring anyone to a grand jury. I’m sure any good defense attorney is asking for as many delays as possible right now,” said John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley who wrote the book “Defender in Chief: Donald Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power.”

“If you look back on the timeline, people may be demanding too much in expecting charges to be brought,” Yoo, a former deputy assistant U.S. attorney general, told The Daily Signal. “I think it’s really only been a little over a year.”

He said the investigation is complex, “with all these high-powered people being investigated and all these legal issues involved.”

The timeline isn’t at all promising for legal accountability, said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a government watchdog group

“Many, many Americans will be disappointed by the Durham investigation,” Fitton told The Daily Signal. “High level officials are unlikely to face legal accountability. I see no evidence the focus is on senior Obama administration officials.”

It’s not even clear that a grand jury has been impaneled to hear evidence, said Fitton, author of “A Republic Under Assault.”

“A serious investigation would have had a grand jury,” he said. “Senior officials would have been called before the grand jury. Now it is July and there have been no indictments. It’s been a year and a half, and nothing.”

“The Department of Justice has dropped the ball,” Fitton added. “The stonewalling is still going on.”

2. Lying to Judges or Investigators

If indictments happen, the most likely charge would have to involve lying to the secretive FISA court, to federal officials, or to investigators, former Justice Department lawyer J. Christian Adams said.

“If you lie in a FISA application, it is under oath,” Adams told The Daily Signal.

He specified 18 USC 1001 as the likely statute that could be used as the basis of criminal charges.

“That is exactly what Michael Flynn was charged with. So, the irony would be delicious,” said Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, an election integrity group.

Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser for three weeks, was charged with lying to FBI investigators looking into conversations Flynn had with the Russian ambassador as incoming national security adviser.

Although Flynn was convicted, the Justice Department dropped the case May 7 after uncovering numerous irregularities.

3. Potential Targets

Based on public reports, multiple individuals face scrutiny in Durham’s investigation, including at least one high-profile figure, another who emerged with infamy, and a third lesser-known person.

FBI documents released in April show that Peter Strzok, who resigned in disgrace from the FBI, had ordered that the Flynn investigation remain open. This was despite a lack of “derogatory” information regarding whether Flynn violated the Logan Act, a law dating to 1799 that never has been used for a prosecution.

The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General determined that two of the FBI’s four applications to the FISA court to spy on Trump campaign operative Carter Page had numerous errors and relied almost entirely on a document containing unverified and salacious material about Trump.

Compiled by former British intelligence official Christopher Steele, the document turned out to be funded by the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department eventually admitted it lacked probable cause for a warrant to surveil Page.

The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General report said that the CIA told former FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, that Page reported his Russian contacts to the CIA. However, the report said, Clinesmith omitted such exculpatory information in the FISA warrant seeking to investigate whether Page was a Russian agent.

The New York Times reported in October that Durham’s team had interviewed about two dozen former and current FBI officials. The team looked into “whether CIA officials might have somehow tricked the FBI into opening the Russia investigation,” the Times said.

The Times reported that Durham’s team “appeared focused at one point on Peter Strzok.”

“I suspect that Durham may be focused on Brennan and culpability in suppression of evidence on intelligence to justify surveillance on the Trump campaign,” Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center, told The Daily Signal. “If he misled other parts of the bureaucracy, that could be a problem.”

In February, the Times reported: “Mr. Durham appears to be pursuing a theory that the C.I.A., under its former director John O. Brennan, had a preconceived notion about Russia or was trying to get to a particular result—and was nefariously trying to keep other agencies from seeing the full picture lest they interfere with that goal, the people said.”

Brennan became a high-profile critic of Trump on cable news shows and social media.

In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that investigators were focusing on Brennan, “examining whether he pushed for a blunter assessment about Russia’s motivations than others in the intelligence community felt was warranted.”

4. Illegal Leaking

In April, The New York Times reported that the Durham team was focusing on leakers, particularly those who leaked the information about Flynn’s conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.

Leaking classified information can be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, a World War I-era law meant to shield national security information, the Committee for Justice’s Levey said.

“The Espionage Act is interpreted broadly as dealing not just with the national defense, but national security,” Levey said. “It’s not all classified.”

Levey added that national security leaks also could be prosecuted under a theft law, 18 U.S. Code 641. If convicted, someone who “knowingly converts to his use or the use of another, or without authority, sells, conveys or disposes of any record, voucher, money, or thing of value of the United States” could face 10 years in prison.

