Wednesday, July 31, 2019

DISRESPECT OF POLICE ‘BEGAN WITH RACE BAITING FORMER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S MISGUIDED CRITICISM OF POLICE IN CAMBRIDGE, MASS. OVER THE 2009 ARREST OF HIS FRIEND HENRY GATES’

The ‘Pantaleo effect’ proves the city can’t afford to soften the NYPD

By Miranda Devine

New York Post
July 28, 2019

We were still reeling at the spectacle of meek NYPD cops being doused with water all over town when Officer Daniel Pantaleo’s home on Staten Island was besieged by protesters Saturday night.

“He needs to feel fear wherever he goes!” chanted the small group. “We will find you, Pantaleo! No justice, no peace.”

Five years after bootleg cigarette seller Eric Garner died during a so-called “chokehold arrest” on Staten Island, Pantaleo has had no justice and no peace.

He was a good cop doing his job. But his abandonment by craven politicians and top brass has become the unspoken subtext of every police interaction in this city ever since.

His childhood friend Joseph Imperatrice, founder of Blue Lives Matter, is one who calls it the “Pantaleo effect.”

“Police officers cannot be afraid to do their job,” he said. “They have to understand the officers around them and the higher brass will have their back.”

Garner’s death was a tragedy, but even the medical examiner who ruled it a homicide found his health problems contributed. Garner was 6-foot-3 and obese, at 395 pounds. He had an enlarged heart and chronic asthma. The stress of struggling with cops triggered a fatal asthma attack.

Pantaleo is 6 feet and 220 pounds. He had been ordered to arrest Garner. When a man far bigger than him resisted, what was he meant to do, walk away?

Well, walk away is exactly what police are doing now.

And not once has anyone in authority understood how their failure to defend Pantaleo has damaged police morale.

Instead they pander to anti-police bullies who use the poor grieving Garner family as pawns.

The extraordinary passivity last week of those officers in Brooklyn and Harlem as jeering punks soaked them with water has been a long time brewing.

It began with race-baiting former President Barack Obama’s misguided criticism of police in Cambridge, Mass., over the 2009 arrest of his friend Henry Gates. It came to a head in 2014 with the “hands up, don’t shoot” lie told about Michael Brown after he was fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Mo., just three weeks after Garner’s death.

Along the way, Obama gave succor to anti-police activists. The inevitable result of hostility to law enforcement was the assassination of two police officers in Brooklyn, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, just weeks after a grand jury cleared Pantaleo.

Vilified by president wannabe Bill de Blasio and hung out to dry by Commissioner James O’Neill, Pantaleo has seen his actions on that summer’s day in 2014 after Garner resisted arrest scrutinized in every available jurisdiction.

A Staten Island grand jury found he had no case to answer.

The US Justice Department found he had no case to answer.

Now we await the result of a police disciplinary trial and the verdict of Commissioner O’Neill.

For police-haters, Pantaleo is a symbol of the “broken windows” tough-on-crime policing which so successfully cleaned up the city 25 years ago, and which de Blasio is doing his best to unwind while boasting of the low crime rates that are entirely its legacy.

Destroy Pantaleo and you destroy broken windows and, with it, the morale of the NYPD.

You can see how low morale has sunk in the resigned reaction of cops to egregious acts of disrespect, whether being doused by water in Harlem and Brooklyn, having buckets thrown at their heads, or just a foul-mouthed punk on the subway telling them to “suck my d–k”.

“Officers are not supported,” Ed Mullins, head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said on Friday.

“That’s the sentiment of the rank and file. They’re afraid to get involved because they know they don’t have the backing of the commissioner or the mayor.”

He is furious that de Blasio used the national platform of the first Democratic presidential debate last month to repeat the racist slur that his biracial son, Dante, wasn’t safe around cops because he was a “child of color.”

Nothing has changed since thousands of officers turned their backs on de Blasio at the funeral five years ago of assassinated cop Liu.

Mullins warns that it was the soft-touch policing of the 1970s that led to the crime explosion of the 1980s, and says water dousing incidents are just “the appetizer” to lawlessness to come.

“It won’t be on [de Blasio’s] watch,” he says. “It’s going to be the next mayor and the next commissioner.”

Already, he says, “crooks are getting emboldened . . . Perps know they’re not being searched for firearms. When you talk to the people of the city, they don’t feel safe. They see homelessness, people urinating in the street, turnstile jumping . . . We’re not enforcing crimes anymore.”

“The cops are confused as to what you want them to do,” Mullins says. “The backing off of law enforcement is beginning to erode the city.”

President Trump’s intervention this week, when he voiced support for the embattled cops of his hometown, blasting the water tossing as a “total disgrace,” meant the world, says Mullins.

But the only way to restore the morale of New York’s emasculated police force is for O’Neill to come out from behind his desk and defend Pantaleo.

He might owe his job to de Blasio but he doesn’t owe him his soul.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Way to go. You tell ’em, Miranda, you’re divine!

RED BILL GETS SINGED FOR CREATING DISRESPECT OF THE POLICE

Former NYPD chief slams de Blasio over cop-dousings

By Louis Anemone

New York Post
July 26, 2019

Former NYPD Chief of Department Louis Anemone, an architect of the department’s CompStat strategy that is credited with driving down crime to record lows since the 1990s, blames Mayor de Blasio for the abuse NYPD officers are enduring at the hands of foul-mouthed, water-lobbing punks.

Recent events in Brooklyn, Harlem and on the subway involving acts of disrespect toward police officers in uniform have provoked the sentiment of anger and shame in me.

Let me explain — I am angry as hell at the “woke,” “progressive,” political establishment of New York City, who are a disgrace to the city of New York.

They collectively have created a situation that can only get worse for the rule of law in New York. They have replaced common sense, impartiality and honesty in the pursuit of happiness in the city with crazy theories about our subconscious prejudices and minority privilege.

The educational and criminal justice systems in this city are under attack by these “progressives,” with not a care for the consequences of these deranged theories.

Our mayor has indicated on a number of occasions now that he had “the talk” with his son about how not to enrage the racist police of the city if he is ever stopped by them.

Mr. Mayor, it is now time for you to have a different “talk” with your supporters in each of the boroughs.

You should begin by explaining to your supporters that you were wrong to attack the motives of the men and women of the NYPD.

You should then apologize to those men and women of the NYPD who put it all on the line, 24/7, 365 days a year for all people in the city — residents or tourists, businesspersons or employees, the homeless or condo dwellers, citizens or aliens.

Your next step should be training and teaching the youth of the city in correct, courteous behavior that is the norm in most civilized cities in the world.

You may also mention the fact that in the future, parents will be held responsible for the behavior of their minor children, while adult children will be answerable to the courts for their behavior.

People must expect consequences for their anti-social and criminal behavior. No excuses, no hard-luck stories, no placing the blame on our institutions of education, health and policing for the lack of civility, rude and dangerous, threatening behavior by far too many youths and adults in our city.

I am ashamed that members of my beloved NYPD — when confronted with behavior that could just have easily been life-threatening — did nothing. They turned their backs on a threat, walked away defeated, all the while in uniform.

We who have served understand that when you wear the uniform, it is not about you anymore.

These people have now become emboldened to take perhaps more serious action against a police officer thinking that there will be no consequences for them. This is a very dangerous situation for the other officers in that precinct, who may meet these same people on the street a day, a week, a month later.

I have been retired for 20 years now, but I have known and witnessed true American heroes who wore that NYPD uniform with pride and courage during their careers. How dare any members of the department disgrace that same uniform by giving in to their selfish fears? Worries about what the department or the public might think of your actions are no justification for not stepping up and doing the right thing.

Shame on you. Resign now.

God bless the men and women of the NYPD. Walk tall, hold your heads high, and never back down.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Never back down and when no one is looking, kick the supreme shit out of the sorry ass bastards.

I'LL BET TRUMP PAID THE RAT

by Bob Walsh

Some TV talking head was doing a live shot from Baltimore about how mean Trump was for calling Baltimore a rat-infested shit hole when a rat the size of a small dog wandered thru the live shot. The only thing that would have been better would have been if the talking head would have seen it and freaked and they would have had to pull her off off of a telephone pole.
__________

Baltimore Rat Runs Through Fox Reporter's Live Shot, Trump Supporters Tout as 'Proof' President Not Racist

by Benjamin Fearnow

Newsweek
July 30, 2019

A rat in West Baltimore ran through a local Fox TV reporter's live shot on Monday as she discussed President Donald Trump being urged to visit the city he controversially labeled a "rat and rodent infested mess."

Fox 45 Baltimore reporter Maxine Streicher was engaged in a live broadcast from the city's Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood on Monday when the camera panned over to an alley just as a rat scurried out from under trash and along a wall. The live shot prompted widespread mockery from supporters of the president who touted the video as "proof" the president was correct in telling Maryland's 7th District Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings via Twitter to "clean up this very dangerous & filthy place."

"Now, we spoke with many people today, who say the president should consider coming here to Baltimore, to the Sandtown area, and taking a look at things for himself," Streicher can be heard saying as the camera examined a nearby alley.

The rat can be seen emerging from behind several bags of trash on the ground before running along a wall and disappearing into an adjacent patch of grass and concrete. Streicher is heard detailing how neighborhood residents told her the area needs to be "cleaned up" and crime needs to be reduced, but Trump's words were "too harsh."

Ann Coulter, Fox News radio host Todd Starnes and several state-level Republican Party lawmakers joined thousands of right-leaning social media users in gleefully sharing the video. WCBM-AM talk radio host Bruce Elliott declared on Starnes' radio show that the "unpleasant truth" is Trump was correct in identifying the city's rat and crime problems which many critics said were "racist" comments.

"I think that when you're telling the truth that that's hard to classify as anything other than the truth. There is a rat problem in Baltimore, the crime rate in Baltimore is scary, and we've had 191 murders so far this year," Elliott said.

