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Posts tagged ‘protests’

Faced With Rainbow Mobs, Republicans Have Insurrectile Dysfunction


BY: PEACHY KEENAN | MAY 04, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/05/04/faced-with-rainbow-mobs-republicans-have-insurrectile-dysfunction/

rainbow and trans flags over the Constitution
Flaccid red states need to firm up — fast.

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I recently wrote about the current wave of rainbow-flavored “insurrections” sweeping through America’s red statehouses. I called them part of a color revolution. Color revolutions, you will recall, are traditionally “popular uprisings against authoritarian regimes, such as those that took place in former Soviet countries such as Ukraine and Georgia in the early and mid-2000s.”

In our American color revolution, the script has flipped. Here, red states are the only rebels standing strong in the face of increasingly authoritarian central power — wrapped, of course, in the rainbow flag. 

Tennessee recently made a star out of State Rep. Justin Pearson, the code-switching preacher man with the afro who just a few years ago was a repp tie-wearing prep at Colgate, but this year led an invasion of screaming gun-control protesters into the Tennessee Capitol, shut it down, and got himself expelled (temporarily, of course. Plot twist: The lead characters on this show always win in the end!)

We’ve now seen color revolutionaries take to state capitols in Tennessee, Montana, Kansas, Kentucky, Florida, Oklahoma, and Missouri. This week, the color revolution came to Texas. The radicals are on top. And (if you will excuse my French), thanks to their total effete ineffectuality, red states are getting bottomed, hard.

The Best Little Statehouse in Texas

Showrunners set this week’s episode of “Transurrection” in Texas. Why? They can’t turn Texas blue, right? …Right?

Twitter soon filled up with clips of the state Capitol in Austin getting overrun by a shrieking mob of LGBT cuckoos waving transgender flags and shutting down voting on an important bill. They’ve been keeping Austin weird for years, biding their time, and it finally paid off.

A Texas Republican state delegate on the scene tweeted a video of the mob and reported, “Trans activists are losing their minds, shoving signs into [a Texas conservative’s] face, and allowing spit to spew from their mouths while they scream ‘no place for hate.’” You have to admire their shamelessness, frankly. “No place for hate!” they scream, as they bludgeon their enemies.  

The “hate” bill in question, naturally, would ban genital mutilation of children statewide. As we know by now, the idea of not being permitted to permanently sterilize and castrate kids makes sterilized and castrated adults very, very mad. How dare you not let us ritually initiate your son into our family-friendly extreme body modification cult!

A local newspaper reported on the action: “More than one hundred protesters rallied at the Capitol in opposition to the bill Tuesday in anticipation of the floor debate, engaging in chants including, “Protect Trans Kids!” and holding signs reading, “Let Trans Kids Grow Up.” 

Am I the only one who notices the irony here? They want to “let trans kids grow up” — by putting them on irreversible puberty blockers that literally stop them from growing up. Logic — like charm, charisma, and good looks — is not this group’s strong suit.

But, as always, their ugly tactics work. “As protesters were removed from the House gallery, Democrats in the House on Tuesday successfully delayed debate on Senate Bill 14, which would ban certain gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender minors. Using a procedural tactic … the bill was sent back to the House Committee on Public Health, then voted out of the committee again Tuesday evening,” the paper reported, emphasis mine.

They may still lose in the end, but they survived the day. 

I feel like I’m watching a new streaming docudrama show on Netflix: “Game of Throngs.” “The Transmandalorian.” “Sex Reassignment in the City.”

Last week’s episode was set in Montana and guest-starred an unknown man in a dress, an impish scamp named Zooey Zephyr. Zooey is not your typical social media starlet; he’s got a strong jawline, a prominent Adam’s apple, and a deep voice. His script, however, follows the Tennessee storyline virtually line for line. Zooey led his “transurrection” over a new Montana bill that would outlaw transgender interventions for children. Just like in Tennessee, he broke the rules, caused a riot, got ejected, and then used the ejection as a battering ram to take down the Republican leadership. Here’s how Fox reported it:

‘The only thing I will say is if you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there’s an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,’ Zephyr said when debating SB99. Critics demanded an apology. However, after refusing to do so, Republicans led the chamber in a 68-32 vote last week to bar Zephyr from accessing the House floor. Zephyr cannot enter the anteroom or gallery but can vote remotely. (Emphasis mine)

Even when they lose they win! 

How many times can they run this same storyline? Answer: At least 50 times, one for each state that requires it. 

I seem to remember some other event a few years back, when protesters holding flags entered a capitol to stop lawmakers from voting on something. If I recall correctly, a lot of them were sentenced to years in prison for daring to block a vote. I will pray none of the nonbinary furries in the Texas Capitol suffer the same fate! They don’t look like they could last five seconds away from their cats. 

Painting the Red Town Blue

New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie, who also moonlights as my personal fact checker, offers us a chilling glimpse into how the left will continue to frame red states that dare to mildly reprimand the revolutionaries in their midst: 

The foundation of modern American democracy is that all Americans deserve some kind of representation in the rooms where law and policy are made. Not content to control those rooms in states where they dominate the political scene, some Republicans have said, in essence, that representation is a privilege for communities whose chosen lawmakers don’t offend their sensibilities. (Emphasis mine)

I like to picture flustered Republicans hitting the smelling salts and the fainting couch, like Scarlett’s Aunt Pittypat, when the winsome Zoey Zephyr and his merry band of rebels made a bit of noise during working hours.

Hilariously, the title of Bouie’s column is “A Sinister New Page in the Republican Playbook.” Maybe I shouldn’t say this out loud, but: The Republicans don’t have a playbook. 

I wish they had a sinister playbook! How can we get them a sinister playbook and teach them how to use it? Because they absolutely do not know what to do in the face of mob rule. They are off balance. Unprepared. And it will only get worse. 

In March, even Kansas had a “transurrection.” “Defiant transgender children, filled with love and rage, march on Kansas Statehouse.”

One of these was an almost-10-year-old Cassandra Robinson, who in the photos looks like a muscular little boy with long hair dyed green, and wore “a T-shirt that read: ‘inspired by the STRONG WOMEN in my life.’” There is no 10-year-old on Earth who would dream up a sentence like that and want it on a T-shirt. Is his name a cry for help?

End Game

So, what’s the end goal? This is not just about gun control, or the “right” to castrate 8-year-olds. 

Here’s what I think it’s obviously about: performing a radical mutilation surgery on the Constitution. Neutering it, for good — irreversibly even. This is the ultimate prize. Of course, it’s incredibly hard to change the Constitution, with good reason. That’s why it’s rarely been done in our history. 

There are a few ways to rewrite the Constitution, but all the paths go through the states. You need three-fourths of states to ratify a new amendment. Insurmountable? Democrats already have 20 to 22 blue and purple states. They need 37, and that means the South is the juiciest prize, especially with its rapidly changing demographics.

Even in red states like Tennessee, they’d only need to flip 10 percent of the voters to win the state house. Age and heart disease will take care of the boomer-aged bitter clingers. College indoctrination will take care of the rest. Every four years a new crop of teenage voters arrives ready to make their “voices heard.” Time is on their side, not ours. And they’ve got all the time in the world. 

To my amazement, as I was wrapping up this article, I spotted this jaw-dropping headline in The New York Times: “It’s Time to Reacquaint Americans With the Possibility of Changing the Constitution. Here’s Where to Begin.“

Well, color me reacquainted! “Our Constitution is one of the most difficult in the world to amend. … But the remoteness of the possibility of formal constitutional change today may be as much a product of constitutional culture as constitutional structure: Several generations of Americans have lost the habit and muscle memory of seeking formal constitutional change.” (Emphasis mine)

Got that? The color revolutionaries are developing new muscle memory they will get to flex again and again as they continue dominating us in their weight class. Meanwhile, hordes of radicals are greedily gnawing through the country’s aging superstructure.

The Color of Money

The “tranissaries” of the revolution are obviously well-funded and blessed with a loyal army of loudmouth fanatics willing to win by any means necessary. 

Are you?

I don’t know exactly who is directing and funding the revolutionaries. But it’s clear the country’s largest foundations and NGOs have these unsuspecting states in their sights. They have arrayed the full might of their billions squarely at “voting rights” and “defending democracy.” In other words, they are the architects behind activist mobs and the skilled ballot harvesters that have so far netted them win after win — including the White House. 

The Macarthur Foundation and Ford Foundation, which funds dozens of grassroots activist groups including something called the “Texas Civil Rights Project,” are on the case with their billions. The Carnegie Foundation is doing its part for the cause, too. And there are many others. These massive bloodless megaliths are cleverly wrapping themselves in the cozy civil rights issue of the day — poor little trans kids (or election overhauls favored by candidates who love that issue) — and winning enormous popular support. 

The wealth of America’s greatest old families is being used to systematically strip the place bare, and they’re looting it of everything that’s not nailed down. Including any stray toddlers. Viva la rainbow revoluçion!

It’s time to build a counterrevolution, fast. 

Peachy Keenan is a contributing editor and regular essayist for The American Mind, a publication of The Claremont Institute. She is the author of “Domestic Extremist: A Practical Guide to Winning the Culture War” (coming June 6th from Regnery). She also writes at peachykeenan.substack.com , and you can always find her on Twitter @keenanpeachy, at least until she is canceled.

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NAACP Branch Targets Republican Councilwoman With 7 Kids At 6 a.m. Outside Her Home


BY: JOY PULLMANN | MAY 04, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/05/04/naacp-branch-targets-republican-councilwoman-with-7-kids-at-6-a-m-outside-her-home/

NAACP Amy Drake protest
Republican official Amy Drake cited the FBI’s definition of domestic terrorism: ‘Appearing to be intended to influence the policy of government by intimidation or coercion.’

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A South Bend, Indiana, branch of the NAACP held a press conference Thursday at 6:30 a.m. outside the house of Republican County Councilwoman Amy Drake to protest her criticism of Indiana’s public health bureaucracy. A May 1 press release and social media posts proclaimed the group’s intent to protest outside Drake’s home, where she lives with her husband and seven children.

South Bend NAACP Chairwoman Trina Robinson told The Federalist Wednesday that after internal pushback she decided to switch the “peaceful demonstration” to a press conference, still outside the Drakes’ home at 6:30 a.m. Drake, who has written opinion articles for The Federalist, told The Federalist that holding any demonstrations outside her home is a form of “domestic terrorism” intended to influence her votes by harassing and threatening her family.

Drake cited the FBI’s definition of domestic terrorism: “Appearing to be intended to influence the policy of government by intimidation or coercion.” She and her husband spent three days before the event calling police, fielding calls from constituents and friends, and making plans to ensure their children’s safety.

“There is no such thing as a peaceful protest in front of a person’s home. Protests in front of homes are designed to intimidate and frighten,” Drake said in a press release.

Robinson told The Federalist the goal of visiting Drake’s home was indeed to put pressure on her and express displeasure at Drake’s public record, since their public comments at city council meetings did not move Drake to vote as the group wants. “The NAACP are not here to make people uncomfortable,” she said this morning on the sidewalk across from the Drakes’ home while a school bus picked up children in the background.