“There is a possibility of [prosecution under] a general federal theft statute,” Levey said. “That could be prosecuting leaks for taking things of value to the U.S.”

5. Conspiracy

Given the number of individuals apparently targeted by Durham, conspiracy could be a potential criminal charge, Levey said.

“A conspiracy charge could widen the circle of people charged, but [a criminal statute] would have to be clearly identifiable,” he said.

Several FBI officials, including Comey as director, were involved in the initial FISA application for a warrant to spy on Page. So a possible charge is conspiracy to violate the surveillance law, the University of California’s Yoo said.

Comey, a vocal Trump critic since the president fired him in May 2017, has said he trusted those who worked under him.

“I don’t think it’s a great defense to say, ‘I approved the use of extraordinary surveillance measures on an American and I didn’t read it,’” Yoo told The Daily Signal.

“I was involved with FISA in the [George W.] Bush years, and I’m pretty sure people read them,” he said. “As a mid-level person myself, I wanted to make sure they read them so they would know what they are doing.”

Yoo also cited a White House meeting in the closing days of the Obama administration in which Comey, Rice, Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates discussed the FBI’s Flynn investigation.

“You’re talking about the head of national intelligence, the White House national security adviser, they could all be potentially involved,” Yoo said. “You already have reports of this meeting at the White House … in early January with Comey and Biden and Susan Rice.”

“Somebody potentially might have known,” he said, about possibly improper actions to target the Trump presidency.

Judicial Watch’s Fitton, not bullish about indictments, said a conspiracy charge is possible if Durham can show that multiple individuals knowingly provided false information to the FISA court.

“There may be charges for conspiracy. That only takes two,” Fitton said.

6. Just a Report

Given the limits on time, and a desire to get the truth out well before the next presidential election to avoid an appearance of politicization, some legal experts think Durham may provide only a report and no criminal charges.

“I never liked the approach Mueller took of writing a report and not indicting people, except on the periphery, though a report was part of his job,” the National Legal and Policy Center’s Flaherty said, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s lengthy, two-part report concluding that neither Trump nor his campaign conspired with Moscow.

“But, in the case of Durham, a report might give us a sense of what happened in what was an ongoing effort to push a president out of office after they tried to prevent him from getting elected,” Flaherty said, adding:

Durham could find things that should be alarming to people of all political persuasions if we weren’t so polarized. I would hope they would agree that an effort at the highest level of government to push a president out of office or keep a candidate from being elected president is wrong. Whether Trump is a sympathetic victim or not shouldn’t make a difference.

Yoo said a report from Durham could be more important than indictments in informing the public before it makes a decision at the ballot box.

“I’ve always thought a better idea might be not to get prosecutions, but to get a report out that explains what happened,” he said, adding:

A report this summer could do a lot of good. He could also say,  ‘I’m not going to charge people like President Obama,’ but point out what was wrong. In a report, you could decide ‘We’re not going to charge so-and-so, but here’s all the things they did.’

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.

RELATED ARTICLE: FINALLY: Durham Accepting Guilty Pleas

A Note for our Readers:

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Tax Exempt Organizations Funnel Millions to BLM Marxists

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“The whole political vision of the left, including socialism and communism, has failed by virtually every empirical test, in countries all around the world. But this has only led leftist intellectuals to evade and denigrate empirical evidence.” – Thomas Sowell

“The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining super capitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control…. Do I mean conspiracy? Yes, I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent.” –  Larry McDonald

“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” – Vladimir Lenin

Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLM Global Network Foundation) is the national, organizing chapter of a network of 16 local Black Lives Matters chapters.  They are incorporated in Delaware and they get millions of dollars in donations, but are not a tax-exempt organization. BLM is the primary organizational outgrowth of the more decentralized Black Lives Matter movement, and is a fiscally-sponsored project of Thousand Currents, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, whose donations are tax exempt.  They are in Oakland, California.

And there you have it, send money to Thousand Currents and you can take it off your taxes just as George Soros has done by donating $33 million to the communist BLM cause to destroy America.  Soros’s Foundation has also poured $230 million into racial equality, $150 million in grants for Black-led racial justice groups, and another $70 million toward local grants for criminal justice reform and civic engagement opportunities.

The latest 990 I could find for Thousand Currents is from 2017, and they weren’t too poor then.  Bet 2020’s tax returns will be of great interest.

