ANTIFA FASCISTS: There is NO excuse for what is happening in Portland Oregon and elsewhere. These thugs are breaking the law and disrupting everyone else’s constitutional rights. Law Enforcement at every level must step up… now!
There are some very good articles below about the situation. The fact that the looney Left is justifying their activities and providing them cover is just another example of how the progressive Democratic party of today has gone off the deep end.
Mainstream Democrats are rightfully just “walking away.”
-Saul Anuzis
The Democratic Party is Making an Irreversible Left Turn
I remember a time not so long ago, say 2016, when if you called a Democrat a socialist you were slandering them. Today, a good portion of them will get angry if you do not address them as Democratic socialists. It is truly amazing how socialism has become the new fad among Democrats — especially those running for president.
The Democratic Party platform of 2016 that emerged from its convention was aggressively progressive, and every word contained in it was the result of intense debate and horse-trading. It is nowhere near the socialist content we can expect from their 2020 platform.
In 2019, from the rhetoric of those running for president, we can see that it nowhere resembles the party’s platform of 2016.
Nowhere in their 2016 platform is there support for the decriminalization of illegal entry into the United States. In fact, their platform says this with regard to immigration:
“The Democratic Party supports legal immigration, within reasonable limits, that meets the needs of families, communities, and the economy as well as maintains the United States’ role as a beacon of hope for people seeking safety, freedom, and security. People should come to the United States with visas and not through smugglers. Yet, we recognize that the current immigration system is broken.”
Unmask Antifa and Watch the Cowards Retreat
I’d urge everyone to read my colleague Jim Geraghty’s post on the thuggery this weekend in Portland. It was appalling to watch masked Antifa thugs attack Andy Ngo, and it was also appalling that the police weren’t immediately present to arrest his attackers. Antifa’s propensity to violence is well known, and while I’d love to hear a sympathetic explanation for the absence of police, the lack of response looks a lot like a dereliction of duty.
There is, however, a simple and well-known legal reform that will go a long way towards deterring Antifa violence — even when police aren’t close by, but iPhones are. It’s called an anti-masking law. They’ve long existed in the South as a check on Klan violence, and they not only make it easier for police to immediately identify and arrest criminals, they also allow witnesses to preserve the pictures and videos of violent attackers for later criminal or civil action.
When I tweeted over the weekend in support of an anti-masking ordinance in Oregon, a number of correspondents asked me if the laws were consistent with First Amendment protections for anonymous speech. The answer is generally (though not always) yes, and there’s relatively recent on-point case law in the Second Circuit saying so. While court of appeals cases aren’t nationally dispositive, the panel in Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan v. Kerik included Sonia Sotomayor, and its reasoning is instructive.
Antifa Is Dangerous and It’s Time for the Feds to Step In
Enough is enough. The U.S. Justice Department needs to immediately open a criminal civil rights investigation of Antifa, an affiliation of radical activists and left-wing groups whose name, ironically enough, is short for “anti-fascists.”
Its attack on journalist Andy Ngo was beyond the pale. Federal law enforcement has an obligation to stop any extremist organization that is apparently organizing and precipitating violent attacks, especially if state and local authorities seem reluctant to take action against what has all the makings of a domestic terrorist organization.
We cannot have any confidence that the political leadership of the city of Portland will allow its local law enforcement to do anything about this, either.
The Portland Police Association released a statement after the attack criticizing the mayor for restricting the ability of the police to stop Antifa, saying, “Our hands are tied.”
Ari Fleischer on Why Former Republican Critics of Trump Now Embrace Him
Two and a half years ago, Donald Trump assumed the Presidency, despite not receiving the support of a number of establishment Republicans who had expressed disgust with his personal behavior and alarm about the tone and content of his candidacy.
But last month, Trump officially launched his reëlection campaign to applause from onetime critics such as Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio. And this past week, on the Fourth of July, he led an event on the National Mall replete with tanks and jet flyovers. Amid criticism about the event’s cost and optics from Democrats and former military leaders—the Trump team quickly turned around an ad with clips from the event, at which the President was admittedly restrained—the lack of complaints from Republicans was striking.
Or perhaps not so striking: the Party’s general silence on reports of the horrific conditions that undocumented immigrant children are being detained in is further proof that the Republican Party now fully supports this President.
Record Advertising Wave Heading for Swing States in 2020
Spending on political advertising is projected to smash all-time records in 2020 as President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent battle for control of the White House.