Drake ran for office in 2022, motivated by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb’s extensive lockdowns and their associated public health fiascos. She has been an integral part of increasing the fundraising and effectiveness of the local Republican Party, bringing in conservative energy, volunteers, and ideas. That has made her a top target of local Democrats and the public health bureaucracy.

South Bend is where Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was mayor from 2012 to 2020. Buttigieg’s parents were professors at Notre Dame University.

The demonstration fits a pattern of confrontational political actions against conservatives and Republicans, including mob action in the state capitols of Tennessee, Texas, Montana, Kentucky, Kansas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Missouri. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito told The Wall Street Journal this week that the five constitutional justices remain under constant threat of assassination.

Robinson says she considers showing up at a public official’s home a form of “free speech” and said local police told her the group could show up at Drake’s home so long as they stayed on the sidewalk. Drake says she asked for police presence to ensure everyone’s safety and was told they might send an unmarked car. On Thursday morning, Drake said she couldn’t see any police outside as the press conference commenced.

The Saint Joseph County Police Department’s communications officer did not respond to two voicemails requesting comment Wednesday. Sheriff William Redman’s official bio says he is a “Westside Democratic Club Lifetime Member.”

According to a live-streamed video on Facebook, about 10 people showed up to support the South Bend demonstration. Two were black, including Robinson, and eight were white. One appeared to be local Democrat Party Vice Chairman Don Westerhausen, according to on-site sources. The demonstrators held signs stating: “Amy Drake voted no $$$ for -behavioral crisis center -Motels4Now -Portage Manor,” “Lead Testing Protects Children,” and “We Support Opioid Crisis Relief Funding.”

Jonah Bryson, associate press secretary for the national NAACP organization, took The Federalist’s comment request at 3 p.m. ET Wednesday but failed to return comment on whether NAACP as an organization supports demonstrations outside politicians’ homes.

With her toddler grandson’s coos in the background, Robinson explained to The Federalist on Wednesday her thinking behind demonstrating outside Drake’s home.

“When you take on responsibilities to be a leader of a community, sometimes people are not going to agree with you. That pretty much comes with the territory,” Robinson said. “We’re not wanting to disrupt her children or anything, we would never disrupt her family.”

When asked whether Robinson was aware that Drake and her husband were alarmed for their children’s safety and they’d said so publicly on Facebook, Robinson said she was not: “I am not friends with her on Facebook.” Robinson also emphatically denied any desire to provoke violence, saying she was concerned the Drakes might respond to the demonstration outside their home with violence.

“Just because people disagree with you doesn’t necessarily mean they come to do bodily harm,” Robinson said.

Drake told The Federalist she and her husband decided against any kind of counter-demonstration to avoid “escalating.” They also adamantly opposed violence of any kind. But they considered the local activists’ decision to personalize politics by showing up at their home at the time their children go to school to be an act of hostility.

The Federalist asked Robinson about that several times. She said protesting on a public sidewalk is an American right, and that people in South Bend have protested at local representatives’ homes before.

“This isn’t Germany, this isn’t Russia,” she said. “We’re Americans, we can speak out. That’s a right we have.”

Robinson then directed her focus to the desperation she and others feel at many South Bend residents’ tragic conditions. Like many other American cities, South Bend has highly visible homeless, generational poverty, and drug problems. For years, visitors and residents have seen shocking scenes on the many emaciated streets of South Bend, common to cities across the United States. Trillions of taxpayer and private dollars poured into these problems since the 1950s have not improved conditions in most cities. In many cities, things are worse: dirtier, filled with even more homeless people and addicts, more violent, and uglier. Robinson equated Drake’s opposition to expanding ineffective government bureaucracy with leaving desperate citizens without the resources to make better lives.

“You can’t say you oppose a mental health crisis unit when here in South Bend a man in a mental health crisis was gunned down in front of his mom. And we don’t need a mental health crisis unit?” Robinson said. “We have homeless in this town. If you don’t have another solution for them, why are you opposing them being where they are? At least they’re not on the street downtown in tents.”

When asked if she had ever talked with Drake about these concerns one on one, Robinson replied: “No, we haven’t had a conversation. I spoke at the council meetings. She has never come up to me. I haven’t approached her either, so that goes both ways. So, we’re both to blame for that. I’ll take responsibility for that.”

Robinson said she would be willing to go out to lunch or coffee with Drake. She invited Drake to call her and said if Drake didn’t want to do that, she’d call Drake.

When The Federalist asked Drake her response, she discussed it with her husband and sent back this via text: “[Robinson] needs to admit domestic terrorism is wrong. She needs to apologize for creating fear in my family and causing us to interrupt our lives to put protective measures in place. After a month cooling off period, we can have a civil discussion.”

Joy Pullmann is executive editor of The Federalist, a happy wife, and the mother of six children. Her just-published ebook is “101 Strategies For Living Well Amid Inflation.” Her bestselling ebook is “Classic Books for Young Children.” Mrs. Pullmann identifies as native American and gender natural. Her many books include “The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids,” from Encounter Books. Joy is also a grateful graduate of the Hillsdale College honors and journalism programs.

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As Seattle Settles Major Lawsuit, Media Still Insist George Floyd Riots Were ‘Mostly Peaceful’


BY: MARK HEMINGWAY | FEBRUARY 22, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/22/as-seattle-settles-major-lawsuit-media-still-insist-george-floyd-riots-were-mostly-peaceful/

CNN "fiery but mostly peaceful" protest chyron as reporter talks in front of Kenosha's burning buildings

After the death of George Floyd, leaders in Democratic cities across the country, who were alternately scared and desperate to virtue signal, refused to take action while the ensuing riots and looting did billions of dollars in damage to city centers across the U.S. And amid many callous and inept responses to the crisis, Seattle is a leading contender for the locality that handled things the worst.

Today, the city agreed to settle a lawsuit in federal district court that alleged the city violated the civil rights of several business owners after it ordered police to withdraw from a section of its Capitol Hill neighborhood and let protesters set up their own lawless “autonomous zone.” The area became alternately known as either the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) or Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP). This left business owners in the areas completely abandoned as law and order broke down — without a police presence, there was rampant violence, drug markets, and literal armed warlords patrolling the streets.

The settlement comes after a federal judge levied major sanctions on the city for apparently deleting thousands of text messages involving, among others, the city’s former mayor and police chief relating to their handling of the autonomous zone. The notion that city officials had something to hide here is certainly at odds with the rhetoric during the month the city abandoned the business owners in the CHAZ.

Former Mayor Jenny Durkan went on CNN and said what was happening in the CHAZ was “a block party atmosphere.” “We could have the summer of love,” she said. When Trump lambasted the city for abandoning law and order, this resulted in a defensive Twitter spat between Durkan and the former president, and Gov. Jay Inslee told Trump to “stay out of Washington state’s business.”

Not that there was ever any doubt, but with Seattle settling this lawsuit it’s now impossible to argue that city officials weren’t encouraging violence and guilty of abdicating their most basic responsibility to keep citizens safe. Or is it? If you’re wondering who would be so desperate to cling to a political narrative they would insist letting anarchists take control of your city wasn’t so bad, well, here’s today’s Seattle Times write-up featuring an epic “challenge accepted” moment:

While CHOP was mostly peaceful, there were instances of vandalism and sporadic outbreaks of violence, including fights, an attempt to torch the abandoned police precinct and at least four shootings that claimed two lives of two teenagers, including a 16-year-old boy whose death led the city to end the protest.

That’s right, other than the fights, shootings, multiple homicides, and an attempt to burn a police station to the ground, it was “mostly peaceful,” says the local newspaper. Who among us wouldn’t mistake what was going on here for a “summer of love”?

The media’s suspicious coalescing around the phrase “mostly peaceful” to describe the Floyd protests in the summer of 2020 was always transparently dishonest. The CNN chyron declaring the protests in Kenosha “mostly peaceful” as the city was in flames in the background is now iconic.

However, it is truly astonishing that two years later a major newspaper is still clinging to this phrase like some talisman they hope will ward off holding their local leaders responsible for, among many other crimes, facilitating the deaths of two young black men.  

Mark Hemingway is the Book Editor at The Federalist, and was formerly a senior writer at The Weekly Standard. Follow him on Twitter at @heminator

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Citizens Worldwide Have Had Enough Of Globalist Idiocy


BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD | SEPTEMBER 08, 2022

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/08/citizens-worldwide-have-had-enough-of-globalist-idiocy/

Protests in the Czech Republic

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While you wouldn’t know it by following America’s legacy media, citizens across the globe are expressing widespread dissatisfaction with their respective government’s failed leadership. Whether it’s at the ballot box or in the streets, tens of thousands of people are openly rejecting the globalist ethos permeating governments worldwide that has resulted in higher costs of living, skyrocketing energy prices, and increasing difficulty among citizens addressing their families’ basic needs.

Spanning from Europe to South America, the backlash has been broad in both message and scope.

Indonesia

Thousands of Indonesians turned out en masse in some of the country’s biggest cities on Tuesday to demand that their “government reverse its first subsidised fuel price increase in eight years amid soaring inflation.”

According to Reuters, “[u]nder pressure to control a ballooning energy subsidy budget, President Joko Widodo on Saturday said he had little choice but to cut the subsidy and let fuel prices rise by about 30 percent,” with oil costs “32% higher than a year ago.”

“Protests took place in and around the capital, Jakarta, and in the cities of Surabaya, Makassar, Kendari, Aceh, and Yogyakarta, among a series of demonstrations led by students and labour groups that police say could draw big crowds this week,” the Reuters report reads. “Thousands of police were deployed across Jakarta, many guarding petrol stations, fearing they could become targets of mounting anger over a price increase that unions say will hurt workers and the urban poor the most.”

As noted by Bloomberg News, Indonesia “has one of the highest poverty rates in the world at 9.5%,” with the cost of necessary items like food set to become more expensive amid the country’s inflation increase.

“Workers are really, really suffering right now,” said Abdul Aris, a union official.

Italy

In Naples, Italians gathered in the streets outside the city’s town hall this past weekend to voice their displeasure with the nation’s rising energy costs. Protestors at the demonstration were filmed burning their energy bills in metallic bins while purportedly chanting phrases such as “We don’t pay the bills!” and “Now it will be chaos!”

“We don’t want [soaring bills] anymore!” protestors also shouted.

According to The London Economic, “Residents in the country will be asked to turn down the heating starting from October to help curb energy use, with limits on the use of central heating in public buildings also being brought in.”

Given that Italy is “heavily reliant on Russia for gas imports,” the European sanctions put on Moscow and Rome’s acceleration towards “green energy” are expected to leave Italians facing a rough winter ahead.

Chile

Voters in Chile over the past weekend overwhelmingly rejected a newly proposed, left-wing constitution that would have provided the government with vastly more power and control over the country’s citizenry.

According to The Blaze, the “170-page document containing 388 articles” would have “enshrine[d] 100 rights including the right to: a ‘nutritionally complete’ diet; ‘leisure’; ‘neurodiversity’; equality for ‘sexual and gender diversities and dissidences, both in the public and private spheres’; housing; sex parity in all public institutions; and to free education.”

With nearly two-thirds (61.9 percent) of Chileans opposing the measure, the vote represents a humiliating defeat for the country’s socialist president, Gabriel Boric, who supported the proposed constitution.