Thousand Currents

Thousand Currents is run by a guy named Paul Strassberg, a far leftist who also worked for the Ford Foundation who is a huge benefactor of the far left.

(Regarding the Ford Foundation, they spent $25 million writing a new constitution for America.  A Constitution for the New States of America, from the 1974 book, The Emerging Constitution by Rexford G. Tugwell, who helped develop policy recommendations leading up to Roosevelt’s New Deal, illustrates with chilling clarity the final objective of regional governance conspirators. The goal is a corporate state concentrating economic, political and social powers in the hands of a ruling elite. “A Constitution for the Newstates of America” is the fortieth version of this revolutionary document prepared by a team of social experimenters at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, Fund for the Republic (Ford Foundation).  They are the enemy of freedom.)

In June 2020, the Capital Research Center revealed that the board of Thousand Currents includes Susan Rosenberg, a former Marxist terrorist with the notorious May 19 Communist Organization.

Strassberg is a former Peace Corp volunteer and he runs Thousand Currents who has an alliance with Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF); thus, your donation is tax deductible.

Twenty-five percent of the millions of dollars that goes into BLMGFN is spent on salaries and benefits.  Forty-six percent goes to consultant fees.  Seventy-one percent of revenue goes to salaries and consultant fees!  Twenty-nine percent goes to paying people and signs and so forth.  What a racket!  They’re shrewd, no one knows this!  Where is the IRS?  If Soros gave them $33 million, where is that money?  Are there any audits of Thousand Currents or BLMGNF?  All the Hollywood pinheads and corporate idiots and everyone else writing checks are going right into the Marxist’s pockets.  Link

In 2018 and 2019, respectively, Thousand Currents funneled $2,622,017 and $3,354,654 in donor-restricted assets to BLM.

Among the organizations that have specifically earmarked contributions to Thousand Currents for BLM are the NoVo Foundation ($1,525,000 from 2015 to 2018), the W.K. Kellogg Foundation ($900,000 from 2016 to 2019), and Borealis Philanthropy ($343,000 from 2016 to 2018).

No one is exposing them, not the New York Times, not mainstream media, not Fox, not One America News, because to do that would be to label yourself as a racist.

ActBlue

Thousand Currents isn’t the only donor avenue to BLM.  Visitors to BLM who seek to contribute funds are transported to the web page of ActBlue Charities, an organization that facilitates donations to “democrats and progressives.” ActBlue is the left’s favorite “Dark Money” machine.

As of May 21, 2020, ActBlue had given $119 million to the presidential campaign of Joe Biden. The worldwide BLM protests that subsequently erupted in response to the May 25 death of a black criminal suspect named George Floyd, sparked a new surge of donations to BLM via ActBlue.

Major corporations such as Apple, Disney, Nike and hundreds of others may be pouring untold and unaccounted millions into ActBlue under the name of Black Lives Matter, funds that in fact can go to fund the election of a Democrat President Biden. BLM hates Trump and wants him out of office; their riots are spreading for that very reason.

The role of tax-exempt foundations tied to the fortunes of the greatest industrial and financial companies such as Rockefeller, Ford, Kellogg, Hewlett and Soros say that there is a far deeper and far more sinister agenda to current disturbances than spontaneous outrage would suggest.

Here is ActBlue’s latest 990 from 2017.  Check out ActBlue on Open Secrets.

Black Lives Matter

BLM protests rely on the false belief that blacks are targeted for “extrajudicial killings by police and vigilantes.”  It is a lie, as demonstrated by decades of hard empirical evidence.   I would urge everyone to read John Perazzo’s article, Exposing the Lies of Black Lives Matter.  The annual violent-crime arrest statistics for 2003-2009, broken down by race, can be found here: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Much of the demands by BLM are clearly modeled on elements of the Black Panthers’ “Ten-Point Program” put forth by the Black Panther Party in the 1960s.  BLM is closely allied with numerous groups that are fronts for the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), a Marxist-Leninist entity that calls for the overthrow of capitalism and the elimination of police departments. In an article for Accuracy In Media, economist and investigative journalist James Simpson has identified some of these FRSO fronts that are tied to BLM.

At a July 2015 conference in Cleveland, BLM presented There’s A Method To The Movement: Examining Community Organizing Methods and Methodologies, a workshop that taught, among other things, the tactics and philosophy of the late Saul Alinsky. Known as the godfather of “community organizing,” a term that serves as a euphemism for fomenting public anger and in some cases, violence, Alinsky was a communist fellow-traveler who laid out a set of basic tactics designed to help radical activists destroy their enemies while gaining power for themselves.  Hillary and Obama learned his lessons well.