During a later broadcast Monday, a Fox 45 Baltimore anchor described the rat's fleeting appearance as "proof" of Trump's complaints about parts of the city. The segment also noted Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders referred to portions of the city as "uninhabitable" in 2015, which Trump lamented on his Twitter account Monday.

"During Maxine's live shot in West Baltimore at 4 o'clock, we got some proof of what the president was talking about. Our photographer on the scene captured that, that big rat, seen running right across your screen," she explained.

The Fox-affiliated TV station, which is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, continued addressing Trump's criticism of Baltimore and noted a "surge in non-fatal shootings" across the city. The Monday evening segment highlighted a 31 percent increase from 2018 through July 20 of this year.

Many Twitter users responded to the rat "photo-bomb" video by pointing at several local stories over the years about longtime rodent problems in Baltimore. A September 2018 WBFF-TV report showed former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh exclaiming, "you can smell the rats." The clip prompted right-wing pundit Mark Dice and several conservative news outlets such as Breitbart and CNS News to further distance Trump's comments from accusations of racism.

"Here's a local Baltimore news story about the rat problem from a few years ago. 'Rats' are not a code word for black people. The city has a rat problem! #TrumpIsRightAgain," Dice tweeted Tuesday.

CAT LADY TO BE JAILED FOR FEEDING CATS

by Bob Walsh

Some poor deluded cat lady in Garfield Heights, Ohio is actually getting ten days in the slammer for feeding stray cats, which is illegal there. In her news clip she referred to the feral, vicious, overbred animals as "kitties" so clearly she is a couple of french fries short of a happy meal.

Her neighbors ratted her out because they got tired of the constant traffic of cats, cat pee and cat shit everywhere, and general stupidity.

CA GOVERNOR PISSING INTO THE WIND AGAIN

by Bob Walsh

The governor of the formerly great state of California, Gavin Newsom, has signed into law a clearly unconstitutional bill which would, if upheld, force ANYBODY (including Donald Trump) who wants to get his name on the California primary presidential ballot to cough up his tax returns.

Since there is no such requirement in FEDERAL law or in the U. S. Constitution it can not be enforced by a state against federal office holders or potential federal office holders.

The state of California is basically collectively jacking off in hopes of accomplishing something that they think will be significant. Since Trump isn't going to win in CA he could tell them to fuck off, but I am hoping he will sue the dog shit out of them, and collect damages and attorney's fees in the process.

I think even Ruth Ginsberg would have a problem with saying this is constitutional, but she is crazy and senile, so you never know.

LIFE AND ART INTERSECTING

by Bob Walsh

On Sunday evening life and art intersected each other at an intersection in Stockton.

An unnamed documentary filmmaker was shooting at the intersection of East Hazelton and South Center Street (not the best part of town, from far from the worst) at about 6 p.m. when somebody tried to steal his car. They fought, and the film maker managed to get away in his car, with injuries that required hospital care.

I wonder what the subject of his documentary is.

MOTHERS AGAINST SENSELESS KILLINGS KILLED

2 mothers killed in drive-by shooting had worked to stop gun violence in their Chicago neighborhood

By Manny Ramos and Nader Issa

Chicago Sun-Times
July 29, 2019

Chantell Grant and Andrea Stoudemire were at their usual spot Friday night, posted on a corner lot in the Gresham neighborhood as part of their effort to curb gun violence in their community.

The two women had spent two years working with Mothers Against Senseless Killings (MASK), a team of moms who put on events and offer a safe space for kids in the community.

But the peace-seekers became victims Friday when Grant — a 26-year-old mother of four — and Stoudemire — a 35-year-old mother of three — were killed in a drive-by shooting.

“It is terrifying. It is heartbreaking. I haven’t slept because I am trying to figure out how we can stop this,” Tamar Manasseh, founder of MASK, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Who’s next? I just keep thinking, ‘Who’s next?’ ”

Just before 10 p.m. Friday, a blue SUV rolled by 75th Street and Stewart Avenue, where MASK sets up shop, and someone fired shots into a crowd, Chicago police said. Grant and Stoudemire were killed, and a man was grazed in the arm.

“This is still very much under investigation, but at this time, we have no evidence that we can point to that suggests the women were the intended targets. We also have no evidence to the contrary,” CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi wrote in an email. No one was in custody as of Monday evening.

Manasseh started the group in 2015, with the moms “occupying” the southwest corner of 75th and Stewart — hanging out, cooking out and walking the neighborhood — with the belief that their presence and engagement with the community alone could do some good. The mothers also offer youths counseling, healthy meals and homes for those who don’t have them.

Instead of a lively group of kids playing and adults enjoying the summer weather Monday, mourners stopped by to leave candles, flowers and sign a poster at a memorial set up by friends of the two women.

“I’m trying to hold up. I’m taking it literally one day at a time,” said Charvonda Andrews, Stoudemire’s friend of more than two decades. “Honestly, every 30 minutes I’m crying. But I’m trying to just hold it together right now. That’s been my best friend since fifth grade.

“She was very outgoing. Very spontaneous. Loved to smile,” Andrews said. “She loved taking care of her kids. That’s the main thing. Her kids were her world.”

A few minutes later, as rain started to fall on Andrews and a group of friends, they released a dozen balloons into the air and watched as two drifted off together.

Andrews, sobbing over the loss of her friend, let out her frustration: “Why are these cowards taking moms away from these kids? ... I’m so tired of Chicago.”

The man who was grazed in Friday’s shooting also stopped by the scene Monday — with his arm bandaged — to pay his respects.

The man, who spoke to the Sun-Times on the condition he remain anonymous, said he spends much of his time walking the neighborhood, trying to console people affected by gun violence. The night of the shooting, he comforted one of the women who was shot, holding her hand as she died.

”It’s too much around here. The older people can’t come out and sit on the porch; the kids can’t play,” he said. “It’s just, wow. Everyone is scared.”

MASK has started a GoFundMe campaign with the goal of raising a $5,000 reward for information “that will bring these mother killers to justice.”

The attack was the second drive-by shooting on the block in the past month. The night of June 25, a 23-year-old woman was wounded as she stood on the corner about 9 p.m., when a black vehicle drove by and someone inside opened fire, Chicago police said. She was shot in the face, back and leg but survived. There was no indication from police that the shootings were connected.

At the site Monday, Stoudemire’s older brother, Dyrell Powell, paced around the block in shock over his sister’s death.

“They killed my sister. It hurts,” Powell said. “Whoever did this, I hope they go to jail for life.”

JEWISH DRUG DEALER PARDONED FOR THE RIGHT REASONS

Trump pardons Israeli man from 20-year sentence for drug offenses

JNS
July 30, 2019

U.S. President Donald Trump commuted the 20-year prison sentence on Monday of Israel-born Ronen Nahmani, who was convicted in 2015 of distributing synthetic drugs that he purchased from suppliers in China.

The 41-year-old Torah-observant Jew has already served four years in prison.

The pardon comes after Nahmani’s children wrote letters requesting a presidential pardon and also due to the health of his wife, Ruth, who suffers from terminal cancer.

“Mr. Nahmani is a non-violent, first-time offender with no criminal history. He has five young children at home, and his wife is suffering from terminal cancer. These extenuating circumstances underscore the urgency of his request for clemency,” the White House said in a statement.

It also noted that “members of Congress and a broad cross-section of the legal community have expressed support for clemency for Mr. Nahmani.”

“I’m still trying to catch my breath because I’m so overwhelmed; I can’t believe what happened, and I’m so grateful,” Ruth, told Hamodia news. “I don’t even have words in the dictionary to describe how grateful I am, how blessed I feel and how I overwhelmed I am with the joy in my heart.”

Among the lawyers fighting for Nahmani’s pardon was professor emeritus at Harvard Law School Alan Dershowitz, who said, “what President Trump did was the right thing; he ought to be praised for saving lives and doing a mitzvah. … I think it will be an important part of President Trump’s legacy that he did the right thing for the right reasons.”

HERE’S HOPING THOSE WEAPONS WON’T EVENTUALLY BE USED AGAINST ISRAEL

Trump administration gets green light to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, after Senate rejects veto overrides

By Gregg Re

Fox News
July 29, 2019

The Trump administration is set to move forward with plans to sell billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, after the Republican-controlled Senate on Monday rejected efforts to block the sales by overriding President Trump's vetoes.

The White House had vowed to use an emergency loophole in the Arms Export Control Act to move ahead unilaterally with sales of billions of dollars in precision-guided munitions, other bombs, ammo and aircraft maintenance support, infuriating lawmakers from both parties. The administration pointed out that this authority has been invoked by past presidents on multiple occasions, including in 1979, 1984, 1990 and 2006.

But, in bipartisan pushback, Democrats and Republicans banded together to pass resolutions blocking the $8.1 billion weapons sales to the U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf.

Three votes Monday to override Trump's vetoes failed. Each required a two-thirds vote.

The veto override attempts commenced in the Senate, because it's the body that originated the legislation in question. Successful veto overrides are rare, and there have only been 111 veto overrides in the history of the republic. The last override was the Senate's 97-1 vote in 2016 to override then-President Obama's veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which allowed families of 9/11 victims to sue those responsible for the attacks, including Saudi Arabia.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month cited threats from Iran as a reason to approve the $8.1 billion arms sale to the two U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf, which are enemies of Tehran.

"To reject these sales at this time and under these circumstances is to reward recent Iranian aggression and to encourage further Iranian escalation," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said last month after the Senate voted to block the sales. Risch added that blocking the sales would "encourage miscalculation on the part of Iranians which will be disastrous."

The White House also argued that stopping the sales would send a signal that the United States didn't stand by its partners and allies, particularly at a time when threats from hostile countries such as Iran have been increasing.