“I commit to put my all into building a new constitutional itinerary alongside congress and civil society,” Boric said.

Opponents of adopting the radical document celebrated voters’ decision, with Carlos Salinas, a spokesman for the Citizens’ House for Rejection, saying that “[t]oday we’re consolidating a great majority of Chileans who saw rejection as a path of hope.”

“We want to tell the government of President Gabriel Boric… that ‘today you must be the president of all Chileans and together we must move forward,” he said. 

Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic, approximately 70,000 citizens showed up in the nation’s capital of Prague on Saturday to protest their government’s handling of the ongoing energy crisis and to express opposition to the European Union and NATO. Organized by a wide swath of ideologically diverse political groups, “including the Communist Party of the Czech Republic and the Eurosceptic Tricolor Citizens’ Movement,” demonstrators “held Czech flags, as well as placards against the EU and NATO, Prime Minister Petr Fiala, rising energy prices, and calls for neutrality and dialogue with Russia.”

Protestors also demanded “the resignation of the current coalition government of conservative Prime Minister Petr Fiala, whom they criticize for following pro-Western policies and allegedly paying more attention to war-torn Ukraine than to his citizens.”

“The purpose of our demonstration is to demand change, mainly in solving the issue of energy prices, especially electricity and gas, which will destroy our economy this fall,” event co-organizer Jiří Havel said.

The head of the Tricolor Party, Zuzana Majerová Zahradníková, echoed similar sentiments, saying that the “Czech Republic needs a Czech government” and that “[Prime Minister Petr] Fiala’s government may be Ukrainian, maybe Brussels, but not Czech.”

Event organizers are currently scheduling another protest for Sept. 28, according to The New Voice of Ukraine.

Other countries that have experienced protests against their governments in recent weeks include New Zealand and Germany, among others.

Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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Here’s Why the Media Don’t Want You to Know About the Massive Protests Going on Around the Globe


REPORTED BY: BETH WHITEHEAD | JULY 15, 2022

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/15/heres-why-the-media-dont-want-you-to-know-about-the-massive-protests-going-on-around-the-globe/

Mass protests in Buenos Aires amid Argentina inflation crisis

Discontent with left-wing policy failures is triggering massive protests all over the world. Just don’t expect to read all about it in the New York Times.

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If you skim the front pages of major corporate news outlets, you’ll find no mention of the economic protests raging in Spain, Morocco, Greece, and the United Kingdom.

On The Washington Post homepage these days, you’ll find headlines such as, “How To Deal With A Chatty Coworker Who Won’t Get Out Of Your Office,” but you won’t find mention of the more than 100,000 people protesting in Madrid. You’ll find the story of a gay union entitled, “What’s Two ‘Yentas’ Plus One Senator? A Lifetime Together” at The New York Times, but you won’t see a single heading on the more than 10,000 protesters in Athens. Corporate media has largely glossed over the tens of thousands of farmers in the Netherlands who clogged up roadways and distributions centers by holding Canadian-trucker-convoy-style demonstrations to protest radical climate policies.

According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which records protests worldwide, 11 countries are currently seeing protests of more than 1,000 people in response to the rising cost of living and other economic woes in 2022. As of July 5, Carnegie had recorded protests of more than 120,000 people in France, 100,000 in Spain, 10,000 in Greece, 10,000 in Kazakhstan, 10,000 in Sri Lanka, 10,000 in India, 5,000 in Iran, 5,000 in Peru, 1,000 people in Argentina, 1,000 in Morocco, and 1,000 in the U.K.

Many of the French protesters took to the streets on May Day for salary increases and against President Emmanuel Macron’s increase of the retirement age. Fifty-four people were reportedly arrested in Paris after some demonstrations turned violent. France’s economy, Europe’s third-largest, shrank in the first quarter of 2022, and in June, inflation shot up 5.8 percent compared to last year. Protesters also held demonstrations in March, with some complaining they had lost 15 to 20 percent of their purchasing power. Meanwhile, France’s answer to inflation? Keep spending; the country is throwing $20.4 billion at the problem.

In Spain, with gas subsidies, direct grants, and an increase in the minimum wage, the socialist-leaning government has seen only rising inflation rates (10.2 percent), and the accompanying price hikes are driving thousands of people onto the streets to protest. The country is finding out the hard way what a 40 percent reliance on renewable energy will do to the labor market. With its high unemployment rate at 13.65 percent as of the first quarter of 2022, labor shortages are raising prices on staple grocery items to an almost 30-year high. Thousands of demonstrators protested in March for relief in the form of tax cuts.

Meanwhile, it’s no surprise that any supply issues, aggravated or initiated by the Russia-Ukraine war, would burden Greece’s weakened economy that only just emerged from a decade-long crisis in 2018 to be sent right back by Covid shutdowns in 2020. In April, thousands gathered at a labor union-organized rally outside parliament in protest of inflation, which followed a February demonstration where about 10,000 people showed up to protest electricity prices that had leaped 56 percent, fuel prices that had jumped 21.6 percent, and natural gas prices that had skyrocketed 156 percent in January.

In India, a country locked in a vicious cycle of going into debt to pay off interest of former debts, the increasing cost of living is racking the country. In March, an estimated 50 million workers participated in a two-day strike to protest the loss of jobs and income, with communist groups organizing rallies in May decrying the high rate of inflation.

The socialist government in Argentina that led the country to default seven times and produced the largest decline in the relative standard of living in the world since 1900 is trying to do something new. On Monday, Argentina’s new economy minister Silvina Batakis announced her plan to cut the fiscal deficit — a proposal more than a thousand Argentines are protesting.

Decades of government spending and faulty economic policies have led to Argentina’s inflation rate growing to 58 percent. Prices are liquid and through the roof, with iPhones costing six months’ rent and a two-hour plane ticket equaling the cost of a month’s college tuition. Batakis plans to hold Argentina to the terms of a $44 billion debt deal it made earlier this year with the International Monetary Fund. Thousands of Argentines meanwhile flocked to protest against the economic hardships felt by the country upon cutting spending and took up banners crying for Argentina’s separation from the IMF.

The United Kingdom is suffering from a high 9.1 percent inflation rate as of May, and many are tired of the government’s response. Brits flocked out in February to protest rising costs of living, with demonstrations held in at least 25 towns and cities and signs reading, “tax the rich” and “freeze prices not the poor.” The U.K.’s inflation rate was already at 5.4 percent in January of this year due in part to the 2020 Covid shutdowns, but it has since almost doubled, largely due to the EU’s sanctions on Russian oil. In June, thousands marched down central London in protest, wanting the government to boost its welfare response.

Still reeling from the worst drought it has had in 40 years, Morocco is seeing price spikes on even the most basic goods. Thousands of Moroccans joined protests in February to decry the increasing cost of living, with unions staging more demonstrations in April. The country has high unemployment rates and large public debt, along with a heavy reliance on imports.

Aside from a scant headline here and there, America’s most popular news providers, The Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, and NBC, did not cover these protests, despite the French and Spanish protests being 10 to 100 times larger than the protests these corporate media giants did report.

None of these four major outlets wrote a single line on the protests of more than 100,000 demonstrators in Spain, more than 10,000 in Greece, more than 1,000 in Morocco, and more than 1,000 in the U.K. The New York Times published one lone article on the strike in India, where an estimated 50 million people walked off the job. The Washington Post has two small articles on the Argentinian protests of more than 1,000 as inflation appears set to hit 70 percent, and it has reported once on the May Day protests in France where more than 120,000 people protested government pension reforms. NBC mentioned the May Day protests once in a world report. This is the entire 2022 coverage by these media giants of these countries’ protests over economic turmoil.

Of these 11 countries, only four made any major headlines. The corporate press oftentimes only highlights these economic protests when they get so loud they can no longer be ignored, as we saw with Kazakhstan’s kill order to quell protests and the Sri Lankans’ attack on their president’s home. Over the weekend, the biased media finally began covering the Sri Lanka protests that are over 10,000 people strong — but only because footage of demonstrators swarming the president’s residence by the thousands on Saturday went viral.

Corporate media won’t talk about the rest of these protests because the countries are struggling from economically disastrous policies akin to President Joe Biden’s. Any show of economic turmoil in EU member states could be traced back to EU sanctions on Russia or green energy failures, which would fly in the face of the corporate media’s agenda. Many of these countries have inflationary monetary policies.

The leftist media will tell you about Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Iran, and Peru, however, but only to bolster its pro-Ukraine/anti-Russia narrative that denies the realities of war to promote Biden’s efforts to empty our pockets and replenish Ukraine’s.

In its treatment of the Kazakhstan protests, The Washington Post made sure to mention the country’s relationship with Russia. The Times’ articles on the Sri Lanka protests framed the economic downturns in terms of problems stemming from Russia’s invasion and ignored Sri Lanka’s Green Deal ban on chemical fertilizer that ultimately crashed its economy. Both CNN’s coverage of protests in Iran and NBC’s reports of those in Peru likewise stressed the Russia-Ukraine war as the cause for economic turmoil.

The media only highlight these world protests when they grow too big to ignore or when the facts can be skewed toward their preferring narratives. Cherry-picking which protests to highlight gives media cover to paint them as isolated incidents in non-Western countries instead of a worldwide trend showing the consequences of embracing left-wing policies. After all, Biden is making the same blunders in the United States, and corporate media can’t have Americans connecting those dots.

The U.S. labor market is in shambles. Inflation has skyrocketed to a 40-year high at 9.1 percent. The Biden administration is drawing down our emergency oil reserves, shipping it overseas to nations that can’t function on their “Green Energy” policies any more than we can. Irony alert: The oil will go through a European pipeline despite Biden citing climate conservation to shut down our own Keystone pipeline.

Discontent with these policy failures is triggering massive protests all over the world. Just don’t expect to read all about it in the New York Times.

Beth Whitehead is an intern at The Federalist and a journalism major at Patrick Henry College where she fondly excuses the excess amount of coffee she drinks as an occupational hazard.

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Capitol Police Arrest Democratic Congresswoman for Storming Federal Building


Reported by Jack Davis | July 16, 2021

Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/capitol-police-arrest-democratic-congresswoman-storming-federal-building/

The chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus celebrated her arrest Thursday after leading an incursion of protesters into the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill. Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio said that breaking the law was an important way to illustrate her belief that voting reforms passed by state legislatures will disenfranchise black voters.

“I stand in solidarity with Black women and allies across the country in defense of our constitutional right to vote. We have come too far and fought too hard to see everything systematically dismantled and restricted by those who wish to silence us,” Beatty said in a statement on her website.

She said more protests will follow.

“Be assured that this is just the beginning. This is Our Power, Our Message,” the congresswoman in the statement.

“You can arrest me. You can’t stop me. You can’t silence me,” Beatty said on Twitter.

NBC News reported that the protesters who joined Beatty in the incursion demanded passage of the so-called For the People Act, a Democrat bill that would largely put elections under the thumb of the federal government instead of the states.

Capitol Police said the demonstrators were arrested after refusing to disperse.

“This afternoon, nine people were arrested for demonstrating in a prohibited area on Capitol Grounds,” the department said in a statement on Thursday.