Alinsky also exhorted activists and political radicals to be entirely unpredictable and unmistakably willing – for the sake of their cause – to cause the government, or the society at large, to descend into chaos and anarchy. They must be prepared, Alinsky explained, to “go into a state of complete confusion and draw their opponent into the vortex of the same confusion.”  Reveille for Radicals, page 150-151.

BLM and their associate organizations are Marxists.  As such, they hate God and want all vestiges of America’s Judeo-Christian society eliminated.  In June 2020, 40-year-old BLM activist Shaun King demanded that religious statues showing a light-skinned Jesus be toppled to the ground. King said on Twitter: “Yes, I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down. They are a form of white supremacy. Always have been.” Asserting also that “all murals and stained-glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends” should likewise be destroyed.  Like the other uneducated fools of BLM, his stupidity of Biblical history is monumental.

Obama Endorsed BLM

In August 2015, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) approved a resolution endorsing the BLM movement. The resolution stated that “the DNC joins with Americans across the country in affirming Black Lives Matter.”

BLM leaders met at the White House with President Obama as well as senior advisor Valerie Jarrett and other administration officials.  They told reporters that the president personally supported the BLM movement.  In a December 2015 interview on National Public Radio, Obama described BLM as a positive force on policing in America, notwithstanding the violence and incendiary rhetoric exhibited by many of its members.  In February 2016, Obama invited BLM leaders to the White House during Black History Month.

On July 13, 2016 — six days after a BLM supporter in Dallas had shot and killed five police officers and wounded seven others — President Obama hosted BLM leaders DeRay Mckesson, Brittany Packnett, and Mica Grimmat at a four-and-a-half-hour meeting at the White House. Also invited were Al Sharpton, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (D), St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman (D), Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D), and some police chiefs.

BLM Anti-Semitism

More than 1,000 BLM activists signed a statement proclaiming their “solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and commitment to the liberation of Palestine’s land and people;” demanding an end to Israel’s “occupation” of “Palestine,” condemning “Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and chokehold on the West Bank,” urging the U.S. government to end all aid to Israel, and exhorting black institutions to support the Palestinian led Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions movement against the Jewish state.

Over the Shavuot festival on May 30, 2020, BLM members carried out a pogrom in Fairfax, a Los Angeles community largely populated by ultra-Orthodox Jews. On that day, BLM not only vandalized five synagogues and three Jewish schools in Fairfax, but also looted most of the Jewish businesses on Fairfax Avenue. Moreover, they chanted  “F*** the police and kill the Jews.”

At a July 1, 2020 demonstration in Washington, D.C., BLM protesters tied their own cause to that of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The rally was billed as a gesture of support for the “Day of Rage” that had been called by the Palestinian Authority and other groups to protest Israel’s plan to annex portions of the West Bank. The BLM protesters chanted: “Israel, we know you, you murder children, too.” Chants also alternated between “Black lives matter!” and “Palestinian lives matter!”  *Link*

BLM in American Schools

In 2016, BLM started to move beyond street protests and began to establish a growing influence in America’s public schools. In October of that year, teachers in Seattle organized a “Black Lives Matter at School Day.” When the National Education Association subsequently adopted a resolution endorsing that measure, “BLM at School Day” grew into a full “BLM at School National Week of Action,” to be held annually during the first week of February as part of Black History Month activities. As of 2018, it is now in school districts in more than 20 major cities.  They teach kindergarten to 2nd grade children to be good little Marxists.  Link

A key resource for BLM-related lessons is a textbook titled Teaching for Black Lives, whose opening sentence reads: “Black students’ minds and bodies are under attack.”  The book stokes fear, anger and resentment in the minds of children of color.  One reference to “the continuing police murders of black people,” for instance, declares: “In August of 2014, Michael Brown was killed in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, his body left in the streets for hours as a reminder to the black residents in the neighborhood that their lives are meaningless to the American Empire.”  Lies and more lies.

The book also includes essays bearing such titles as: “Rethinking Islamophobia: Combating Bigotry by Raising the Voices of Black Muslims,” “Plotting Inequalities, Building Resistance,” and “Racial Justice Is Not a Choice: White Supremacy, High-Stakes Testing, and the Punishment of Black and Brown Students.”