"Iran’s malign activity poses a fundamental threat to the stability of the Middle East and to Americans at home and abroad. We took this step of prudent diplomatic deterrence to augment our partners’ long-term capacity for self-defense and threat mitigation," a senior State Department official told Fox News this past May.

The official added, "Congress won’t act, but we will."

Meanwhile, human rights groups, government officials and the broader international community routinely have raised concerns about the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen striking civilian targets, potentially with the assistance of U.S weaponry. However, less has been said about the possibility of such weapons ending up in enemy hands in the chaotic and lawless theater of war – both Iran proxies and extremist Sunni militias.

"This is an evolving topic; these weapons are getting handed off to a vast range of militias," Philippe Nassif, the advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, told Fox News. "There are a lot of weapons floating in Yemen, and this isn’t a new issue. We have seen this happen for years in parts of the world."

The United States has been the largest arms supplier to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and between 2013 and 2017 alone Saudi Arabia purchased $112 billion in weapons. While there have been distinct Pentagon rules that arms transfers could not be moved to a third party without authorization, critics have argued that monitoring or enforcing such regulations was comprehensive enough.

"When these weapons leave U.S. hands, we ultimately have little ability to control where they go," said Defense Priorities fellow Gil Barndollar.

Still, much of the conversation in Washington concerned the legality of Trump's move and the strength of the precedent for using the emergency exemption for arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Then-President Ronald Reagan invoked it in the 1980s, and both Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush used it for sales before the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq war, respectively.

But, in a statement on Monday, Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat and senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Republicans had "abdicated their constitutionally mandated responsibilities as lawmakers" and their "legal and moral obligation to make certain that U.S. weapons are not used to repress human rights or perpetrate violence against innocent civilians."

Cardin said Saudi Arabia has "shown a total disregard for international law by using U.S.-provided arms to level devastating attacks on civilians, including young children," adding that "just this morning, a Saudi led airstrike killed at least 10 civilians in northern Yemen."

He said, "This must end."

Tensions between Iran and the West have mounted since Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 accord restricting the Iranian nuclear program. Trump reimposed sanctions that had been lifted under the accord, devastating Iran's economy.

Saudi Arabia has long been a regional rival to Iran, and tension has mounted between the UAE and Tehran over several issues, including the UAE's coordination with U.S. efforts to curb what it's called Iran's malign activities in the region.

The Senate votes came after the House Oversight Committee released a report criticizing the Trump administration for its alleged ties to Saudi Arabia.

130 YEARS LATER

Slain Kentucky Marshal Honored Over A Century Later In Texas

LAPPL News Watch
July 30, 2019

A federal officer gunned down while transporting prisoners through eastern Kentucky was honored at a small ceremony Friday in Texas, more than a century after his death.

Senior officials with the U.S. Marshals Service and judges gathered at a courthouse in Plano, a suburb northeast of Dallas, to present a flag to Russell Wireman's great-great-great grandson, Gary Hulsey.

Wireman, a marshal, was shot in the chest in 1889 during the so-called Moonshine War, but his death until recently has been a lost part of history. The presentation of the folded flag was part of an effort by America's oldest federal law-enforcement agency to recognize officers whose deaths during a particularly deadly period of its history had been obscured by the passing decades.

"We have a saying in the law enforcement community that we never forget," said Richard Taylor, U.S. marshal for the Northern District of Texas. "One hundred and 30 years later, we never forget."

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

AOC, YOU ARE INSULTING EVERY VICTIM OF THE HOLOCAUST

BY DEMOCRATS OWN STANDARD, SANDERS OUGHT TO CARRY RACIST LABEL DURING PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

Trump asks why 'Crazy Bernie' wasn't called a racist for comparing Baltimore to a 'third world country' while he has been roasted for his 'rat-infested mess' tweets

Daily Mail
July 29, 2019

President Trump turned his ire to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Monday as he opened up a third front in his Baltimore battle.

'Crazy Bernie Sanders recently equated the City of Baltimore to a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY! Based on that statement, I assume that Bernie must now be labeled a Racist, just as a Republican would if he used that term and standard!' he charged.

Trump further claimed that he'd be happy to assist leaders of the urban area clean the city up, if they requested his assistance. 'The fact is, Baltimore can be brought back, maybe even to new heights of success and glory, but not with King Elijah and that crew. When the leaders of Baltimore want to see the City rise again, I am in a very beautiful oval shaped office waiting for your call! he tweeted.

Sanders had in 2015 compared Baltimore to a third world country. Yet, he criticized Trump in a Sunday morning interview for zeroing in on a majority-black district represented by a respected African-America congressman.

But the sitting president also had 2015 comments that were coming back to haunt him on Monday. He'd blamed then-President Barack Obama for crime in Maryland's capital city and said the nation's leader should go to Baltimore and calm racial tensions.

EDITOR’S NOTE: While taking a tour of East Baltimore a year ago, former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh said:

“What the hell? We should just take all this shit down. Woah, you can smell the rats. Whew, Jesus. Oh my God, you can smell the dead animals.”

Now, according to the Democrats, that was downright racist. Oops, it could not have been because Pugh is black.

SO, WHAT'S THE ANSWER? MORE GUN LAWS OF COURSE

by Bob Walsh

The 19 year old asshole shooter in Gilroy purchased his Kalashnikov pattern rifle legally in Nevada. He probably had some dreaded high-capacity magazines too, purchased legally in Nevada. (They are actually factory standard capacity magazines, but why bother with details.) Unless he bought his ammo in California (he might have) importing it into CA was illegal. Possession of the rifle in CA was illegal unless he registered it here. Possession of the high-capacity magazines was illegal. Carrying a loaded rifle except on private property or at a licensed gun range was illegal. Cutting the fence and sneaking into the Garlic Festival was illegal. Discharging the weapon with intent to harm or kill was illegal. So, how to stop it from happening again? Pass more laws.

SB61 would prohibit anyone in California from purchasing more than one gun per month. He didn't buy it in California, and he may have owned just the one gun, so he may very well have been cool anyway.

The Gun Violence Restraining Act needs to be expanded obviously. Of course the now dead shooter, Santino William Legan, 19, had no reports of violent claims or tendancies.

Also of course we should increase training on gun violence restraining orders. That would stop these crimes dead.

And we must increase funding to CA DOJ to take guns away from prohibited persons. Of course Legan was not in fact a prohibited person, but what the fuck, just go with it.

Of course, Governor Gavin Newsom said yesterday that it was Donald Trump's fault. So we can just blame him and stop all this meaningless bullshit. But we won't. Because our legislature is collectively a pack of whores and assholes and the electorate is collectively too lame or too stupid to throw the bastards out.

SAVED BY THE BRA

by Bob Walsh

Daniesa Murdaugh, 21, is a very lucky lady. She was present at a block party in Brooklyn when, at about 11 p.m. on July 27, somebody started shooting. She ran and was shot in the back.

Fortunately for her the bullet impacted her bra strap directly over her spine. When EMS showed up and checked her out they unhooked her bra and the bullet fell out of the strap. She had some fragments in her skin but no significant injury. The shooting left one man dead at the Brownsville area party.

The New York Public Advocate, Jumaane D. Williams, asserted (incorrectly of course) that there is a mass shooting "nearly every day" in the U.S. Mayor "Red Bill" deBlasio tried to come up with some way to blame Donald Trump, but couldn't manage it.

Nobody said anything about whether or not a shooter had been identified or was in custody, or a possible motive, nor pretty much anything actually helpful.

Welcome to the Big Apple. INCOMING.

KAMALA HARRIS REFINES HER POSITION YET AGAIN

by Bob Walsh

Kamala Harris has again refiined / explained her position on medicare-for-all just prior to the next round of Democrap presidential debates.

She still wants medicare for all, BUT would allow private health care insurance plans to remain in the mix, IF they are willing to follow certain rules that she lays down. (Damn nice of her I think.)

Her first expressed idea was to shitcan all private insurance and dump everybody into medicare. She has been backing incrementally away from that position ever since she expressed it.

She still has not come up with any realistic idea as to how she would fund this huge cost. Currently her idea is to tax the dogshit out of any family making above $100,000. She would also tax many stock market transactions at as much as 0.2% to help fund it. She would also tax the "rich" another 1% on top of whatever they are paying now.

The techie types say Medicare for all would cost about $30 trillion dollars. Harris's plan would raise about 10% of that sum.

One thing for sure. She really, really, really wants to be president and really, really, really thinks she can beat Trump if she can just get the Democrap nomination. The knives may come out for the next Democrap debate circus. DEATH TO THE OLD WHITE GUYS.

DICK'S ALL THE WAY OUT OF HUNTING RETAILING

by Bob Walsh

Dick's Sporting Goods has taken itself fully out of the hunting retail business in 125 stores. Not only no weapons but no gear directly associated with hunting.

Last year it took these items out of ten stores that were underpreforming in that area. This move actually preceeded a modest bump in Q4 earnings. It is hard to say for sure that it CAUSED the bump.

As far as Dick's is concerned this means firearms, ammunition and clothing and accessories directly associated with hunting. They are seriously considering ashcanning their Field and Stream brand and closing their Field and Stream stores.

Dicks has also shut down its licensing arrangement with Reebok, which sent Adidas-Reebok stock downward.

It is still difficult to say if this political position is going to be a long-term plus or minus for the retailer.

DON’T FUCK WITH THEM TAGGERS

LAPD Officer Confronted Tagger And Was Fatally Shot At Lincoln Heights Taco Stand, Search Continues For Suspect

LAPPL News Watch
July 29, 2019

The young off-duty officer was eating with friends near a Lincoln Heights taco stand after midnight Saturday when he saw someone tagging a wall. He called out for the person to stop, setting off a chain of events that left Los Angeles Police Department officers mourning the death of one of their own while simultaneously trying to find his killer.