“At approximately 3:30pm, the United States Capitol Police responded to the Atrium in the Hart Senate Office Building for reports of illegal demonstration activity. After officers arrived on the scene, they warned the demonstrators three times to stop. Those who refused were arrested for D.C. Code §22-1307. Two males and seven females were transported to USCP Headquarters for processing,” Capitol Police said.

Unlike the coverage of the Jan. 6 incursion of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, there was no hue-and-cry in the media about Beatty and the other protesters staging an “insurrection” or “threatening our democracy.”

Many Republicans have said the fight over election reform legislation is an attempt by Democrats to use their current congressional majority as a means to cement leftist rule in America.

“Democrats want to rig every election going forward to make it nearly impossible for a conservative to win again,” Fox News host Laura Ingraham said Wednesday.

“They’re now effectively arguing that the very voting rules that delivered two two-term victories for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are essentially just like Jim Crow 2.0,” she said.

“So this leaves them really with only one option in their mind, which is to promote racial fear-mongering in pretty much everything around them. We already know what they’re doing in our schools, to our workplaces, the military, even to now our system of voting,” Ingraham said.

Fox News host Sean Hannity said the left’s fuss over voting rights is part of a strategy to sway the 2022 elections.

“So what does this really all about? We all know there’s nothing racist about integrity in elections. Democrats are obviously worried. Chances are they now believe they probably will lose in 2022 and maybe even 2024,” he said Thursday on “Hannity.”

“Mark my words, if Democrats suffer huge losses in 2022, they will blame racist right-wing voter suppression. … The truth isn’t important to the Democratic Party or the media mob, for that matter. Power is all that matters,” Hannity said.

Jack Davis, Contributor,

Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

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FBI warns of plans for nationwide armed protests next week


Reported by COLLEEN LONG, MICHAEL BALSAMO and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN | AP | January 12, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is warning of plans for armed protests at all 50 state capitals and in Washington, D.C., in the days leading up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, stoking fears of more bloodshed after last week’s deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol.

An internal FBI bulletin warned, as of Sunday, that the nationwide protests may start later this week and extend through Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, according to two law enforcement officials who read details of the memo to The Associated Press. Investigators believe some of the people are members of extremist groups, the officials said. The bulletin was first reported by ABC.

“Armed protests are being planned at all 50 state capitols from 16 January through at least 20 January, and at the U.S. Capitol from 17 January through 20 January,” the bulletin said, according to one official. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The FBI issued at least one other bulletin — they go out to law enforcement nationwide on the topic — before the riots last week. On Dec. 29, it warned of the potential for armed demonstrators targeting legislatures, the second official said.

“While our standard practice is to not comment on specific intelligence products, the FBI is supporting our state, local, and federal law enforcement partners with maintaining public safety in the communities we serve,” the bureau said in a statement. “Our efforts are focused on identifying, investigating, and disrupting individuals that are inciting violence and engaging in criminal activity.”

The FBI said it wasn’t focused on peaceful protests but “on those threatening their safety and the safety of other citizens with violence and destruction of property.”

Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told reporters Monday that the Guard is also looking at any issues across the country,

“We’re keeping a look across the entire country to make sure that we’re monitoring, and that our Guards in every state are in close coordination with their local law enforcement agencies to provide any support requested,” he said.

The riots followed weeks of online calls for violence in the nation’s capital in the waning days of Donald Trump’s presidency. There have been several arrests, and at least two Capitol police officers, one who took a selfie with rioters, and another who put on a Make America Great Again hat, were suspended. At least a dozen more are under investigation, according to lawmakers.

A tweet in which Trump promised that last Wednesday’s event in Washington, D.C., “will be wild” fueled a “month-long frenzy of incitements, strategizing, and embrace of violence against lawmakers,” according to a research group that tracks online extremism activity, In a report issued Saturday, the SITE Intelligence Group also warned that the Capitol attack has emboldened Trump-supporting extremists.

“No matter how all this plays out, its only the beginning,” posted a user on TheDonald message board, according to the report.

Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said authorities in state capitals and other major cities besides Washington should prepare for the possibility of violent protests next week.

“A lot of people were energized by what happened last week,” he said. “State capitals are a natural place where people might want to show up, especially assuming that they think there might be a huge presence of police and military in D.C. because of what happened last week.”

Pitcavage tracks militia, white supremacists and other far-right extremists, but he said the Capitol siege demonstrated the emergence of a new movement of ”Trumpist extremists, so caught up in the cult of personality around Trump that they may be willing to break the law or engage in violence purely in support of Trump and whatever he wants.”

The talk of armed marches next week isn’t limited to “radicalized” Trump supporters. State capital events on Jan. 17 appear to be promoted by supporters of the anti-government, pro-gun “boogaloo” movement. Boogaloo followers advocate for a second civil war or the collapse of society, and they don’t adhere to a coherent political philosophy.

Posts on social media sites also have promoted a “Million Militia March” on the day of Biden’s inauguration. Pitcavage said the event, apparently organized by a promoter of the pro-Trump “QAnon” conspiracy theory, appears unlikely to draw a massive crowd.

Javed Ali, a former FBI senior intelligence officer who teaches courses in counterterrorism at the University of Michigan, said it can be challenging for law enforcement to identify the line between people exercising their constitutionally protected rights to bear arms and free speech and those who pose “a real operational threat.”

“The FBI just can’t passively sit in websites and forums and social media platforms, waiting to see who’s going to present a direct threat versus just someone who is being highly radicalized,” he said. “There has to be an investigative predicate for the FBI to then start even the lowest form of an investigation.”

David Deitch, an attorney who was a prosecutor in the Justice Department’s counterterrorism section from 2003 to 2007, said law enforcement must recognize a “tenuous balance” between protected free speech and speech that intends to incites violence.

“It’s a very fact-based, case-by-case determination,” he said. “There’s no one factor that’s going to determine all of it. It’s certainly going to be a judgment call on the part of law enforcement about whether and when to intervene.”

Read the full article: https://apnews.com/article/fbi-warns-armed-protests-next-week-ec75b26289166b4afd30c15b0dd2ded5

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Video — Family Business Destroyed in Kenosha Protests: ‘Why Did We Deserve It?’


Reported by HANNAH BLEAU | 

URL of the originating web site: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/08/25/video-family-business-destroyed-kenosha-protests-why-did-we-deserve-it/

Kenosha store owner ? Twitter/@ElijahSchaffer

A Kenosha-area store owner surveyed the damage to his family’s business following the violent night of lawlessness in the city, telling reporters that he was “not prepared” for the “disaster” before him.

“What I see, I was not prepared for. I knew it was going to be a disaster but I didn’t know what a disaster looked like until I saw it,” he told reporters, gesturing to the severely damaged building behind him.

“It’s tough You know, this is a business that my parents started 40 years ago. Small out of their garage. It was a small business. [They] did it just to make a few extra dollars and eventually, it grew,” he said.

His parents, who purchased the building 31 years ago, are “very upset,” he continued, describing the emotionally draining situation.

“It’s emotionally hurtful, but we didn’t do anything to anybody. Why did we deserve it?” he asked:

 

Criminal activity unfolded Monday night, following the county imposing a state of emergency curfew and the deployment of 125 members of the National Guard.

Even so, arsonists torched businesses and destroyed buildings, leaving behind nothing but destruction:

 

“This is sickening. This is disgraceful, and this is not going to solve any problems,” one frustrated business owner told reporters:

“I just don’t understand why something like this would happen,” another business owner said, describing the scene as “carnage.”

“I don’t understand why people do these things. Our society is just really disappointing. What about just being kind to people?” he asked.

“And why don’t you just show everybody respect. I don’t care who you are — what color, race, creed. Everybody deserves that,” he continued. “So obviously we’ll clean up the damage and move forward.”

He called on leaders to “take a hard look at what’s happening here” because “innocent people are getting their things destroyed, wrecked, for no reason at all”:

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Watch: Armed Citizens Move to Defend Kenosha Businesses as Rioters Torch the City


Reported by HANNAH BLEAU | 

URL of the originating web site: https://www.breitbart.com/law-and-order/2020/08/25/watch-armed-citizens-move-defend-kenosha-businesses-rioters-torch-city/

armed protesters Wisconsin / Twitter/@VenturaReport

Armed citizens moved to defend businesses in Kenosha Monday night as rioters torched the city, targeting businesses for the second night in a row.

Protests swept the city as arsonists brazenly targeted businesses. Jorge Ventura, a field reporter for the Daily Caller, was on the scene and caught up with armed citizens attempting to stop the angry rioters from destroying businesses:

 

“Nobody f–k with the business owners,” one man said in a video showing two armed men walking beside a building.

“They’re probably with you. F–k with the government,” another shouted.

“These guys [business powers] are probably out here with the BLM protesters,”  one of the men, hailing from Milwaukee, told Ventura. “They don’t want the government to shoot people. They’re against the government too, probably. The government f–ks them every day. Taxes, shit like that.”

He made it clear that he believes the officer-involved Kenosha shooting incident is “bulls–t” but drew the line at protesters destroying businesses:

 

Several videos from reporters on the ground show protesters vandalizing businesses and buildings completely engulfed by flames:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) appeared to stand in solidarity with protesters, referring to the officer-involved incident, which is still being investigated, as “another attack against a Black man” and declaring racism a “public health crisis.”

“As folks across our state are making their voices heard, they should be able to assemble and report on these issues without any fear of being unsafe. If you are exercising that right, please do so peacefully, wear your masks, and keep physical distance as best as you can,” he said on Monday, prior to the second night of lawlessness:

Pete Deates, president of the Kenosha Professional Police Association, blasted Evers for his initial response to the incident, calling it “wholly irresponsible and not reflective of the hardworking members of the law enforcement community, not to mention the citizens of the City of Kenosha.”

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DNC’s John Lewis Quote Backfires – It Actually Condemns Leftist Rioters


Reported By Andrew J. Sciascia | Published August 20, 2020 at 8:04pm

The American left’s tone-deafness and blatant ignorance caught up with it Thursday night at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Rounding out the fourth and final night of the event with a tribute to the late civil rights hero and 17-term U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who died in July, the Democratic Party unknowingly took itself to task on matters of criminal justice reform and civil disobedience.

The topics again have become mainstays in the American political discourse following the officer-involved deaths of unarmed black Americans George Floyd and Breonna Taylor earlier this year. And the social-justice left has been quick to assert itself again as arbiters and champions of racial justice.

A quote from Lewis himself embedded within the DNC tribute to his life, however, reveals modern Democrats and progressives have no idea what it means to move the dial on such issues.

“The means by which we struggle must be consistent with the end we seek,” Lewis could be heard saying amid a slew of his most famous quotations and the praises of fellow Democratic politicians.

According to The New Republic, it was a statement made in 1994, during a PBS debate between Lewis and controversial fellow civil rights activist Al Sharpton on the topic of violence and retributive hate within the civil rights movement.

Lewis, like civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was a firm supporter of peaceful civil disobedience and attempts to strive, with love, toward unity on the issue of racial injustice in the United States. The debate had been spurred on by growing support within the movement for figures such as anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan and fellow members of the Nation of Islam. But Lewis, the longtime Georgia congressman, did not hold this opinion for a brief moment at the time of the Nation of Islam’s relevancy. He lived it, skipping the historic Million Man March in 1995 due to Farrakhan’s presence, according to excerpts from his memoir.