By 2019, “Black Lives Matter at School Week” (BLMSW) was being observed by thousands of educators in public school districts across the United States. BLMSW’s online guide abounds with suggested lesson plans and recommended resources for educating students, all of which are dangerous to the equality of all Americans.  Link

Conclusion

In my recent article of June 23, 2020, I wrote about Obama’s love of communist Nelson Mandela, the terror of white farmers in South Africa, Winnie Mandela’s necklacing of their enemies, and whites having to live in compounds to avoid being murdered.

Obama said, “I am one of the countless millions who drew inspiration from Nelson Mandela’s life. My very first political action, the first thing I ever did that involved an issue or a policy or politics, was a protest against apartheid. I studied his words and his writings. The day that he was released from prison gave me a sense of what human beings can do when they’re guided by their hopes and not by their fears.”

Yes, Obama drew inspiration from an avowed communist whose intent was to destroy white South African farmers and give their land to blacks. Does he revere the rape and slaughter of pregnant women and children and their farmer fathers hacked to death by Mandela’s black forces?  Apparently so.  His words have inflamed those who hate America’s whites who are burning, looting and murdering in America today.

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NYT Publishes Radical Economic Manifesto Calling for Reparations

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The New York Times devoted its entire “Sunday Review” section last weekend to an economic manifesto calling for banks to apologize for “structural racism,” for an Amendment enshrining “voter equality,” and for wealthy Americans to “give up your privilege.”

The manifesto, “The Economy We Need,” focuses on redressing economic inequality — not growth or job creation — as America’s main economic challenge. Toward that end, the lead editorial calls for the Federal Reserve to target black unemployment instead of overall unemployment, and for banks to pay reparations. It also demands banks “apologize for their culpability for and complicity in structural racism” and “commit to serving black people as they do whites.”

Other demands: cancel consumer debt and eliminate banking fees for black customers, and give interest-free mortgages to black homebuyers and interest-free loans to black-owned businesses.

The New York Times is now a propaganda megaphone for the Black Lives Matter racial extortion racket.

New York Times (NYT)

88 Known Connections

A staff writer at The New York Times Magazine wrote on June 5th that Black Lives Matter is “America’s current incarnation of a civil rights movement.” The author, Jenna Wortham, rhapsodized, “This is the biggest collective demonstration of civil unrest around state violence in our generation’s memory. The unifying theme, for the first time in America’s history, is at last: Black Lives Matter.” Her article was entitled “A ‘Glorious Poetic Rage.’”  This was the phrase an activist involved with Black Lives Matter in Minnesota used to describe how the third day of protests in that city felt “when a police station house was lit on fire.”

To learn more about the New York Times, click here for the profile link.

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Lt. Col. Allen West Elected Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas

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AUSTIN, Texas /PRNewswire/ — Following a tumultuous convention, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Allen West has been elected Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. He will immediately assume the responsibilities of the role and begin to implement his strategy to hold Texas.

“I am honored and privileged that Republicans of Texas have selected me to Chair their party and to be at the helm during this coming election cycle,” declared Allen West. “We need to focus on maintaining the conservative policies that made Texas strong and drive voter outreach across the state.”

By electing Allen West, the Republican Party of Texas has shown that a new direction is here. The grassroots will no longer let watered down conservatism be the guiding light. The focus on conservative principles and expanding the tent of the party is the future.

Chairman West also extends an invitation to Gilberto Hinojosa, the current Chairman of the Democrat Party of Texas, to a debate where they can educate the public on key policy differences between the parties. Additionally, Allen will be traveling to the Rio Grande Valley next week to meet with local officials and leaders. Over the next few months, Chairman West will be all over the state of Texas to rally the base and spread the conservative message to new voters.

Learn more about Allen West, his campaign, and how to keep Texas red by visiting www.west4texas.com.

SOURCE: West4Texas

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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.

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

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.

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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.

Two-Thirds of COVID-19 Deaths in U.S. Occurred in 10 States

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As Heritage Foundation researchers have demonstrated throughout the pandemic, the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. has been heavily concentrated in a small number of states—and among a small number of counties within states. Even though the U.S. has seen a rapid rise in cases during the last few weeks, the overall levels of concentration have remained fairly consistent.

As of July 14, 2020, for example, just 10 states account for 61% of all U.S. cases and 66% of all deaths (and 62% of the population).