Advertising Analytics, a political ad-tracking firm, expects the total cost of TV and digital ads for the next election to hit over $6 billion — a 57 percent increase over the total in last year’s hotly contested and expensive midterm elections, driven by a huge jump in digital video advertising.
Over one-quarter of the $6 billion total, $1.6 billion, will be spent on digital video platforms, primarily Facebook and Google, while broadcast and cable TV stations will take in a whopping $4.4 billion — more than twice as much as Democrats and Republicans spent on TV in the last presidential elections.
Roberts Court Says Citizenship Can Be Asked – So Do It
In what will no doubt come as a shock to many, there are people on Twitter who comment on policy matters, legal opinions, and news events without reading relevant materials or knowing much about the law. Such was the case in response to my assertion on Twitter that the President should, following the recent Supreme Court opinion in Department of Commerce v. New York regarding the census, continue with plans to print the census documents with a citizenship question and state publicly his simple explanation for doing so. Some on Twitter exploded with claims of my breaking my oath, ignoring the Constitution, and being a Trump “sycophant.” These claims are absurd, but the norm for Twitter, of course.
To be clear, I believe the President asking the citizenship question is not only correct, but it is the only thing to do if one believes in the Constitution and the rule of law. The Constitution requires that we conduct a census. We conduct the census every 10 years. It requires counting “persons,” but we have throughout our history counted persons and also asked other important questions, including citizenship. It is my belief we should ask that question, and according to reliable polling, 88{cf054798d99082734b20d32aeaeaeb444d97b52a8049bc7b4f3cc76462f1da40} of Republicans, 67{cf054798d99082734b20d32aeaeaeb444d97b52a8049bc7b4f3cc76462f1da40} of all Americans support the question being asked. Importantly, is the belief of the President and his administration that we should include a question asking about citizenship.
Doing so is important for numerous reasons. Getting an accurate counting of persons, and citizens, is important for re-districting, for allocation of federal dollars, for setting up voting locations, for making decisions about the impact of illegal immigration on American communities, and for, yes, administering the laws in accordance with the Voting Rights Act, among other reasons. It is also, arguably, constitutionally required to ask for citizenship. Yes, required.
The Supreme Court Might Have Three Swing Justices Now
When Justice Anthony Kennedy retired from the Supreme Court last summer, one big question was whether another justice would continue his legacy as the court’s “swing” vote. Kennedy wasn’t really a moderate, but he did serve as the court’s ideological fulcrum for more than 10 years, dramatically breaking from his conservative colleagues in high-profile cases on abortion and gay marriage. And with the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh, a federal judge and former Kennedy clerk who joined the court in October after allegations of sexual misconduct, the court seemed almost certain to shift its center of gravity to the right, potentially leaving Chief Justice John Roberts in the role of “swing” justice.
Now that this year’s Supreme Court term is over, we know that Kavanaugh is shaping up to be a solidly conservative justice — he barely beat out Roberts as the court’s new median and voted most frequently with Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. And although Roberts did step several times into the role of “swing” justice, he wasn’t the only conservative justice who joined the liberals over the course of the term. Although he wasn’t in the middle ideologically, Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s other nominee, was actually the most likely to join the liberals in closely decided cases.1 In fact, each of the conservative justices joined the liberals in a 5-4 or 5-3 decision at least once. With a newly cemented conservative majority on the court, the days of a single “swing” justice may be over.
Here are three takeaways from the term that can tell us what direction the court’s new conservative majority is moving, and what role Kavanaugh is playing:
Harmeet Dhillon Launches ‘Publius Lex’ Legal Fund to Fight Antifa and Big Tech
Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, known for her work defending Andy Ngo and James Damore, launched a new legal nonprofit, Publius Lex, aimed at protecting civil rights for all Americans, including conservatives who are the frequent target of far-left activists and corporations.
Dhillon is the attorney for Andy Ngo, the journalist who was hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage by extremist “Antifa” activists in Portland two weeks ago. Her firm is also waging a class-action lawsuit against Google on behalf of former employees who allege the company discriminates against non-progressives and against white and Asian males.
France Has Turned into One of the Worldwide Threats to Free Speech
Just over one year ago, French President Emmanuel Macron came to the United States to import two potentially invasive species to Washington. One was a tree and the other was a crackdown on free speech. Ironically, soon after the tree was planted, officials dug it up to send it to quarantine. However, the more dangerous species was his acorn of speech controls, a proposal that resulted in rapturous applause from our clueless politicians.