“I did not march because I could not overlook the presence and central role of Louis Farrakhan, and so I refused to participate,” Lewis wrote. “I believe in freedom of speech but I also believe that we have an obligation to condemn speech that is racist, bigoted, anti-Semitic or hateful.”

“The means by which we struggle must be consistent with the end we seek, and that includes the words we use to pursue those ends,” he added.

WARNING: The following tweets contain graphic language and images that some viewers will find offensive.

Unfortunately, the modern American left does not seem to hold Lewis’ personal philosophy in the same esteem that it does his Democratic voting record. Or perhaps the left simply does not understand Lewis’ words at all.

Either way, apathy or ignorance, the consequences have been great in recent months, as Democratic politicians made excuses for — or outright granted a stamp of approval to — violent Black Lives Matter demonstrations nationwide.

By the second week of June, race riots had resulted in more than $25 million worth of physical damage in Floyd’s home state of Minnesota alone, MarketWatch reported. According to WITI-TV, an unofficial tally done at the time also indicated that at least 17 people, the majority of them black, had died in the opening weeks of the unrest.

 

Since the start of the demonstrations, businesses have been razed. People have, literally, been beaten and bloodied to near death in the streets by angry mobs. If only the Democrats would make an effort to understand and live by the words they espouse, the words of the late, great figures of days gone by — perhaps they wouldn’t be doomed to radicalism.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Andrew J. Sciascia
Andrew J. Sciascia is an associate staff reporter with The Western Journal, having joined the outlet as a regular contributor of opinion in 2018.

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Portland Mob Floods Residential Area, Threatens People in Their Own Homes


Reported By Johnathan Jones | Published August 10, 2020 at 7:26am

Civil unrest in Portland, Oregon, spilled into a residential neighborhood Saturday night, where rioters targeted people inside their own homes, according to a report. While the city has experienced nightly protests and riots since May, when George Floyd died while in police custody after being detained in Minneapolis, most of the protests have remained contained to the city’s downtown area.

Journalist Andy Ngo reported that Saturday, a group of leftist activists targeted a residential neighborhood in the embattled city.

“‘We’re gonna burn your building down.’ ‘We know where you live,’” he tweeted, apparently quoting demonstrators in a video he shared on Twitter.

“As #antifa have taken to Portland residential areas to riot, they’ve also assaulted & intimidated residents there. Tonight, they threatened those who looked out the window,” Ngo added.

WARNING: The following video contains graphic language that some viewers might find offensive.

Video of the incident shows a crowd of demonstrators apparently threatening people inside a multistory residential building as some residents looked out of windows and were stunned by flashlights. One man off-camera on the video yelled about “capitalism,” while another man could be heard yelling, “We’re gonna burn your building down!”

The people in the video appeared to be sitting peacefully inside of their homes amid the chaotic situation.

Police in Portland later put out a news bulletin outlining the activities of Saturday’s demonstrations. They began at Peninsula Park in the city’s Piedmont neighborhood, about four miles north of downtown. While police described the group, which numbered in the hundreds, as “peaceful,” officers said the situation deteriorated as the activists marched west toward the Portland Police Association building near the park. A riot was declared by police before midnight.

“By 10:30 p.m., the large group reached the PPA office. As the group approached, Portland Police began making public address announcements informing the crowd they were to not to engage in criminal activities,” the bulletin said.

“People within the crowd committed crimes when they erected a fence, pushed dumpsters into the street to block traffic, set a dumpster on fire, vandalized the PPA office with spray paint, and destroyed security cameras,” it said.

Journalist Shauna Sowersby shared video of the riot on Twitter:

Police also said rioters threw glass bottles and paint balloons at officers and assaulted them with laser pointers. Three officers were injured, and two of them were treated and released by a local hospital. The rioters also tore down a barricade protecting the police union building and set a fire inside.

Sowersby shared video of the fire reported inside the Portland Police Association building.

“Personnel from Portland Fire and Rescue were able to gain access to the location and extinguish the fire inside the PPA Office,” police said.

Nine arrests were made during the riot, which carried over into Sunday morning, police said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Johnathan Jones
Johnathan has authored thousands of news articles throughout his career. He has also worked as an editor and producer in radio and television. He is a proud husband and father.

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Doctor Treating COVID Patients Explains Two Reasons Cases Are Spiking


Reported By Randy DeSoto | Published July 11, 2020 at 8:13am

Dr. Jeff Barke, who is treating COVID-19 patients in Southern California, says there are two reasons that cases are spiking at the moment, and they both were anticipated. California is among the states seeing the steepest increases in confirmed coronavirus cases, with nearly 10,000 new cases reported on Tuesday, a one-day high mark since tracking began in the spring Texas, the nation’s second-most-populous state, is seeing similar numbers, with over 10,000 new cases reported Thursday.

Barke, a primary care physician in Orange County, says the increased numbers were to be expected as states reopened their economies, but also pointed to the impact of the mass protests that occurred in June. The shutdown was never intended to prevent people from getting COVID-19, but to spread out the infection rate and thus flatten the curve to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed, he said.

“We’re seeing increased cases, as expected,” Barke told PragerU’s Will Witt in an interview published this week. “This is not a surprise.”

“We shut down the economy; now we opened it up, so people are going about their businesses, back to restaurants, back to retail, back to shopping, and they’re going to get exposed to the virus and that’s OK.”

Another factor contributing to the spike in cases were large-scale protests following the death of George Floyd.

“The other problem that we’ve seen is that we’ve had massive protests across the United States and rioting,” Barke said.

“Thousands and thousands of people in almost every single state, almost all of whom were in close proximity to each other.”

“Many of them were not wearing masks. So of course a few weeks after these protests, we’re going to see a spike in cases. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody.”

Fox News reported officials in Los Angeles, Seattle and Florida’s Miami-Dade County have confirmed the protests may have contributed to the spike in cases in their localities. The good news Barke observed is that most people at the mass gatherings appeared to be young and likely will recover from the coronavirus without much difficulty.

The Hill reported June 20 that young people were driving the latest spike in COVID-19 cases. The majority of new cases in Texas were people under 30 years old, according to Republican Gov. Gregg Abbott.

“In California, 44 percent of recent coronavirus cases occurred in those under the age of 35, according to a study by George Lemp, director of the University of California’s HIV/AIDS Research Program,” The Hill reported.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNBC that the average age of those contracting the coronavirus has indeed dropped by 15 years since a few months ago. The lower ages are also apparently contributing to the falling death rate due to the virus.

Overall, the United States is experiencing a relatively low case fatality rate — 4.2 percent — compared with other countries, according to Johns Hopkins University.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Randy DeSoto
Senior Staff Writer
Randy DeSoto has written more than 1,000 articles for The Western Journal since he joined the company in 2015. He is a graduate of West Point and Regent University School of Law. He is the author of the book “We Hold These Truths” and screenwriter of the political documentary “I Want Your Money.”

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Black Florida Sheriff Vows To Deputize Gun Owners If Rioters Come to His County


Reported By Elise Ehrhard | Published July 2, 2020 at 12:50pm

Sheriff Darryl Daniels of Clay County, Florida, released a 3-minute video Tuesday declaring he will deputize the county’s gun owners if protesters decide to visit the jurisdiction southwest of Jacksonville and turn into rioters.

As he stood with 18 deputies behind him, Daniels declared, “Don’t fall victim to subjecting yourself to this conversation that law enforcement is bad, that law enforcement is the enemy of the citizens that we’re sworn to protect and serve.

“We swore an oath, and in that oath, we swore to support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and the government, and that we’re duly qualified under the state’s Constitution to hold office. That is for me as a sheriff and these men and women as deputy sheriffs. And we end that with, ‘So help me God.’

“But God is absent from the media’s message or Black Lives Matter or any other group out there that’s making themselves a spectacle disrupting what we know to be our quality of life in this country.”

Daniels, Clay County’s first black sheriff, spoke about the breakdown of law-and-order occurring in many parts of the country in recent weeks.

“Lawlessness, that’s unacceptable in this country. Lawlessness, that’s unacceptable in Clay County,” he said. “And if you threaten to come to Clay County and think for one second that we’ll bend our backs for you, you’re sadly mistaken. …

“Tearing up Clay County, that’s not going to be acceptable. And if we can’t handle you, you know what I’ll do? I will exercise the power and authority of the sheriff and I’ll make special deputies of every lawful gun owner in this county. And I’ll deputize them for this one purpose: to stand in the gap between lawlessness and civility.

“That’s what we’re sworn to do, and that’s what we’re going to do. You’ve been warned.”

Daniels is himself under investigation over allegations that an affair with a fellow officer led to her wrongful arrest. Since he is battling a scandal in the midst of a tough re-election campaign, this video could be Daniels’ attempt to win over voters by appealing to the need for law-and-order and the right to bear arms. If so, the sheriff is correctly “reading the room,” as they say. Over the past few months, gun sales have surged across the United States.

“During the last week of May, firearm sales were up 78% over 2019, according to an analysis by the small business software firm Womply,” USA Today reported last month.

Americans have seen police departments become overwhelmed during protests and riots across the country. In Seattle’s “Capitol Hill Organized Protest” zone, six city blocks were taken over and a police station was abandoned. In Minneapolis, a precinct was burned to the ground.

The National Guard has been called into multiple places. All the while, exhausted police departments are being defunded by Democratic mayors and city councils.

Right now, Americans can feel grateful for our Second Amendment rights. In some chaotic areas, they are the one thing standing between us and the violent left-wing mob.

Daniels acknowledged the protesters’ rights during his speech.

“Yes, we’ll protect your constitutional rights as long as you remain under the umbrella of peaceful protest or peaceful march. But the second that you step out from up under the protection of the Constitution, we’ll be waiting on you and we’ll give you everything you want,” he said.

Daniels is not the first sheriff to suggest deputizing law-abiding gun owners in his county. Last year, Scott Jenkins, the sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, vowed to deputize thousands in his county if the state’s Democratic leaders passed extreme gun control measures. His county’s Board of Supervisors had unanimously agreed to declare the county a Second Amendment Constitutional County.

Law-abiding Americans have been viciously attacked during the violence sweeping the country. More and more of them could very well be open to being deputized so they can help protect their communities.

The Clay County sheriff may be facing an investigation, but his video message is on point.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Elise Ehrhard
Elise Ehrhard has been a freelance writer for over 20 years and a homeschool mom for seven. Her articles have appeared in countless conservative publications, including The Washington Times, Washington Examiner and American Thinker. She blogs about television and culture for the Media Research Center/Newsbusters.

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Race Stats for Protesters Finally Come Out, Destroy Leftist Narrative


Reported By C. Douglas Golden | Published June 27, 2020 at 11:39am

The headline of the news release from the Pew Research Center was a master class in trying to make the headline fit the prevailing narrative: “Recent protest attendees are more racially and ethnically diverse, younger than Americans overall.”

“Large-scale protests and rallies for racial equality have captured public attention and amplified calls for policy reforms in recent weeks,” the Wednesday article began.