According to law enforcement sources, a group of young men approached Officer Juan Jose Diaz sometime after the tagging exchange and began threatening the 24-year-old, his girlfriend and her two brothers. One of the men lifted his shirt to reveal a handgun. Diaz and his group tried to hurry to their car and drive away to avoid a violent confrontation, a source said. As they got into the vehicle, the gunman opened fire, fatally wounding Diaz and injuring one of his girlfriend’s brothers.

A witness flagged down an LAPD motorcycle officer, who found the two men with gunshot wounds about 1 a.m. at Avenue 26 and Humboldt Street, police said. Diaz was pronounced dead; his girlfriend’s brother was taken to a hospital for treatment.

With just two years on the force, Diaz was most recently assigned to the Professional Standards Bureau.

ROYAL PIECE OF TRASH CASHING IN ON HER CATCH OF HARRY

Me-Me-Meghan's shamelessly hypocritical super-woke Vogue stunt proves she cares more about promoting herself than the Royal Family or Britain

By Piers Morgan

Daily Mail
July 29, 2019

Two months ago, Meghan Markle was reportedly 'too busy caring for her baby' to meet the President of her own country on his state visit to the UK.

Now we discover she was in fact preoccupied with the birth of another elitist production - Vogue magazine.

News that Meghan has spent the past seven months guest-editing the September issue of Vogue is no surprise to me. As a B-list actress, she's probably craved all her adult life to be a Vogue star.

News that Buckingham Palace has let her do it is a big surprise though, because Meghan is now supposed to be a member of the royal family and not a publicity-craving celebrity. And being a royal means you stay out of politics. Yet here is Meghan being about as political as any royal has ever been.

She's chosen 15 female 'trailblazers' and 'changemakers' for the special 'Forces for Change' issue, all picked because they promote 'equality, kindness and open-mindedness'.

The women she's selected represent the greatest hits of virtue-signalling - with a nod to everything from 'body positivity', female empowerment, mental health, disability and race to transgender rights, climate change, diversity, and privilege.

The last one made me laugh out loud.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Daily Mail also reports the piece of trash has been slammed by critics for failing to include the Queen in the magazine and for ignoring nurses, doctors, lawyers and teachers on the cover. Royal watchers have also hit out at Meghan for promoting her friends and 'involving herself in politics'.

And Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir said the cause Meghan Markle is mostly supporting is the Me, Myself and I Foundation.

Vogue wouldn't give Markle three seconds of its time if she hadn't dug her claws into Harry.

TWO ISRAELI GANGSTERS RUBBED OUT IN MEXICO CITY

Israeli shot dead by female assassin in Mexico was prominent underworld figure

The Times of Israel
July 25, 2019

One of the two Israelis shot dead in broad daylight in Mexico City on Wednesday has been identified as a prominent figure in Israel’s criminal underworld, sparking suspicions that the killing was a gangland assassination.

One of the suspected killers, 33-year-old Esperanza Gutierrez Rojano, confessed to the shooting and claimed during police questioning that it was a crime of passion, saying the Israeli victim had cheated on her.

But on Thursday, Israeli media reported that the deceased was a well-known Israeli crime boss, Tel Aviv native Ben Suthi, who had completed a lengthy prison sentence in Israel in February.

Israeli police sources told the Ynet news site that there was “no doubt” the murder was “commissioned by those with interests in Israel.” Israeli police reportedly suspect that an Israeli criminal organization paid a local group in Mexico City to carry out the hit.

“We have no doubt this wasn’t a mistake, nor a romantic crime, but a commissioned and planned assassination,” the police source was quoted as saying.

Rojano’s confession, in which she reportedly said she had acted out of “betrayal and passion,” may have been code for a retribution attack by a Mexican or Israeli criminal organization for some perceived treachery on Suthi’s part, the source said.

The same news site also quoted what it called “underworld sources” as saying that the assassination constituted “an earthquake in the Israeli criminal world…. This wasn’t someone marginal, but a very dominant figure who was very careful and very suspicious.”

The shooting occurred at a coffee shop in the luxury shopping district Artz Pedregal in the southwest of the city on Wednesday afternoon.

According to preliminary police findings reported in Mexican media, Suthi and a second Israeli man, identified as Bat Yam native Alon Azoulay, were sitting at a table in the cafe, while Rojano, in a blond wig, sat next to an apparent accomplice at another table some 10 meters (33 feet) away. After the Israelis ordered drinks, the assassins stood up, walked over to the targets’ table and shot them multiple times with a Glock handgun at point-blank range.

Rojano then ripped off her wig and shirt and fled the shopping center with police in close pursuit.

The officers soon caught up with her and placed her under arrest. An officer was reportedly shot and injured during the chase, apparently by two accomplices outside the mall who were helping Rojano escape.

Rojano’s accomplices, who also fled the scene, were not caught.

Suthi relocated to Mexico a few weeks ago, according to media reports. He is believed to have a daughter in the country, conceived during his last stint there after he fled Israel in 2001, escaping a prison term for murder during a furlough from prison.

The shooting comes a day after another Israeli underworld figure, Erez Akrishevsky, was extradited from Mexico to Israel. Akrishevsky was close to Suthi, and had fled Israel with him in 2001, living for the past 18 years in Mexico under the assumed name Ricardo Lopez before he was caught by Mexican police this month and returned to Israel.

The fatal shooting also comes less than a month after an Israeli DJ was shot dead during a rave in central Mexico. Forty-five-year-old Ronen Dahan, known as DJ Perplex, was one of two people gunned down in the shooting in San Luis Potosí, which local media linked to the ongoing drug cartel violence in the country.

EDITOR’S NOTE: El Universal reports that Gutierrez said she was paid $262 by the Jalisco Cartel New Generation to carry out the hit.
__________

Ex Mossad agent with ties to international crime mafias assassinated in Plaza Artz Pedregal

By Sol Prendido from VXT

Borderland Beat
July 27, 2019

Ciudad de México -- In 2005, Benjamin Yeshurun Sutchi was arrested and offered a million pesos to the then undersecretary of the capital police, Gabriel Regino, for his release.

Benjamin Yeshurun Sutchi, one of the two executed Wednesday at Plaza Artz, was a high-level criminal with Mossad training -the intelligence, espionage and counterterrorism agency of Israel - recalled Gabriel Regino, former Undersecretary of Public Security of the Federal District , who arrested him in 2005.

In an interview with Milenio, he recalled that he interrogated Sutchi when they were going to hand him over to the Israeli authorities, as he had a red Interpol file against him; during the trip Sutchi offered him money to let him escape.

“He was a very skilled man, fairly fluent in Spanish. He asked me what was I was going to achieve. What I was going to gain with his arrest, if nothing more than a little star to add on my uniform and that it was better to gain something out of it. I don't remember if it was a million pesos or dollars offered, I don't remember exactly, ”he said.

When recounting what happened 14 years ago, the criminal lawyer mentioned that at that time the CISEN (Center for Investigation and National Security) requested the support of the capital authorities to capture the Israeli criminal. Who allegedly arrived in Mexico in 2005 for work carrying out protection and intelligence for the Jewish community.

However, he says that the Israeli took advantage of the information to extort Mexican Jewish families that he was supposed to protect. In addition, he had a criminal record related to homicides in his country.

After a two-week follow-up, his detention in Mexico City was achieved and the level of danger was such that the police had to have 600 elements to protect his transfer.

The life of this character ran between Mexico and Israel, in Israel he was sought for links with criminal organizations and some cases related to homicides. It was a headache for both Israel and the Jewish community, according to intelligence authorities we had access to. "

"We managed to stop him in Polanco, when he was going to a commercial establishment, this happened around 1 or 2 in the afternoon," he said.

THREE CARTEL MEMBERS BUSTED IN ARIZONA, MORE THAN $200,000 WORTH OF DRUGS SEIZED

Multiple cartel members arrested around the Valley after months long operation

BY Zach Crenshaw and Joe Enea

ABC 15
July 26, 2019

MESA, AZ — A federal and local drug task force has arrested three members of the Sinaloa Cartel living in the Valley.

During the six month investigation, the agents took more than $200,000 worth of drugs from the operation and intercepted more than $75,000 in cash.

Starting in January, a DEA task force coordinated an investigation with Scottsdale police to target members of the cartel operating out of Mesa. The organization imports cocaine, meth, heroin, and fentanyl-laced pills from Mexico and exports illegal drug money back across the border, according to court documents.

Investigators identified Carlos Armando Perez Gutierrez, 38, as a member who stays at a drug stash house near Hayden and McDowell roads. Investigators say Gutierrez directed a vehicle into his backyard where kilos of drugs were unloaded. The car was allegedly loaded with boxes of ammunition, hidden in a secret compartment in the radiator.

Another member, Alfredo Rios, 44, reportedly communicated with another cartel dealer, Ivan Garduno Valencia, 35, saying the drugs had arrived and they "looked good." Investigators say Rios told Valencia to meet him at a Mesa tire shop and the drugs would be found inside a tire.

Authorities intercepted the vehicle and reportedly found nine bundles of cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl hidden inside the spare tire. The driver allegedly told police that he was taking the shipment to Las Vegas.

“With these three arrests, we were able to identify and arrest a cell head, another leader, as well as a retail dealer. So that's three people in the hierarchy that we were able to take out, in just that short amount of time,” said Erica Curry, spokesperson for the Arizona DEA.

Rios was allegedly found with $40,000 wrapped in three bundles in his car and another $15,000 in cash at his home near Mesa Drive and Southern Avenue.

Detectives said Rios was living at the home with his wife and kids. When law enforcement raided the house, Rios threw a door, with nails sticking out, at the federal agents. They also found two guns in the home, which Rios was prohibited from owning as a convicted felon.

When investigators raided Valencia's house, they reportedly found cocaine and "two jugs of Lidocaine" that is used to cut cocaine, according to court records. Investigators also found ledgers documenting the group's drug sales.