The five states with the most cases—New York, California, Florida, Texas, and New Jersey—report 43% of all U.S. cases and 45% of all deaths.

Together, New York and New Jersey alone account for 34% of total COVID-19 deaths, though they include only 9% of the U.S. population.

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 >>

These state-level figures do not, however, adequately describe the concentrated nature of the spread of COVID-19.

The 30 counties with the most COVID-19 deaths, for example, account for nearly one-third of all the cases in the U.S. and 49% of all deaths, much greater than their 16% share of the U.S. population. That is, just 1% of the counties in the U.S., representing 16% of the U.S. population, are responsible for approximately half of the country’s COVID-19 deaths.

Of those 30 counties, 24 are in the Northeast corridor between Philadelphia and Boston, the passageway served by a commuter railway system that runs through Manhattan.

Overall, only about 10% of the counties in the U.S. contain 90% of all the COVID-19 deaths, even though these counties include 62% of the population.

Throughout the pandemic, there have been many U.S. counties with relatively few COVID-19 deaths. For instance, as of May 11, 64% of all counties (16% of the U.S. population) had one or fewer COVID-19 deaths. As of July 14, 48% of all counties (9% of the population) have no more than one COVID-19 death each.

While these numbers have obviously declined since May, many counties still have a relatively small number of COVID-19 deaths. In particular, as of July 14, 66% of all counties (16% of the population) have five or fewer COVID-19 deaths.

Now that COVID testing has dramatically increased and many state and local governments have relaxed stay-at-home orders, it is even more critical to study the trends in deaths along with cases. To make studying these trends easier, The Heritage Foundation now has two interactive COVID-19 trackers—one that tracks trends in cases, while the other tracks trends in deaths.

The trackers describe whether the trend of cases—or deaths—is increasing or decreasing over the prior 14 days, and provides a visual depiction of new cases—or deaths—during this time period. These tools help put the concentrated nature of the pandemic in perspective with county-level data and they show just how difficult it can be to use only one metric to gauge whether a county or state is doing well.

For instance, Harris County in Texas has seen increases of cases over the past two weeks, with a rate of 39 additional new cases each day for the past 14 days. On July 14, the county had 2,001 new cases, the most of the two-week period. Deaths have seen an increase as well, with one additional new death above trend every five days.

Another example is DeKalb County in Indiana, which is also experiencing increasing cases. However, its new cases are only one above trend over the 14-day period, and it has had a total of 15 new cases over the past 14 days. DeKalb also ranks around the middle of U.S. counties for cases with less than a half a percent of the population recording COVID-19 cases.

Readers are invited to explore the information in the tracker and check back frequently for updates.

COLUMN BY

Norbert Michel

Norbert Michel studies and writes about housing finance, including the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as The Heritage Foundation’s research fellow in financial regulations. Read his research. Twitter: @norbertjmichel.

Drew Gonshorowski

Drew Gonshorowski focuses his research and writing on the nation’s new health care law, including the repercussions for Medicare and Medicaid, as a policy analyst in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation. He also studies economic mobility and the Austrian school of economics. Twitter: @Gonshorowskd.

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 »

RELATED: The below chart is from WorldOMeter.info:

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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De-what the police?

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These days we often hear and see the slogan “Defund the Police”. I would like to draw our attention to the word “defund”. And I would encourage the sloganeers to heed the words of the famous swordsman Inigo Montoya (from that wonderful film The Princess Bride): “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

My friend and former colleague Tim Perry, PhD, adds refreshing clarity: “Now that I know that ‘Defund the Police’ means ‘Stop treating every social problem as a police problem’, I’m all for it. Just don’t understand why the people who pick slogans picked this one. Because what it says is not what they tell me they mean.”

To back up Dr Perry’s observation on “what it says”, consider the following dictionary definitions of “defund”:

  • to withdraw funding from (Merriam Webster)
  • prevent from continuing to receive funds (Google search result)
  • to withdraw financial support from (Dictionary.com)
  • to stop providing the money to pay for something (Cambridge English Dictionary)
  • to remove the funds from (a person, organisation, or scheme) (Collins English Dictionary)
  • prevent from continuing to receive funds (Oxford Dictionary)
  • to withdraw financial support from (The Free Dictionary)
  • to stop providing funds, esp. government funds, for (a program, group, etc.) (YourDictionary)
  • to cancel funding for (Wiktionary)
  • cancel continued funding  (WordWeb Online)
  • to stop the flow of funds to (Definition.org)