“Some 6% of U.S. adults say they have attended a protest or rally that focused on issues related to race or racial equality in the last month, and those who have are more likely to be nonwhite and younger than Americans overall, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. They are also more likely to live in an urban area and to identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party.”

Let’s say you stopped reading there. What would be your takeaways on the reading comprehension tests? a) Lots of people attended these protests. b) Those people skewed nonwhite. c) They tended to be urban and Democratic in nature.

You’d only get a high-D, however — 67 percent right.

As for what you got correct: a) Yes, 6 percent is a high number. c) The crowds were urban and tended to vote for Democrats.

As for b) — well, let’s talk about that.

The Pew Research Center’s survey of protest-goers is heavily dependent on what you’re willing to consider “more likely to be nonwhite and younger than Americans overall.”

Younger? Yes, definitely. “About four-in-ten (41%) of those who say they recently attended a protest focused on race are younger than 30; among all U.S. adults, 19% are in this age group,” Pew said.

“In turn, those ages 50 and older are underrepresented among the protesters, while those ages 30 to 49 represent a similar share of those who have attended a protest as they do of the adult population overall.”

The problem comes out when you look at how many people who attended protests that were supposed to be about black people achieving racial justice were actually black.

“Black Americans account for 17% of those who say they attended a protest focused on race or racial equality in the last month, compared with their 11% share of all adults in the survey,” the news release said.

“Hispanic Americans account for 22% of recent protest attendees, versus 15% of all adults. The difference is less pronounced but still statistically significant when it comes to the share of protesters who are Asian (8% vs. 5% of the adults surveyed). While 64% of U.S. adults are white, just 46% of those who said they attended a protest focused on race in the last month are white.”

The results came from a web survey managed by Ipsos of 9,654 respondents between June 4 and June 10. The margin of error was 1.6 percentage points. So, the difference between the share of adult black respondents and the percentage of black individuals in attendance at the protests in which the Black Lives Matter movement played a large part and which were perceived to be about black Americans standing up for their rights was just 6 percentage points.

The vast majority of people who were protesting for racial equality, in other words, weren’t black.

This wasn’t at all like the skew of Democrats-to-Republicans.

“When it comes to political party affiliation, about eight-in-ten (79%) of those who say they participated in a protest or rally focused on race or racial equality in the last month identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, while just 17% say they are Republican or Republican-leaning,” the news release said.

Meanwhile, 51 percent of all adult respondents in the survey said they were Democrats or leaned Democrat, compared to the 44 percent who were Republican or leaned Republican.” And yet, both Democrats and Republicans expressed outrage at the death of George Floyd.

I suppose part of the difference could be explained by the fact that the average Republican probably isn’t going to show up to a protest with a “Trump Supporters 4 Justice” sign, but the reality is that this is about something significantly different than requesting justice for Floyd.

This is nothing short of Democrats and the media using black pain as a prop for themselves.

While many black Americans may be frustrated with their treatment by law enforcement, that’s largely not who was protesting. The demonstrators, according to this survey, were within 5 percentage points of being majority white. But that’s not what the narrative was — and that’s likely not what the narrative will remain.

Facts and narrative, however, are two very separate things, no matter how hard the Pew Research Center wants to make them fit.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

C. Douglas Golden
Contributor, Commentary
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal for four years.

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Rioter Douses Police Officer, Sets Him on Fire as Unrest Spreads Across Globe


Reported By Jack Davis | Published June 6, 2020 at 8:05am

Inspired by riots across America that have led politicians to repudiate law enforcement, violent protesters are now attacking police around the globe. Protests reached a horrifying apex of violence Thursday in Mexico when, during a protest in Guadalajara, a police officer who took his eyes off demonstrators was set on fire in an incident caught on video. The protests took place over the death of Giovanni López, who died in May after an altercation with police, according to the U.K. Daily Mail. Although there were reports police had detained him for not wearing a face mask, officials said that was not true.

Video of Thursday’s protest shows a police officer getting on a motorcycle. Once his back was turned, he was splashed with some type of liquid by a rioter, who quickly set the officer on fire with what appeared to be a lighter. As the officer rolled on the street, police tried to help put out the fire while also battling protesters. The condition of the police officer could not be ascertained from media reports.

WARNING: The video below contains violent images that some views may find disturbing:

Mexican rioters also attacked the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City:

French protesters also took to the streets this week, claiming that the death of a man four years ago in police custody was an atrocity. A Paris demonstration on Tuesday included protesters holding signs that read, “Black Lives Matter,” according to NBC News. Police reported 18 people were arrested after what began as a protest turned violent, with many people taking part in acts of arson and vandalism.

British protests occurred in London, Manchester and Nottingham, claiming that U.K. police were guilty of racism and violence against black citizens.

“We’ve had enough. George Floyd is [one of] a long line of black males that have died at the hands of police. And the U.K. is not innocent, as I chanted at the marches I’ve attended, because there is a long history of police abuse here too,” protester Trey Campbell-Simon told The Guardian.

One commentator said there is a thread of anti-lockdown sentiment in the explosive protests.

“I think the public are less clear about whose interests are being protected now the lockdown is being eased,” Tim Newburn, a professor of criminology and public policy at the London School of Economics, told The Guardian.

“Add into the mix substantial social inequality in the impact of both the pandemic and the lockdown — and significant racial inequality in particular — and the dangers are clear. Missteps by the police and by other authorities now could have grave consequences for public order and public safety,” he said.

In Sydney, Australia, thousands marched, with some chanting, “No justice, no peace, no racist police,” according to The New York Times. Some commentators said that the protests were not only aimed at police, but at President Donald Trump.

“Part of it is about anti-Americanism, part of it is about the gross injustice,” Marcel Dirsus, a nonresident fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University in Germany, told The Washington Post, referring to demonstrations in Berlin.

“But it’s also about Trump, who is so unpopular in Germany that it makes many people dislike America as a whole. I think a lot of people assumed that America had already hit rock bottom over the last couple of years, but then Trump proved them wrong in the way he is handling the pandemic and these protests.”

“It’s significant that Trumpism is part of a broader transnational movement,” Georgetown University political scientist Daniel Nexon said Monday during a webinar.

“U.S. political polarization is now aligned with politics elsewhere.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jack Davis
Contributor, News
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

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Young Conservative Raises Money for Black Businesses After Rioters Loot and Destroy Them


Reported By Michael Austin | Published June 2, 2020 at 1:23pm

In the days since Minnesota resident George Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck during an arrest, riots have ravaged cities across the country. While the riots started as protests voicing support for the Black Lives Matter movement, they have since led to the destruction of many businesses owned by African-Americans.

Thanks to one young conservative, however, some of those businesses may have a chance to rebuild. CJ Pearson, a 2020 high school graduate and popular online conservative commentator, started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for black-owned businesses damaged by the riots. As of Tuesday, the campaign had raised over $71,500.

CJ Pearson

✔@thecjpearson

The Left is burning down black businesses. The Right is helping them reopen. Join me in supporting this cause: https://w https://www.pscp.tv/w/caQucTFlV0V5WHZsWG5OakF8MU1ZeE5rbFpQb3BLd7-Dg6OPJqk0tVXfYSnqXYrzQ3RBrtHT4UbliZhJUot5 …

CJ Pearson @thecjpearson

The Left is burning down black businesses. The Right is helping them reopen. Join me in supporting this cause: https://w

pscp.tv

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Pearson spoke to The Western Journal about the campaign, highlighting the differences between left-wing and right-wing actions during the riots.

“The Left is burning down black businesses. The Right is banding together to help them reopen,” he said in a text message.

“Who are the real racists?”

On the GoFundMe page, Pearson explained the full purpose of the campaign.

“ANTIFA is burning down black businesses,” he wrote. “They are hijacking the memory and legacy of George Floyd — who’s life was wrongfully taken —  in an attempt to push and advance their own agenda. They’re looting and vandalizing black-owned establishments and blaming black people for doing it. I knew the Left was racist, but wow.

“This is an opportunity for conservatives to show the black community that we stand in support of them, capitalism, and the sacrifices they made to become entrepreneurs in the first place,” Pearson added.

“Over the course of the next few days, I will be working to identify black owned businesses — throughout the country — that suffered damages due to recent events of rioting and looting in their city. Every single disbursement of funds will be accounted for and records will be maintained.”

Many protests over Floyd’s death have since been hijacked and turned into violent riots filled with looting, arson, physical violence and even a handful of shooting deaths. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien identified the left-wing “anti-fascist” coalition known as antifa, which has a long history of violence, as one of the main culprits of the riots.

“This is being driven by antifa,” O’Brien said Sunday on CNN.

President Donald Trump also took to Twitter on Sunday to declare the U.S. will be declaring the left-wing coalition as a terrorist organization.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.

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“The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization,” he tweeted.

Last week, an African-American firefighter and small business owner named K.B. Balla, who poured his life savings into Scores Sports Bar in Minneapolis, was forced to deal with the destruction of his bar at the hands of rioters. While CBS News was interviewing Balla inside of what was left of his businesses, multiple looters were caught on video returning to try and steal his safe.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Michael Austin
Michael Austin graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s in English before joining The Western Journal.

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Chinese State Media Calls Violent U.S. Protests A ‘Beautiful Sight’


Reported By Eric A. Blair | Published June 1, 2020 at 9:31am

A state newspaper in China is calling violent riots in U.S. cities “retribution” for Washington’s support of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, adding that they are a “beautiful sight.”

The Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party outlet, suggested in a column that Beijing “would be justified if it openly backed the protests and riots in the U.S. that have prompted eight governors to call out the National Guard,” The Washington Times reported.

The column, written by Global Times Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin, took aim at the Trump administration for threatening to impose sanctions on China over its new security law in Hong Kong.

The newspaper also took aim at [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat. It mocked a statement Mrs. Pelosi made nearly a year ago that pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong were “a beautiful sight to behold” at the time.

“Now, the ‘beautiful sight’ is extending from Hong Kong to over a dozen U.S. states,” the paper said. “U.S. politicians now can enjoy this sight from their own windows.”

Trump has doubled down on his stern policies against China. Last week, he withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization over its handling of China’s role in the coronavirus crisis. The president has also hit Beijing for its “security lockdown” on Hong Kong.

“Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world,” Trump announced last week. “The Chinese government has continually violated its promises to us and so many other nations. These plain facts cannot be overlooked or swept aside.”

But Hu said the U.S. should stay out of Chinese matters.

“A quick question for Pelosi and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: Should the Chinese government and National People’s Congress issue a statement to support the protests by African-Americans and the grassroots of U.S. society?” Hu wrote. “It seems to be what Beijing should do according to the logic of Washington cheering for the rioters in Hong Kong.”

Trump, though, said Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong “is a tragedy for the people of Hong Kong, the people of China and, indeed, the people of the world.”

“China claims it is protecting national security, but the truth is that Hong Kong was secure and prosperous as a free society,” Trump said. “Beijing’s decision reverses all of that. It extends the reach of China’s invasive state security apparatus into what was formerly a bastion of liberty. China has replaced its promise formula of ‘one country, two systems’ with ‘one country, one system.’”