Agents and detectives spent months surveilling the homes and stash houses, as well as intercepting coded communication through a wiretap. They told ABC15 the investigation into the cartel is ongoing.

According to court documents, the drugs were being shipped to Las Vegas, Colorado, Texas, and other states across the country.

All three men are being held on $250,000 cash bonds on charges of narcotic drug sales, money laundering, aggravated assault, and weapons misconduct.

TRANSPORTING FENTANYL PAID MORE THAN HIS MEXICAN POLICE SALARY

Former Mexican Police Officer Charged with Trafficking Enough Fentanyl to Kill 10 Million

DEA
July 26, 2019

A federal grand jury in Amarillo, Texas has indicted a former Mexican municipal police officer for fentanyl trafficking, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox.

In a superseding indictment filed Thursday evening, Assmir Contreras-Martinez, 30, of Tucson, Arizona, was charged with conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin.

He was allegedly discovered with roughly 33 kilograms of the drug – likely enough to kill more than 10 million people, according to DEA experts.

“Fentanyl is devastating communities across the country,” said U.S. Attorney Nealy Cox. “We cannot tolerate the trafficking of this deadly drug through North Texas— especially by those who are charged with protecting our communities, foreign or domestic.”

“Fentanyl is the number one threat causing our opioid epidemic in the United States,” said Clyde E. Shelley, Jr., DEA Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas Division. “This seizure alone has potentially save millions of lives.”

According to a criminal complaint filed earlier this summer, Mr. Contreras-Martinez was pulled over by a Texas DPS trooper driving eastbound on Interstate 40 in Amarillo in May 2019.

A search of his vehicle, a 2007 Ford Explorer, allegedly revealed approximately 33 kilograms of a white powdery substance, which the trooper suspected to be drugs, likely cocaine. Subsequent testing revealed the substance was actually fentanyl.

After being advised of his rights, Mr. Contreras-Martinez allegedly admitted he was paid $6,000 to transport illegal contraband from California to Florida. This was his second such trip, he said.

During that interview, Mr. Contreras-Martinez allegedly stated that before his unlawful immigration to the United States seven months prior, he had been employed for eight years as a municipal police officer in Cananea, Sonora, Mexico.

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, Mr. Contreras-Martinez faces 30 years to life in federal prison, and may face deportation proceedings after serving his sentence.

Overdoses involving synthetic opioids like fentanyl killed almost 32,000 Americans last year, according to provisional data released by the CDC last week. Because of the drug’s deadly potency, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas has a zero-tolerance policy on fentanyl, taking federally any case that involves the substance or its unlawful analogues, no matter the quantity.

The Texas Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration conducted the above investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Marie Bell is prosecuting the case.

Monday, July 29, 2019

GUNFIGHT AT GILROY GARLIC FESTIVAL

by Bob Walsh

OK, it wasn't the Gunfight at the O K Corral but it was remarkable for a yuppie-fest. On Sunday at least one shooter started throwing lead at the third and final day of THE place to be in Gilroy, CA if you like garlic ice cream.

Originally 11 people were reported down. That could have been right, but only five are known to have gunshot injuries. Agents from BATFE responded, which is sort of strange I would think.

People were cutting fences to get out of the venue, Christmas Hill Park. (Strange, I hardly ever carry heavy-duty wire cutters to me when I go to these sort of things. I guess I am getting old.)

This information is very preliminary and could easily be way off.

EDITOR'S NOTE: NBC reports that at least three people were killed, including a 6-year-old boy, and 12 others wounded. The suspect was shot and killed by the police.

SO, WILL THEY HANG TOGETHER ?

by Bob Walsh

Lori Laughlin and her husband Mossimo Gianulli are continuing to hang tough and have separate lawyers from the same law firm and intend to present a united defense against charges related to the college admissions scandal.

The couple are expected to appear in court in late August and to waive their rights to separate trials.

A total of 50 people have been criminally charged in the case. Several have already plead out.

The actress and her designer husband face possibly up to 20 years in the slammer if convicted on all charges.

LIFETIME channel productions is already preparing a movie on the scandal. I wonder if Laughlin will be asked to play herself? (I sort of doubt it.)

NIKE IS IN THE GRASP OF AN IGNORANT ASSHOLE

Betsy Ross

(Sent to me by a friend.)

She was a Quaker (she didn't own slaves)

She married a man her family disapproved of. So they disowned her.

She learned a trade. Upholstery.

She and her husband opened a store.

Then war broke out and her husband left to fight for the colonies. He died in battle.

She kept the store running by making regimental flags for the war effort. She married again.

This time to a man who was fighting the British by sea. He also died

She kept sewing and running the store. Her home was taken over by the British when they occupied Philadelphia.

She was a patriot.

She lost two husbands to the war and at that time in history, she learned a trade and was able to take care of herself and her children.

So that flag represents the birth of our country and in the case of Ross, early feminism!!

She's a female icon!!

This flag has nothing to do with slavery or police brutality against black men.

Nike made the wrong move. Again.

And Kaepernick is still an ignorant asshole.

ACCUSATIONS OF RACISM FLY BACK AND FORTH

Trump throws 'Squad' feud back at Pelosi after 'racist' accusation: 'Democrats always play the race card'

By Ronn Blitzer

Fox News
July 28, 2019

President Trump is defending himself against accusations of racism, claiming he’s just the latest target of a party that plays the “race card,” as he leveled criticism against Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

Trump called out Cummings on Saturday, slamming him as a “brutal bully” for how he spoke to border patrol officials, and said that the congressman’s Baltimore district is in “FAR WORSE” shape than the situation at the southern border. That rebuke resulted in claims of racism from Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Trump pointed out that he’s hardly the first to get accused of racism, with the speaker herself recently in the middle of a similar controversy.

“Someone please explain to Nancy Pelosi, who was recently called racist by those in her own party, that there is nothing wrong with bringing out the very obvious fact that Congressman Elijah Cummings has done a very poor job for his district and the City of Baltimore. Just take a look, the facts speak far louder than words!” Trump tweeted Sunday morning. “The Democrats always play the Race Card, when in fact they have done so little for our Nation’s great African American people,” he added.

The president appeared to be referring to how House Speaker Pelosi was the target of a thinly veiled accusation of racism when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., accused her of “singling out” women of color. That was after Pelosi dismissed Ocasio-Cortez and her “Squad” -- that includes Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley -- as being more influential on social media than in Congress. Trump defended Pelosi at the time.

On Saturday, Pelosi stood by Cummings and the city of Baltimore, where she was born, and rebuked Trump, calling his remarks "racist."

“Rep. Cummings is a champion in the Congress and the country for civil rights and economic justice, a beloved leader in Baltimore, and deeply valued colleague,” she tweeted. “We all reject racist attacks against him and support his steadfast leadership.”

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also called Trump's comments "ugly and racist" during a campaign stop on Saturday.

Trump doubled down on his comments against Cummings Saturday afternoon, tweeting, "Elijah Cummings spends all of his time trying to hurt innocent people through 'Oversight.' He does NOTHING for his very poor, very dangerous and very badly run district!" The tweet included a video purporting to show a rundown area of West Baltimore.

The video included a female voice lamenting that "they're worried about the kids at the border, but this is how actual American citizens got to live and deal with," she added.

Trump tweeted a similar-appearing video late Saturday, asking: ".@RepCummings, why don’t you focus on your district!?"

"Mr. President, I go home to my district daily," Cummings tweeted in response to Trump's initial criticism. "Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors. It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents."

Trump took another shot at Pelosi Sunday morning, saying: “Speaking of failing badly, has anyone seen what is happening to Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco. It is not even recognizeable lately. Something must be done before it is too late. The Dems should stop wasting time on the Witch Hunt Hoax and start focusing on our Country!”

EDITOR’S NOE: Trump, like many of us, may very well be a racist, but he did not attack AOC’s squad or Cummings because they were people of color, he attacked them for what they have been shrieking about.

For instance, during his House committee hearing last week, Cummings screamed out loud at acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan: “You feel like you’re doing a great job, right? What does that mean? What does that mean? When a child is sitting in their own feces, can’t take a shower? Come on man. What’s that about? None of us would have our children in that position. They are human beings.”

Trump was right in attacking Cummings for screaming at McAleenan and for pulling that children sitting in their own shit horseshit out of a hat. I'm sure he would have badmouthed Cummings every bit as much if he was white.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE LEFTWARD MARCH

As with Nixon, Democrats mistake Trump for an extremist. That in turn drives them to extremes

By Barton Swaim

The Wall Street Journal
July 28, 2019

What has caused the Democratic Party to run so far, so fast to the left? You could answer that question by recourse to a variety of indicators: demographic, historical, economic, technological. What you can’t do is deny the premise. The abolition of private health insurance, a 70% top income-tax rate, an annual tax on wealth, the socialization of higher education, the elimination of border enforcement (and thus of borders), reparations for slavery, a return to forced busing, a wholesale remaking of the nation’s economy to fight climate change—all are openly proposed and discussed by the party’s leaders.

Add to these proposals the almost daily exhibitions of radicalism by Democratic officeholders and their admirers and allies: requiring that manholes be termed “maintenance holes,” renaming buildings named for American presidents, defending the bizarre notion that the Betsy Ross flag might be a symbol of bigotry and shame, banning straws, calling any military parade fascist. That large segments of the Democratic Party have suddenly radicalized is undeniable. But what’s driving the change?

I am partial to a psychological interpretation. Donald Trump has given Americans on the political left the emotional license to embrace their craziest, most fanciful ideas. They might have been inclined to express these ideas cautiously or not at all if someone other than Mr. Trump were president. But he is president, and they must have everything they’ve ever wanted or ever thought they might want, now.

The reason for this response, if I’m right, isn’t so much that progressives hate Mr. Trump. They hated George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan with an almost equal intensity. (Republicans hated Barack Obama and Bill Clinton with equal fervor—Democrats have no monopoly on irrational hatred.) What’s allowed progressives to give way to their most radical urges isn’t simple hatred but a peculiar notion about the 45th president.