While our politicians in the United States may applaud Macron like village idiots, most Americans are hardcore believers in free speech. It runs in our blood. Undeterred, however, Macron and others in Europe are moving to unilaterally impose speech controls on the internet with new legislation in France and Germany. If you believe this is a European issue, think again.
Macron and his government are attempting to unilaterally scrub out the internet of hateful thoughts. The French Parliament has moved toward a new law that would give internet companies like Facebook and Google just 24 hours to remove hateful speech from their sites or face fines of $1.4 million per violation. A final vote is expected next week. Germany passed a similar measure last year and imposed fines of $56 million.
Report: Mueller Lacks Substantiating Evidence Of Russian Election Interference
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report lacks substantiating evidence supporting the central claims of Kremlin interference in the 2016 election, according to a new report from RealClearInvestigations.
Aaron Maté reports that discrepancies over the timeline, details, and conflicts of interest from key players in the report undercut Mueller’s findings and creates serious doubts around the special counsel and his investigators. Here are some of Maté’s key findings:
- Uncertainty Over Who Stole the DNC Emails
- Mueller Did Not Interview Julian Assange
- FBI’s Reliance on the DNC’s Cybersecurity Firm: CrowdStrike
- Reliance on (Biased) Former CIA Director John Brennan
Stop Building a Spaceship to Mars and Just Plant Some Damn Trees
When it comes to climate change research, most studies bear bad news regarding the looming, very real threat of a warming planet and the resulting devastation that it will bring upon the Earth. But a new study, out Thursday in the journal Science, offers a sliver of hope for the world: A group of researchers based in Switzerland, Italy, and France found that expanding forests, which sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, could seriously make up for humans’ toxic carbon emissions.
In 2018, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s foremost authority on climate, estimated that we’d need to plant 1 billion hectares of forest by 2050 to keep the globe from warming a full 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. (One hectare is about twice the size of a football field.) Not only is that “undoubtedly achievable,” according to the study’s authors, but global tree restoration is “our most effective climate change solution to date.”
In fact, there’s space on the planet for an extra 900 million hectares of canopy cover, the researchers found, which translates to storage for a whopping 205 gigatonnes of carbon. To put that in perspective, humans emit about 10 gigatonnes of carbon from burning fossil fuels every year, according to Richard Houghton, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center, who was not involved with the study. And overall, there are now about 850 gigatonnes of carbon in the atmosphere; a tree-planting effort on that scale could, in theory, cut carbon by about 25 percent, according to the authors.
Switzerland Has a Budget Surplus. Here’s How, and What U.S. Could Learn
As much of Washington seems resigned to sit idly by and allow the federal government to gorge on trillion-dollar deficits and push the national debt to 78{cf054798d99082734b20d32aeaeaeb444d97b52a8049bc7b4f3cc76462f1da40} of gross domestic product—the highest levels in the post-World War II era—it might seem like a fiscally prudent budget is the stuff of fantasy.
After all, the Congressional Budget Office’s 2019 Long-Term Budget Outlook shows that, if current government policies remain in place, the federal debt will rise to an unprecedented 144{cf054798d99082734b20d32aeaeaeb444d97b52a8049bc7b4f3cc76462f1da40} of GDP, and annual federal deficits will increase by nearly 6{cf054798d99082734b20d32aeaeaeb444d97b52a8049bc7b4f3cc76462f1da40} of GDP over the next 30 years.
If the long-term outlook becomes reality, the national debt may be beyond the point of no return.
But it isn’t too late to for lawmakers to reverse course.
China Isn’t Pleased with Trump’s Taiwan Arms Sales Authorization
The U.S. has approved a potential multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan — the latest signal that the Trump administration is fed up with China’s aggressive foreign policy.
On Monday, the State Department announced that the US could sell $2.2 billion in weapons, including 108 Abrams tanks and around 250 Stinger surface-to-air missiles, to the small island nation and staunch US ally. That paves the way for America to officially deliver those weapons at some point down the line.
But the authorization on its own has added to longstanding tensions between Taiwan and China. They are still considered one country by both governments and by much of the world. But in practice, they have been totally separate since 1949, when China’s Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) leaders fled to the island of Taiwan and started a government there.
Since then, relations between China and Taiwan have been very poor, with periods of low-level conflict and even moments when it looked like there would be a full-blown war.
The US doesn’t officially recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation — it only recognizes China — but this big-ticket arms sale proposal highlights how Washington has long treated Taiwan as a separate, independent country in everything but name.