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Federal Riot Teams Have Officially Been Deployed to Multiple Cities


Reported By Jack Davis | Published June 1, 2020 at 6:06pm

Federal riot teams have been dispatched to two U.S. cities as the Trump administration gears up to shut down riots that have taken place across the country. President Donald Trump has also instructed “thousands and thousands” of soldiers and police to quell violence in Washington, D.C.

Attorney General William Barr has ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons to send riot teams to Miami and Washington, D.C., according to a senior Justice Department official, NPR reported. The FBI will also deploy its Hostage Rescue Team to assist in controlling riots that have taken place in the streets of Washington, D.C., the senior official said. Protesters on Sunday night lit fires in Lafayette Park across from the White House.

Overall, 88 people were arrested in the Washington, D.C., protests, according to The Washington Post.

Trump said he was sparing no effort to restore order.

“I swore an oath to uphold the laws of our nation and that is exactly what I will do,” Trump said in a Rose Garden speech Monday night.

“I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters,” the president went on.

“A number of state and local governments have failed to take necessary action to safeguard their residents.

“I am taking immediate presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America.

“I am mobilizing all available federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your Second Amendment rights.”

Trump said that he will act if a city cannot control the violence on its own.

“If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” the president said.

Trump also said he was bolstering security in the nation’s capital.

“As we speak, I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property,” he said.

After his address, Trump walked across the street from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church, which was founded in 1816. The church’s parish house was the target of arson during Sunday night’s riots, The Washington Post reported.

“Greatest country in the world,” Trump said as he inspected the damage, according to a White House media pool report. “And we’re going to keep it safe.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jack Davis
Contributor, News
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

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Watch: Man Refuses To Let Go of American Flag as He Is Viciously Attacked by Rioters


Reported By Amalia White | Published June 1, 2020 at 2:47pm

As riots continue to sweep through cities across the United States, peaceful bystanders are paying the price. In Portland, Oregon, on Sunday, a man holding an American flag was brutally beaten by rioters who chased him down and tried to steal the flag. As the violent mob descended — punching and kicking him — the man refused to let the flag out of his clutches.

As the man was singled out, others in the crowd threw objects at him.

Conservative journalist Andy Ngo — who himself was mauled by antifa radicals in June 2019 — shared video of the attack on Twitter.

WARNING: The following videos contain vulgar language and graphic violence that some viewers may find offensive.

Another man intervened to try and help the man with the flag and was subsequently chased down and horrifically beaten for doing so. His face was pummeled into the pavement, and he lay on the street bloodied and unresponsive. One of the terrorizers then kicked him mercilessly in the face.

As the helpless man laid unmoving, the mob devolved to shrieking expletives and threats to him.

“Knocked his motherf—ing a– out,” one woman said. Other rioters could be heard shouting, “Black lives matter, you f—–.”

When the man regained consciousness, his face was mangled and covered in blood, and parts of his teeth were seen missing.

Volunteer medics helped him to his feet while they and others in the crowd continued to chastise him.

“You’re lucky they’re even helping you. Who the f— are you running your mouth like that?” one person could be heard saying.

They said he brought the attack upon himself by attempting to help the man holding the American flag.

“Do not, do not protest against black lives because guess what, we’re showing up for you even though you’re being terrible to people,” one of the “medics” lectured as his bloodied face was attended to.

The Portland hoodlums ignored Mayor Ted Wheeler’s 8 p.m. curfew and continued the rioting for the second night in a row.

The violent demonstrations are connected to the growing unrest across the country related to the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis after a police officer knelt on his neck during an arrest.

What started as peaceful protests soon turned violent as they were hijacked by left-wing groups such as antifa and Black Lives Matter activists.

As in other demonstrations across the nation, rioters in Portland took to smashing cars and vandalizing businesses — racking up millions of dollars in damages in just one night.

“On Friday night, protesters broke the windows at the downtown Portland Apple store to steal a desktop computer that they then used to break the window of another store. Numerous retailers reported building and looting damages in the millions,” Oregon Live reported.

As the mob mentality intensifies, Americans are being attacked while merely trying to defend their property or businesses. A man trying to protect his neighborhood from being ransacked by looters was stoned and beaten into unconsciousness.

An elderly man was horribly assaulted and his car was lit on fire when he tried to defend his vehicle against a gang of rioters.

The list of these despicable brutalities keeps getting longer.

The man refusing to lose his grasp on the U.S. flag shows the patriotic spirit many Americans still possess. In their eyes, the flag is a symbol of gratitude for the abundant freedoms our country provides.

Loving this country is not evil, but yet that is the narrative that many on the left want to proclaim — as evident in this brutal mob case. Beating innocent people to a pulp in the name of justice is perhaps the most illogical narrative the left has ever conjured.

What happened to the man holding the flag should never happen in this country. Violent leftists have shown that they will go to great lengths to try and persuade people who love America to cower in fear. With President Donald Trump announcing the designation of antifa as a terrorist organization Sunday, now it might be the dangerous radicals’ turn to run for cover.

As the man was beaten down, he never lost his grip on the flag. The American spirit, though under attack, still persists.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Amalia White
Amalia is a passionate free speech supporter and aims to encourage conservatives to put their principles into action. She is currently working for a state senator, has a business degree and has contributed to several publications.

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WATCH: California Police Officers At Anti-Lockdown Protest Appear To STAND DOWN After Marine Vet With Megaphone Challenges Their Integrity


Reported By The Scoop | Published May 3, 2020 at 8:39pm

Protesters in several California cities, including San Francisco, Huntington Beach, and Sacramento rallied on Friday, May 1st, with huge protests against Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom’s hyper restrictive coronavirus stay-at-home order. In Sacramento, the state’s capital, a packed crowd of thousands of protesters faced off with lines of police officers in full riot gear.

According to The Guardian, “The California Highway Patrol (CHP) had announced that it would be barring protests at the Sacramento state capitol because of a lack of social distancing by participants at a previous rally, but protesters gathered on the steps of the building regardless, chanting ‘Whose house? Our house!’”

“Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” chanted other Sacramento protesters, according to video footage recorded by California resident Joshua Coleman. In Coleman’s video, a Marine veteran named Cordie Lee Williams can be seen speaking into a megaphone, challenging California police officers to “stand down.”

“In the face of tyranny, in the face of freedom, are you going to sit there in your riot gear against peaceful protesters?” asked Williams.  “Or are you going to say, ‘you know what, it’s time to stand up for my country.  Because I took an oath of office and it said, ‘I will defend all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Williams continued, “You might lose your job, but I’d rather lose my job than lose my soul.

“What are you going to tell your little boy or your little girl tonight? That you took your baton and you crushed somebody’s skull, who was a mom? Is that what a tough guy does? That’s not what honor, courage, and commitment means in the Marine Corps.”

Williams then directly challenged the officers’ integrity, “We always have in the military, we have ‘what’s a lawful order.’  And you’ve gotta check your nutsack when you’re given an order, and you’ve gotta say, ‘is this a lawful order or is this a bullshit order?’

“When something’s a bullshit order, and it doesn’t pass the sniff test,” Williams said, “that’s when you say, ‘Sergeant,’ that’s when you say, ‘Colonel,’ that’s when you say, ‘General,’ that’s when you say, ‘Governor, I’m not doing that.  I didn’t sign up for that.”

Shortly after Williams challenged the officers to ‘stand down,’ the officers appeared to retreat and leave the location.

WATCH the viral footage of Marine Corps veteran Cordie Lee Williams challenging the California police officers’ integrity here:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 
The Scoop
The Scoop is a news company that makes short, easy to understand videos about the top conservative news stories of the day. We were founded in 2017 by Steeve Strange, CEO, and Cameron Schnittger, Content Strategy Director. Our mission is to give conservative Americans a voice on the far-left social media platforms. We only report on real news; we will never spin a story to push an untrue agenda. Check out our website www.thescoop.us for more articles and videos.

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ICE Agents Take Page from ‘The Walking Dead,’ Begin Using Ruthless Torture Technique on Protesters


Reported By Ben Marquis | July 16, 2018 at 3:56pm

As part of their insanely reflexive opposition to everything said or done by President Donald Trump — specifically with regard to his administration’s enforcement of immigration laws — the left has begun to call for the abolition and disbandment of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Leftist activists calling themselves “Occupy ICE” have put that call into action on the streets of Portland, Oregon, with an ongoing effort to besiege and block off the ICE facility in that city, an effort that has been sustained for several weeks now as the protesters have made camp outside the building.

Federal agents have tangled with the protesters on a few occasions, usually to break up formed lines intended to prevent agents and vehicles from coming and going, which has resulted in arrests and injuries.

But now it appears that ICE has adopted a different tactic to annoy and potentially even disperse the camped protesters — blasting them with tortuous music for hours on end in a bid to drive them mad.

Local alternative media outlet Willamette Week noted that ICE seemingly borrowed a page from the incredibly popular zombie apocalypse TV series “The Walking Dead” and adopted a tactic that had been used by a bad guy character named Negan, head of a group named the “Saviors” that was in conflict with the central group of survivors the series is focused on.

In one episode during the last season, Negan captured and imprisoned the popular character Daryl and forced him to listen repeatedly to a sickeningly over-the-top happy song titled “Easy Street” — by the Collapsible Hearts Club — in a bid to break his will and compel his submission, according to Uproxx.

“It seems to play for a couple minutes and is a continuous loop. It’s been playing for 10+ hours now,” a spokesperson for the Occupy group told Willamette Week via email.

The annoyingly happy music on repeat, in conjunction with triple-digit temperatures, most likely had a deleterious effect on the minds of the encamped protesters, which was pretty much the intent.

In addition, the ICE facility has trained massive generator-powered floodlights on the protesters’ encampment to keep it bathed in bright light all through the night, no doubt preventing some protesters from getting decent, if any at all, sleep in the evenings.

Previously, the federal agents who reside in the ICE facility had similarly blasted Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” at the protesters, though the young protesters had dismissed that effort and song as little more than “threatening dad rock” that had little effect on them.

As odd as the tactic may seem to some, the repeated playing of a particular song has for some time been deemed a “publicly palatable” form of torture — or enhanced interrogation techniques, if you will — that has been used to great effect against confirmed and suspected terrorists detained for questioning, according to a 2014 article by Mic.

Indeed, popular songs played repetitively as a form of torture include Queen’s “We Are The Champions,” Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady,” David Gray’s “Babylon,” the Bee Gee’s “Saturday Night Fever,” Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People,” and a host of other songs ranging from peppy pop music to aggressive heavy metal.

Some of the more hilarious musical selections used to torture terrorists included the “Meow Mix” song from the cat food commercial and the kid-friendly “I Love You” theme song from the “Barney and Friends” TV show.

A spokesperson for ICE declined to respond with a comment to Willamette Week’s inquiry, and it remains unclear at this time if ICE will continue to use music as a weapon against the protesters and how effective that tactic will ultimately prove to be over time.

One thing that is clear is that ICE is not content to allow the protesters to continue their “occupation” outside the Portland facility in perpetuity without some form of pushback, and the protesters would be wise to hightail it out of there before ICE turns their “Easy Street” into an increasingly difficult, painful and mentally exhausting road for them to travel going forward.