In the progressive mind, Mr. Trump is every conservative’s dream come true. He is, they imagine, what Republicans have always secretly longed for in a president. He fetishizes wealth. He is cruel. He is a proud philistine and a chauvinist. He lies when it’s convenient. And—above all—he is a racist.

I don’t say every progressive thinks of conservatives in this way in all respects, but Mr. Trump, as progressives understand him, is close to what they’ve always suspected conservatives to be.

Of course, Mr. Trump is vastly more complicated and interesting than progressives give him credit for—few men in history, and certainly not Donald Trump, are as wantonly evil as today’s progressives believe Mr. Trump is. And in any case he isn’t remotely close to an ideal conservative. What led a majority of Republicans to choose this former Democrat and sexual libertine as their nominee in 2016 was a complicated set of circumstances that no one fully understands. Recall that he’d run for president before and got nowhere. That he wasn’t Republicans’ ideal candidate in 2016 is apparent by the large numbers of conservatives who couldn’t support him even after his nomination. Some still don’t. In the progressive imagination, though, Mr. Trump isconservatism: heartless, lacking all conviction, dismissive of nuance, interested only in self-advancement, arrogant.
Progressives’ emotional reasoning appears to be thus: Republicans got everything they wanted in 2016. We have a right to do the same. Whereas they achieved pure evil, we will achieve pure good. No more compromising with the other side. No more concessions to reality. Republicans hit their jackpot in 2016. We will hit ours in 2020.

Something similar happened in 1972. Richard Nixon was never the embodiment of conservatism liberals thought he was. The relationship between Nixon and conservatives (conservative intellectuals, certainly) was always uneasy. By the middle of his first term, many conservatives no longer supported the president at all and hoped, vainly, that the more ideologically consistent Rep. John Ashbrook could mount a credible challenge in the ’72 primaries. Nonetheless for liberals, Nixon was the embodiment of the Republican ideal: ruthless, shifty, retrogressive, boorish, populist in the worst sense.

There was some truth in that view of Nixon, just as there is some truth in the view of Mr. Trump held by progressives today. But Nixon was far more than the sum of his vices, and so is Mr. Trump.

The Democrats’ simpleminded view of Nixon, though, pushed them over the edge in 1972. The leftward lurch made no sense except as a psychological response to a nonexistent monster. If Republicans had achieved everything they wanted in 1968—ensconcing an unprincipled populist reactionary in the White House—then they, too, would pursue their most radical dreams with untrammeled enthusiasm. The result: An unlikable and beatable Republican exceeded 60% of the popular vote and carried 49 states.

The circumstances are totally different now, clearly. Mr. Trump will not win in a landslide. But he may just win in 2020 for the same reason Nixon crushed George McGovern in 1972: Democrats thought conservatives had achieved their wildest dreams four years before and tried to do the same. If only they had studied their opponents a bit more closely.

SANDERS BELIEVES IN ISRAEL’S ‘ABSOLUTE’ RIGHT TO EXIST, BUT HIS POLICIES WOULD BRING ABOUT THE DEMISE OF THE JEWISH STATE, AND HE MUST KNOW THAT

Sanders says he would ‘absolutely’ consider cutting US military aid

Israel Hayom
July 28, 2019

Vermont Senator and leading 2020 Democratic US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders would “absolutely” weigh withholding US military aid to Israel to pressure the Jewish state into making policy changes.

Speaking with Jon Favreau on his Pod Save America podcast, Sanders, according to most polls the second-place Democratic candidate, agreed that the $3.8 billion US military aid package could be used as “leverage” against the Jewish state.

“Our policy cannot just be pro-Israel, pro-Israel, pro-Israel,” Sanders said. “It has got to be pro-region, working with all of the people, all of the countries in that area.”

He emphasized, however, that he believed in Israel’s “absolute” right to peace and security.

“I have family in Israel. I am Jewish. I am not anti-Israel,” he said. “Okay, I believe that the people of Israel have, absolutely, the right to live in peace, independence and security. End of discussion – that is what I fervently believe.”

At the same time, he blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for what he said was the rise of “an extreme right-wing government with many racist tendencies.”

Sanders is largely considered to be among the strongest critics of Israel running for the US presidency. He appeared in June with activists for pro-BDS organization IfNotNow while holding a sign reading “Jews Against Occupation.”

In 2017, Sanders recorded a five-minute video for a Meretz Party conference marking the end of the Six-Day War in 1967 and “50 Years of Occupation,” in which he called the party “Israel’s most prominent political organization” and lamented that “we are now in the 50th year of Israel’s occupation.”

“I know so many of you agree with me when I say: this occupation must end. Peace, real peace, means security not only for every Israeli, but for every Palestinian. It means supporting self-determination, civil rights and economic well-being for both peoples,” he said.

In April 2016, Sanders was one of 17 senators who did not sign a letter to then-President Barack Obama urging him to increase aid to Israel.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Actually, I’m not really sure Israel ‘absolutely’ needs all that military aid. Except for America’s advanced fighter jets, Israel could probably defend itself without that aid.

EVERYONE IS SMART EXCEPT TRUMP

By Dov Fischer

The American Spectator
July 18, 2019

It really is quite simple. Everyone is smart except Donald J. Trump. That’s why they all are billionaires and all got elected President. Only Trump does not know what he is doing. Only Trump does not know how to negotiate with Vladimir Putin. Anderson Cooper knows how to stand up to Putin. The whole crowd at MSNBC does. All the journalists do.

They could not stand up to Matt Lauer at NBC. They could not stand up to Charlie Rose at CBS. They could not stand up to Mark Halperin at NBC. Nor up to Leon Wieseltier at the New Republic, nor Jann Wenner at Rolling Stone, nor Michael Oreskes at NPR, at the New York Times, or at the Associated Press. But — oh, wow! — can they ever stand up to Putin! Only Trump is incapable of negotiating with the Russian tyrant.

Remember the four years when Anderson Cooper was President of the United States? And before that — when the entire Washington Post editorial staff jointly were elected to be President? Remember? Neither do I.

The Seedier Media never have negotiated life and death, not corporate life and death, and not human life and death. They think they know how to negotiate, but they do not know how. They go to a college, are told by peers that they are smart, get some good grades, proceed to a graduate degree in journalism, and get hired as analysts. Now they are experts, ready to take on Putin and the Iranian Ayatollahs at age 30.

That is not the road to expertise in tough dealing. The alternate road is that, along the way, maybe you get forced into some street fights. Sometimes the other guy wins, and sometimes you beat the intestines out of him. Then you deal with grown-ups as you mature, and you learn that people can be nasty, often after they smile and speak softly. You get cheated a few times, played. And you learn. Maybe you become an attorney litigating multi-million-dollar case matters. Say what you will about attorneys, but those years — not the years in law school, not the years drafting legal memoranda, but the years of meeting face-to-face and confronting opposing counsel — those years can teach a great deal. They can teach how to transition from sweet, gentle, diplomatic negotiating to tough negotiating. At some point, with enough tough-nosed experience, you figure out Trump’s “The Art of the Deal” yourself.

Trump’s voters get him because not only is he we, but we are he. We were not snowflaked-for-life by effete professors who themselves never had negotiated tough life-or-death serious deals. Instead we live in the real world, and we know how that works. Not based on social science theories, not based on “conceptual negotiating models.” But based on the people we have met over life and always will hate. That worst boss we ever had. The coworker who tried to sabotage us. We know the sons of bums whom we survived, the dastardly types who are out there, and we learned from those experiences how to deal with them. We won’t have John Kerry soothe us by having James Taylor sing “You’ve Got a Friend” carols.

The Bushes got us into all kinds of messes. The first one killed the economic miracle that Reagan had fashioned. The second one screwed up the Middle East, where Iraq and Iran beautifully were engaged in killing each other for years, and he got us mired into the middle of the muddle. Clinton was too busy with Monica Lewinsky to protect us from Osama bin Laden when we had him in our sights. Hillary gave us Benghazi and more. And Obama and Kerry gave us the Iran Deal, ISIS run amok, America in retreat. All to the daily praise of a media who now attack Trump every minute of every day.

So let us understand a few things:

Negotiating with NATO:

NATO is our friend. They also rip off America. They have been ripping us off forever. We saved their butts — before there even was a NATO — in World War I. They messed up, and 116,456 Americans had to die to save their butts. Then they messed up again for the next two decades because West Europeans are effete and so obsessed with their class manners and their rules of savoir faire and their socialist welfare states and their early retirements that they did not have the character to stand up to Hitler in the 1930s. Peace in our time. So they messed up, and we had to save their butts again. And another 405,399 Americans died for them during World War II. And then we had to rebuild them! And we had to station our boys in Germany and all over their blood-stained continent. So, hey, we love those guys. We love NATO.

And yet they still rip us off. We pay 4% of our gigantic gross domestic product to protect them, and they will not pay a lousy 2% of their GDP towards their own defense. Is there a culture more penny-pinching-cheap-and-stingy than the fine constituents of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization? These cheap baseborn prigs will not pay their fare. They are too cheap. They expect America to send boys to die for them in one world war, then another — hundreds of thousands — and then to pay for their NATO defense even a century later.

And then they have the temerity to cheat us further in trade. Long before Trump, they set up tariffs against us for so many things. If the average American knew how badly Europe has been ripping us off for decades with their tariffs, no one in this country would buy anything European again. We would say, as a matter of self-respect and personal pride, “I no longer will buy anything but American, no matter what it costs.”