Also, consider why (besides the lexicon’s definitions of “defund”) many English-language users might take “Defund the Police” to mean what the dictionaries say it means, i.e., to stop funding the police:

  • When I derail a train, I get the train off the tracks
  • When I decaffeinate coffee, I take out the caffeine from the coffee
  • When I deforest an area of land, I get rid of the trees
  • When I deactivate something, I make it inactive or ineffective
  • When I defrost my windshield, I get rid of the frost
  • When I debone a fish, I remove the bones from the fish
  • When I debug/delouse my cat, I get rid of its fleas and lice
  • When I dealcoholize a substance, I remove the alcohol from it
  • When I decongest my sinuses, I get rid of the congestion
  • When I declog the drain, I get rid of whatever clogs it up
  • When I dehorn a bull, I remove its horns
  • When I decolonialize, I make a nation free from colonial influences
  • When I dekulakize, I get rid of prosperous peasants
  • When I dematerialize, I disappear by becoming immaterial
  • When I dehydrate something, I remove the water/hydration from it
  • When I deinvest, I withdraw my investment
  • When we defrock a priest or judge, we remove them from a position of honor or privilege
  • When the government defunds Planned Parenthood (which many of us hope they will do!), the government stops providing funds for it

Also, consider why many reasonable people are legitimately concerned about defunding the police (when the word “defund” is understood in its normal lexical usage as canceling/ withdrawing financial support). That is, consider these observations from Steven Pinker, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University:

When law enforcement vanishes, all manner of violence breaks out: looting, settling old scores, ethnic cleansing, and petty warfare among gangs, warlords and mafias. This was obvious in the remnants of Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and parts of Africa in the 1990s, but can also happen in countries with a long tradition of civility. As a young teenager in proudly peaceable Canada during the romantic 1960s, I was a true believer in Bakunin’s anarchism. I laughed off my parents’ argument that if the government ever laid down its arms all hell would break loose. Our competing predictions were put to the test at 8:00 A.M. on October 17, 1969, when the Montreal police went on strike. By 11:20 A.M. the first bank was robbed. By noon most downtown stores had closed because of looting. Within a few more hours, taxi drivers burned down the garage of a limousine service that had competed with them for airport customers, a rooftop sniper killed a provincial police officer, rioters broke into several hotels and restaurants, and a doctor slew a burglar in his suburban home. By the end of the day, six banks had been robbed, a hundred shops had been looted, twelve fires had been set, forty carloads of storefront glass had been broken, and three million dollars in property damage had been inflicted, before city authorities had to call in the army and, of course, the Mounties to restore order. This decisive empirical test left my politics in tatters (and offered a foretaste of life as a scientist).

—Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Penguin Books, 2003).

Happily, there is some calm in the sloganeering storm. Enter: Calgary Chief of Police Mark Neufeld.

Here is a portion of a recent news report Defund the Calgary police: Need to define it first, says chief:

While Black Lives Matter movements have spurred calls for cities to defund the police, Calgary’s police chief said defund needs to be defined first.

In a meeting earlier this week with media, Calgary’s Chief Constable Mark Neufeld said everyone has a different idea of what defunding police means.

“For some, this is about diverting money, for some this is about dismantling police and for others, it’s about disarming police,” he said.

“I think we’re talking about defunding the police before we define what we want them to do, and what we don’t want them to do and perhaps exploring legitimate options for addressing the demand in a practical and effective way.”

Permit me to close with a heavily embellished paraphrase of our earlier quote from the famous swordsman Inigo Montoya: Protesters keep using the slogan “Defund the Police,” but I don’t think the slogan means what many protestors claim it means—and I’m deeply troubled and even suspicious that those protestors continue to use the slogan because there are also many protestors who do think it means what it clearly says it means.

Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, is a retired philosophy professor who lives in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada.

Hendrik van der Breggen

Hendrik van der Breggen received a B.A. in Philosophy from University of Calgary, an M.A. in Philosophy from University Windsor, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from University of Waterloo. His study and writing… More by Hendrik van der Breggen

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

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VIDEO: Sovereignty over Judea & Samaria — Israel’s Urgent Imperative & Puzzling Reticence

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My recent interview on Israel sovereignty, AJA Zoom event. Israel news reports that plans to extend sovereignty into Judea-Samaria have stalled.

What’s going on? Why?

WATCH:

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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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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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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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