Every American President has complained about the cheating and imbalance — the NATO penny-pinching-cheapness, the tariff and trade imbalances. In more recent years, the various Bushes complained about it. Even Obama complained about it. But they all did it so gently, so diplomatically. They would deliver the sermon, just as the pastor predictably tells the church-goers on Sunday morning that he is against sin, and the Europeans would sit quietly and nod their heads — nodding from sleeping, not from agreeing — and then they would go back out and sin some more. Another four years of America being suckered and snookered. All they had to do was give Obama a Nobel Peace Prize his ninth month in office and let Kerry ride his bike around Paris.

So Trump did what any effective negotiator would do: he took note of past approaches to NATO and their failures, and correctly determined that the only way to get these penny-pinching-cheap baseborn prigs to pay their freight would be to bulldoze right into their faces, stare them right in their glazed eyes with cameras rolling, and tell them point-blank the equivalent of: “You are the cheapest penny-pinching, miserly, stingy, tightwadded skinflints ever. And it is going to stop on my watch. Whatever it takes from my end, you selfish, curmudgeonly cheap prigs, you are going to pay your fair share. I am not being diplomatic. I am being All-Business: either you start to pay or, wow, are you in for some surprises! And you know what you read in the Fake News: I am crazy! I am out of control! So, lemme see. I know: We will go to trade war! How do you like that? Maybe we even will pull all our troops out of Europe. Hmmm. Yeah, maybe. Why not? Sounds good. Well, let’s see.”

So Trump stuffed it into their quiche-and-schnitzel ingesting faces. And he convinced them — thanks to America’s Seedier Media who are the real secret to the “Legend That is Trump” — that he just might be crazy enough to go to trade war and to pull American boys home. They knew that Clinton and Bush x 2 and Kerry and Hillary and Nobel Laureate Obama never would do it. But they also know that Trump just might. And if they think they are going to find comfort and moderating in his new advisers, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, alongside him….

Nuh-uh.

So CNN and the Washington Post and all the Seedier Media attacked Trump for days: He is destroying the alliance! He attacks our friends!

Baloney. Obama was the one whom the Left Echo Chamber… Chamber… Chamber never called out for attacking our friends — Israel, Britain, so many others — while cozying up to Hugo Chavez, bowing to dictators, and dancing the tango for Raul Castro. Trump is just the opposite: He knows who the friends are, and he wants to maintain and strengthen those friendships. It is no different from a parent telling a 35-year-old son: “I have been supporting you for thirty-five years. I put you through college by signing four years and $100,000 in PLUS Loans. You graduated college fifteen years ago. For fifteen years I have been asking you nicely to look for a job and to start contributing. Instead, you sit home all day playing video games, texting your friends on a smartphone I pay for, and picking little fuzz balls out of your navel. So, look, I love you. You are my flesh and blood. But if you are not employed and earning a paycheck — and contributing to the cost of this household — in six months, we are throwing you out of the house.” That boy is NATO. Trump is Dad. And all of us have been signing for the PLUS Loans.

Negotiating with Putin

Putin is a bad guy. A really bad guy. He is better than Lenin. Better than Stalin, Khrushchev, Kosygin, Brezhnev, Pol Pot, Mao. But he is a really bad guy.

Here’s the thing: Putin is a dictator. He answers to no one. He does whatever he wants. If there arises an opponent, that guy dies. Maybe the opponent gets poked with a poisoned umbrella. Maybe he gets shot on the street. Maybe the opponent is forced to watch Susan Rice interviews telling the world that Benghazi happened because of a YouTube video seen by nine derelicts in Berkeley and that Bowe Berghdal served with honor and distinction. But, one way or another, the opponent dies.

Trump knows this about Putin. And here is what that means:

If you insult Putin in public, like by telling the newsmedia just before or after meeting with him that he is the Butcher of Crimea, and he messed with our elections, and is an overall jerk — then you will get nothing behind closed doors from Putin. Putin will decide “To heck with you, and to heck with the relationship we just forged.” Putin will get even, will take intense personal revenge, even if it is bad for Russia — even if it is bad for Putin. Because there are no institutional reins on him.

But if you go in public and tell everyone that Putin is a nice guy (y’know, just like Kim Jong Un) and that Putin intensely maintains that he did not mess with elections — not sweet little Putey Wutey (even though he obviously did) — then you next can maintain the momentum established beforehand in the private room. You can proceed to remind Putin what you told him privately: that this garbage has to stop — or else. That if he messes in Syria, we will do “X.” If he messes with our Iran boycott, we will do “Y.” We will generate so much oil from hydraulic fracturing and from ANWR and from all our sources that we will glut the market — if not tomorrow, then a year from now. We will send even more lethal offensive military weapons to Ukraine. We can restore the promised shield to Eastern Europe that Obama withdrew. And even if we cannot mess with Russian elections (because they have no elections), they do have computers — and, so help us, we will mess with their technology in a way they cannot imagine. Trump knows from his advisers what we can do. If he sweet-talks Putin in public — just Putin on the Ritz — then everything that Trump has told Putin privately can be reinforced with action, and he even can wedge concessions because, against that background, Putin knows that no one will believe that he made any concessions. Everyone is set to believe that Putin is getting whatever he wants, that Trump understands nothing. So, in that setting, Putin can make concessions and still save face.

That is why Trump talks about him that way. And that is the only possible way to do it when negotiating with a tyrant who has no checks and balances on him. If you embarrass the tyrant publicly, then the tyrant never will make concessions because he will fear that people will say he was intimidated and backed down. And that he never will do. Meanwhile, Trump has expelled 60 Russians from America, reversed Obama policy and sent lethal weapons to Ukraine, and is pressing Germany severely on its pipeline project with Russia.

The Bottom Line

At the end of the day, Donald Trump is over seventy years old. He has made many mistakes in his life. He still makes some. He is human. But Trump likewise has spent three score and a dozen years learning. He has seen some of his businesses go bankrupt, and he has learned from those experiences to be a billionaire and not let it happen again. No doubt that he has been fooled, outsmarted in years past. And he has learned from life.

He is a tough and smart negotiator. He sizes up his opponent, and he knows that the approach that works best for one is not the same as for another. It does not matter what he says publicly about his negotiating opponent. What matters is what results months later. In his first eighteen months in Washington, this man has turned around the American economy, brought us near full employment, reduced the welfare and food stamp lines, wiped out ISIS in Raqqa, moved America’s Israel embassy to Jerusalem, successfully has launched massive deregulation of the economy, has opened oil exploration in ANWR, is rebuilding the military massively, has walked out of the useless Paris Climate Accords that were negotiated by America’s amateurs who always get snookered, canned the disastrous Iran Deal, exited the bogus United Nations Human Rights Council. He has Canada and Mexico convinced he will walk out of NAFTA if they do not pony up, and he has the Europeans convinced he will walk out of NATO if they don’t stop being the cheap and lazy parasitic penny-pinchers they are. He has slashed income taxes, expanded legal protections for college students falsely accused of crimes, has taken real steps to protect religious freedoms and liberties promised in the First Amendment, boldly has taken on the lyme-disease-quality of a legislative mess that he inherited from Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama on immigration, and has appointed a steady line of remarkably brilliant conservative federal judges to sit on the district courts, the circuit appellate courts, and the Supreme Court.

What has Anderson Cooper achieved during that period? Jim Acosta or the editorial staffs of the New York Times and Washington Post? They have not even found the courage and strength to stand up to the coworkers and celebrities within their orbits who abuse sexually or psychologically or emotionally. They have no accomplishments to compare to his. Just their effete opinions, all echoing each other, all echoing, echoing, echoing. They gave us eight years of Nobel Peace Laureate Obama negotiating with the ISIS JV team, calming the rise of the oceans, and healing the planet.

We will take Trump negotiating with Putin any day.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

CARDI B CALLS TRUMP A NIGGER

The rapper blames Trump for police brutality against black men

I never heard of the bitch. But then I strongly dislike rap. Cardi B is known as the 'I Like It' rapper.

Here is her hateful rant on Instagram that was clear and not mumbled:

Every time I see a black man killed or mistreated by police I just keep saying ‘do nobody give a fuck, does nobody care?’

This nigger [Trump] don’t give one shit.

At least when Obama was president he released a statement letting us know he feeled [sic] it was wrong – letting us know that he cared.

I feel like police brutality is going to keep going until he’s [no longer] president.

When a kid is bad and they get away with something then they gonna keep on doing it.

That's cops. [They think] I can get away with beating a black man, killing a black man. Then why not me?


The bitch went on to urge her followers to 'get educated' on the 2020 candidates so they can be rid of Trump.

Cardi B has a history of vulgar anti-Trump rants, starting even while he was campaigning for the presidency. She is a good example of why I think rap and rappers aren’t for shit.

YOU HAVE TO BE BASICALLY STUPID TO DO THIS

by Bob Walsh

Two California DMV examiners are looking at some very serious trouble for taking bribes to get unqualified people commercial driver's licenses.

Kari Scattaglia, 40, from Sylmar, was just sentenced to 2 1/2 years federal time for conspiracy to commit bribery, identity fraud (which I assume is the federal handle here) and unauthorized computer access.

She and her co-defendant, Lisa Tarraciano, 52, of North Hollywood, altered computer records to show that applicants had taken and passed tests which they in fact never took.

Scattaglia processed at least 68 fraudulent applications. Terraciano, who has yet to be sentenced, at least 148. She could be looking at five years.

That is the problem with this scheme. You CAN NOT do this without word leaking out. Then somebody will rat you out, either because they didn't get in, or they are jealous, or angry, or something. It is just plain damn dumb. Plus you could conceivably find yourself on the hook for some level of liability if one of these bozos smashes up a few people at some point and then somebody wants to find out how a completely unqualified person got a commercial license.

I worked for six years as a license examiner with DMV and was never offered a bribe. Not once. One time a guy from Jamaica offered me a tip but it was after I had already told him he passed. I politely turned him down and notified file security of the issue, just to cover my ass, in case it was a set-up of some sort. I never heard another word about it, so I assume it wasn't.

HER STRING OF THEFTS DID NOT HELP THE OVERWORKED AND OVERBURDENED COPS

Republican candidate, 31, hoping to unseat Trump foe Ilhan Omar is charged with felony shoplifting after 'stealing 279 items from Target and $40 worth of goods from a grocery store'

Daily Mail
July 27, 2019

A Republican Congressional candidate hoping to unseat Ilhan Omar is facing felony shoplifting charges.

Danielle Stella, 31, a supporter of President Donald Trump, was arrested twice this year in the thefts of 279 items worth more than $2,300 from Target and $40 worth of goods from a grocery store in Minneapolis, The Guardian reported.

Stella reportedly described Minneapolis as 'the crime capital of our country.' She previously complained that local police were 'overworked and overburdened' and said that she would work to reduce crime if she was elected.

She told the news outlet: 'I am not guilty of these crimes. In this country I am innocent until proven guilty and that is the law.'She added: 'If I was guilty of crimes, I would never run for public office, putting myself in the public eye under a microscope to be attacked by all political sides.'

EDITOR’S NOTE: She’s innocent because the tooth fairy did it.

BALTIMORE: ‘NO HUMAN BEING WOULD WANT TO LIVE THERE’

Trump calls Baltimore a 'disgusting, rat infested mess' that is 'far worse' and 'MORE dangerous' than the southern border in scathing attack on 'brutal bully' Democrat Congressman Elijah Cummings

By Keith Griffith

Daily Mail
July 27, 2019

President Donald Trump has slammed Rep. Elijah Cummings as 'a brutal bully,' saying that the congressman's Baltimore district is a 'rat and rodent infested mess.'

Trump's remarks in a series of tweets from the White House on Saturday morning referenced the House Oversight Committee Chairman's harsh remarks at an immigration hearing earlier this month.

It also follows Cummings' move to subpoena new White House records on Thursday, and a Saturday morning segment on Fox and Friends contrasting Cumming's concern for migrants at the border with conditions in his own district.

'Rep, Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA,' Trump wrote.

'As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming [sic] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place,' the president continued.

Trump added: 'Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States.

'No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!'

Cummings fired back in his own tweets soon after: 'Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors.'

It comes a week after Cummings exploded at Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan over conditions in facilities used to detain migrants and house unaccompanied migrant children at the southern border.

'What does that mean, when a child is sitting in their own feces, can't take a shower!' Cummings shouted at McAleenan in the July 18 hearing. 'Come on man, what's that about?'

Cummings' remarks were highlighted in a segment on Fox and Friends on Saturday morning, which Trump possibly watched from the White House.

In the segment, Kimberly Klacik, a Republican strategist from Baltimore, spoke about appalling conditions that residents in parts of the city face.

'There is a crisis at the border, but there is also a crisis in Baltimore,' Klacik said. 'Congressman Cummings represents the most dangerous district in America.'

'There's abandoned row homes filled with trash, homeless addicts, empty needles that they have used, and it's really right next door so it's attracting cockroaches, rodents, you name it,' said Klacik.

'So to have Congressman Cummings talk about conditions at the border is just laughable, because of the conditions in his own district, and a lot of people say he hasn't even been there in a while,' she continued.

Klacik had recent posted a series of videos on Twitter of a visit to West Baltimore and her conversations with residents pleading for help dealing with vacant and abandoned homes, trash and poor water service.

In one area, residents were using water siphoned from a fire hydrant after regular water service apparently went out on several blocks.

Democrats reacted with fury at Trump's remarks, calling them 'racist' and unpatriotic.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led the charge, saying in a statement, 'We all reject racist attacks against [Cummings] and support his steadfast leadership.'

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a member of the House Democrat 'squad,' tweeted at Trump that that Cummings is 'centered in American values that you will *never* understand. He is a fighter for the people & a leader you will never be.'

'I am proud our campaign headquarters is in Rep. Elijah Cummings' district,' wrote Senator Kamala Harris, a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. 'Baltimore has become home to my team and it's disgraceful the president has chosen to start his morning disparaging this great American city.'

EDITOR’S NOTE: Trump was only half right when he called Cumming’s District a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. He forgot to mention the other half – Baltimore is a shithole!

TWO SAN FRANCISCO YOUTHS WILL EXPERINCE WHAT JUSTICE IS LIKE IN ITALY, BUT THEY WON’T GET OFF LIKE AMANDA ‘FOXY KNOXY’ KNOX EVENTUALLY DID

Two American tourists, aged 18 and 19, confess to killing an undercover Italian policeman, 35, who tried to recover a backpack they stole in Rome during a bungled drug deal where they were given ground aspirin instead of cocaine

Daily Mail
July 27, 2019

Two San Francisco teens on a ‘drug holiday’ in Rome have been arrested on charges of murder and attempted extortion in connection with the fatal stabbing of a police officer on Friday morning.

Lee Elder Finnegan, 19, confessed to stabbing 35-year-old paramilitary policeman Mario Cerciello Rega, along with his accomplice Gabriel Christian Natale Hjorth, 18.

The two men had been looking to buy drugs but were sold a fake batch by a dealer. Seeking revenge, the teens stole the bag of one of the dealers’ fixers and held it to ransom for 100 euros and a gram of cocaine.

But instead of meeting up with the two men to retrieve the backpack, the fixer called police. A scuffle broke out between the officers and Rega was stabbed eight times, with one blow fatally striking his heart.

NOTHING REALLY NEW WITH PA ACCUSING ISRAEL OF COMMITTING A WAR CRIME AND A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

PA to halt all agreements with Israel, including security coordination

Israel Hayom
July 26, 2019

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared Thursday that all signed agreements with Israel, including its ongoing security coordination in the West Bank, would be terminated over "all the violations against our people."

"We announce the leadership's decision to stop implementing the agreements signed with the Israeli side," he said in a speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah, saying Palestinians would immediately form a committee to study how to carry out the decision.

The two governments work together on matters ranging from water to security, and withdrawing from agreements could impact security in the West Bank.

Abbas has made similar threats before and not implemented them, but relations between the West Bank's Palestinian Authority and its Israeli counterpart have worsened in recent months.

The declaration comes a day after the US reportedly blocked a proposal in the United Nations Security Council seeking condemnation of housing demolitions carried out near east Jerusalem.

The demolition created controversy and heightened tensions between Israel and the PA.

The move led to condemnation from a number of international voices, including the European Union and France, who called on Israel to halt the demolitions.

The Palestinian government said last week that the demolitions were a breach of all agreements signed with Israel as most of the buildings are located in areas meant to be under the Palestinian Authority civilian control.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the Palestinians planned to file a complaint with the International Criminal Court over the matter.

"The cabinet condemns this grave aggression. This is a continuation of the forced displacement of the people of Jerusalem from their homes and lands – a war crime and a crime against humanity," Shtayyeh told Reuters.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan accused the Palestinians of "lies," stressing the demolition was validated by the Supreme Court after a lengthy process.

"The structures were built illegally next to the security fence and constitute a risk to the lives of the civilians and security forces," Erdan tweeted last week, citing the June Supreme Court ruling.

EDITOR’S NOTE: From Reuters:

The United States on Wednesday blocked an attempt by Kuwait, Indonesia and South Africa to get the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes on the outskirts of Jerusalem, diplomats said.

Kuwait, Indonesia and South Africa circulated a five-paragraph draft statement, seen by Reuters, to the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday that expressed grave concern and warned that the demolition “undermines the viability of the two-state solution and the prospect for just and lasting peace.”

Such statements have to be agreed by consensus and on Wednesday the United States told its council counterparts it could not support the text, diplomats said. A revised three paragraph draft statement was circulated, but the United States again said it did not agree with the text, diplomats said.

The United States has long accused the United Nations of anti-Israel bias and shielded its ally from council action.

MRS. JOHNSON’S PROWLER

By Trey Rusk

Running Code 3
July 25, 2019

Late night prowler calls are common place. They usually wind up being something like an animal in the trash or a broken gate being blown by the wind. Sometimes they might be being a Peeping Tom.

When I worked patrol in residential areas after 2am the herd thinned and you usually saw newspaper throwers, drunks and burglars. If an area had a burglary problem, I would park nearby with my lights out and windows down to listen to the night.

Mrs. Johnson lived on the extreme West Side of the city. At least once a month, on a Thursday night Mrs. Johnson would hear a prowler. Two units worked her area but only one of them always responded to the call. Officer John Jones (not his real name) was a protector of the community. He had one weakness and that was Mrs. Johnson. He was her personal protector. He would arrive at the call and she would open the garage door in her nighty so he could hide his patrol car.

Mrs. Johnson’s husband worked offshore and would be gone three weeks at a time and Mrs. Johnson would get scared at night.

One late Thursday night I was blacked out listening to an area that had been hit with rooftop burglars. It was around 3am that I heard the thumping noise. It became louder and soon I heard wood breaking. I called in my location and advised dispatch to send a backup. I was certain that someone was breaking into the roof of a local hardware store. The Sergeant arrived and called Officer Jones. We parked our cars about a block away and watched the roof. Officer Jones arrived a little late looking disheveled.

The burglar exited the same way he entered. Had he come out a door or window the alarm system would activate. He threw an axe and his loot off the back of the building and climbed down a drain pipe. We were waiting. It turns out he was a local burglar who had just returned from a stretch in prison. When he reached the ground and turned around we were standing in a semi-circle around him. All he said was "Shit!" He was arrested without incident.

The Sergeant looked at Officer Jones and said, "Jones? Where is your gun? Zip up your pants."

I transported the prisoner and booked him.

Officer Jones was moved to the East Side and given Wednesday and Thursday off. He had been off on weekends. A note was placed on the dispatcher console. It read, “Attention: Mrs. Johnson will no longer be serviced by this department.” The Sergeant

I learned long ago that the badge could get you a piece of ass, but all it took was one piece of ass to get your badge.

That's the way I see it.