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Watch: Bodycam Footage Devastates Rioters Raging at ‘Unarmed’ Black Man’s Death


Reported By Cillian Zeal | July 16, 2018 at 5:40am

Police bodycam footage of the shooting death of a Chicago man that touched off riots in the city over the weekend revealed that he appeared to be armed and reaching for his weapon.

The death of Harith “Snoop” Augustus, a 37-year-old African-American, at the hands of Chicago police officers “mobilized hundreds of Chicago protesters over the weekend,” as The Hill charitably put it.

“Officers were struck by rocks and bottles as dozens of demonstrators gathered near the crime scene Saturday,” USA Today reported police as saying.

“Four demonstrators were arrested late Saturday as police cleared the crime scene, said Anthony Guglielmi, the police department’s chief spokesman. Fred Waller, chief of the department’s patrol division, said three or four officers were injured.” Batons were apparently used against some of the protesters.

Those assembled chanted “murderers” and “no justice, no peace” after the shooting, gathering quickly at the 71st Street scene at which Augustus was shot.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, police say they stopped Augustus at roughly 5:30 p.m. Saturday because he was “a man exhibiting characteristics of an armed person.” However, witnesses say police had wanted Augustus to stop selling loose cigarettes, a similar situation which led to the death of Eric Garner in New York City several years ago.

A Washington Post freeze-frame of the video shows Augustus reaching for what appears to be a Firearm Owners Identification Card, a card that allows individuals to buy and carry firearms and ammunition.

However, after a brief confrontation, Augustus runs away. Another freeze-frame of the bodycam video shows Augustus with his shirt up, revealing a holstered handgun. He then runs out into the street as another police car arrives.

It’s at this point that Augustus can be seen reaching for his waist in roughly the same location at which the firearm was at. Police then shot him. A weapon was discovered at the scene along with several rounds of ammunition.

Here is video released by the city of the confrontation, which we must warn you contains images some will find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

Augustus was transported to Jackson Park Hospital, where he died at 5:50 p.m.

“From police perspective, you know, these things happen in a split second,” said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, a veteran of leftist protests, at a new conference. “Officers have to make decisions quickly.”

Police noted that Augustus had no recent history of criminal activity. But it’s not the first time police bodycams have backed up officers’ decisions to use deadly force.

“I mean, it is what it is,” Johnson said of the video, according to BBC.

“You know, we are not trying to hide anything. We are not trying to fluff anything. The video speaks for itself. I don’t need to narrate that video for you. When you see it, you come to your own conclusions about what happened.”

And those conclusions are one that protesters likely won’t want to embrace.

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Anti-Gunner Students Allowed To Edit US Paper, End Up Humiliating Themselves


Authored By Cillian Zeal | March 26, 2018 at 2:19pm

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/anti-gunner-students-paper/

Publications have editors. Real ones. As in, those whose experience is commensurate with the paper, magazine or website they’re working for. They’re not just there to make sure their staff don’t “wreite like” th1s. Their function is edit for style, to check facts, to see if arguments cohere. For this, they’re paid handsomely. (Well, by the standards of the industry, anyhow.)

I mention this all because on Friday, the U.S. edition of The Guardian allowed the staff of the Eagle Eye — the official newspaper of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, site of one of the most horrific acts of evil we’ve witnessed on school grounds in many a year — essentially to write and edit their own piece detailing their recommendations to “halt mass shootings.” 

It’s worth noting that the paper’s parent publication, the London Guardian, is easily the most liberal mainstream publication in Great Britain. That certainly explains why they would engage in an experiment like this.

And, common sense unfortunately dictated exactly how the experiment went. The piece — which I’m sure did very well in terms of readership, given the quasi-celebrity nature of the authors and the fact that it was published a day before the March for Our Lives — is a farrago of unresearched errors, logical fallacies and appeals to emotion so threadbare and maudlin you wish that a real editor would have saved them from themselves.

Here are a few “highlights” from the piece, titled “Our manifesto to fix America’s gun laws.”

“We have a unique platform not only as student journalists, but also as survivors of a mass shooting. We are firsthand witnesses to the kind of devastation that gross incompetence and political inaction can produce.” 

This is in the introduction and it sets the tone for what’s to come. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: neither surviving a mass shooting nor being a student journalist makes you an expert on either firearms or public policy.

In the latter department, it shows in this very sentence: the movement they are supporting (and the manifesto they wrote) wishes to place more — not less — power in the hands of those whose gross incompetence and political inaction caused the Parkland shooting in the first place.

“Ban semi-automatic weapons that fire high-velocity rounds: Civilians shouldn’t have access to the same weapons that soldiers do. That’s a gross misuse of the second amendment. (sic) These weapons were designed for dealing death: not to animals or targets, but to other human beings. The fact that they can be bought by the public does not promote domestic tranquility. Rather, their availability puts us into the kind of danger faced by men and women trapped in war zones.

“This situation reflects a failure of our government. It must be corrected to ensure the safety of those guaranteed the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” 

This is the kind of misinformation from which an actual editor — one who works for The Guardian as opposed to the Eagle Eye — would have saved these individuals. Hunting rounds available to the general public already fire at higher velocity than some ammunition used in military rifles, because hunters often shoot at moving targets.

So, in fact, they were mostly designed for “dealing death” to animals. They’re often for varmint control. However, in a mass shooting situation, they would actually have little practical advantage over most other guns (but more about this later).

While there may be the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence, there is also the right to bear arms (which “shall not be infringed upon”) in the Constitution. Nowhere in these documents, it must be noted, is the promotion of “domestic tranquility” (again: this kind of clubfooted phraseology is why you let professionals edit your work) guaranteed.

The most sadly laughable line, however, is the part about “a failure of our government.” The government has failed in so many ways in Parkland, but in ways where handing more power over to them would only exacerbate the problem. I know these students write and edit a newspaper; perhaps they should read a few, as well.

“Ban accessories that simulate automatic weapons: High-capacity magazines played a huge role in the shooting at our school. In only 10 minutes, 17 people were killed, and 17 others were injured. This is unacceptable.

“That’s why we believe that bump stocks, high-capacity magazines and similar accessories that simulate the effect of military-grade automatic weapons should be banned.

“In the 2017 shooting in Las Vegas, 58 people were killed and 851 others were injured. The gunman’s use of bump stocks enabled vast numbers of people to be hurt while gathered in one of the most iconic cities in America. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. That’s why action must be taken to take these accessories off the market.”

Let’s start here with the idea that bump stocks “simulate automatic weapons.” They allow weapons to fire more rapidly — and very inaccurately. In the case of Las Vegas, it was a unique situation where accuracy didn’t matter to the gunman because of the press of the crowd into which he was firing. In most mass shootings, bump stocks would be useless. They also do not “simulate the effect of military-grade automatic weapons.” 

As for the high-capacity magazines, this is again something that anyone familiar with guns would know to be useless. In a soft-target situation like a school where security either cannot or refuses to engage a shooter, a handgun with a regular magazine would be more than enough to inflict the kind of damage the shooter did, irrespective of the size of the magazine. And, if targets were hardened, the size of the magazine wouldn’t matter; a student would likely be either stopped or deterred before it made a significant difference.

Nowhere is evidence provided for any of their claims in this department, likely because none exists.

Oh, and speaking of security:

“Increase funding for school security: We believe that schools should be given sufficient funds for school security and resource officers to protect and secure the entire campus. As a school of over 3,000 students, teachers and faculty, Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school (sic) was only supplied funds to hire one on-campus armed resource officer by the state. 

“Without backup, this officer’s hesitation proved to be disastrous and allowed for the senseless deaths of people who were killed on the third floor of the 1200 building. Though this idea has been proposed in the past, these funds should not be appropriated from the already scarce funding for public education. Governments should find resources to secure the millions of children that attend public schools without taking away from the quality of education that is offered at these institutions.”

Given the scarce resources, you mean a plan like, I don’t know, training and arming already-extant faculty members at your institution to back up armed resource officers? Like the president proposed? Probably not, given that one of the soi disant leaders of Stoneman Douglas gun control posse (who, in fairness, is not an editorial member of the Eagle Eye) has called that idea “stupid.”

“Allow the CDC to make recommendations for gun reform: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should be allowed to conduct research on the dangers of gun violence. The fact that they are currently prohibited from doing so undermines the first amendment.(sic) It also violates the rights of the American people.

“It is hypocritical to rally people to protect the second amendment, (sic) while remaining silent on the ways that blocking research violates one of our most basic constitutional freedoms.” 

At least someone from The Guardian should have had the basic kindness to explain how incoherent this would sound. The Centers for Disease Control is a government organization. If it is commissioned by the government to provide gun death research — and the omnibus bill authorizes that — it can conduct said research. It would then present its findings.

Nowhere is a taxpayer-funded organization granted the right to officially opine on any issue without legislation or regulations that prompt it, under the First Amendment. This would be patently absurd — and, by the way, since the CDC is currently headed up by an appointee of the Trump administration, I seriously doubt the editorial members of the Eagle Eye would exactly be in favor of the CDC somehow utilizing the First Amendment to remark on how they feel about the Second Amendment.

Other arguments that you may have heard before that are included in the piece are the proposal to raise the minimum age for firearm purchases from 18 to 21, greater sharing of mental health information between mental health care providers and law enforcement, the “gun show loophole” argument and calls for more stringent background checks.

No particularly new points were contributed to the discussion and none of the arguments were rendered more astutely than they have heretofore been.  There is no unique perspective brought to anything (aside from the idea that government agencies ought to have autonomous First Amendment rights to speak however they want), and certainly no particular view expressed in the article is unique to an individual who has survived a mass shooting.

Instead, it is an exploitative document (on the part of The Guardian) riddled with poor reasoning and nonexistent research (on the part of the students) which only exists in mass media circulation because of who wrote it.

You may feel that I am being inordinately cruel and unjust by attacking what these students have written. They are, after all, survivors of an unspeakable tragedy. They are also public figures and have made themselves so by their decision to lecture Americans on what constitutional and legal rights they should and should not have. The expectation that those they have chosen to lecture ought to sit down and stay silent ignore the fact that the media is using these teenagers as cultural satraps to weave a proxy narrative of their own. 

If the media is going to engage in such puppetry, the very least they could do is give these kids a decent editor.

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Huck’s Response to Emotional Anti-Gun Marchers Is Best We’ve Heard So Far


Reported By Benjamin Arie | March 25, 2018 at 2:56pm

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/watch-hucks-response-emotional/

Mike Huckabee is well known for his calm, warm approach to politics and life — and the former pastor and Arkansas governor just became the voice of reason during the “March For Our Lives” protests.

While appearing on “Fox and Friends,” the politician-turned-commentator addressed the recent demonstrations that are supposedly about stopping violence, but have become essentially anti-Second Amendment rallies where law-abiding gun owners are vilified for the actions of one criminal.

“I salute these students for their passion and their energy, and for their interest in helping to shape public policy,” Huckabee began, extending an olive branch to the young people protesting. “But I would say this to them: Emotion is a terrible substitute for truth.“  March 25, 2018

“It is a terrible substitute for facts,” Huck continued. “And they’ve been used, by believing that if they just ban a certain type of firearm, that things are going to be better.”

That wasn’t just the former governor’s opinion. A vast amount of evidence backs up the view that the left’s “solutions” — many of which have already been tried — would do nothing to actually stop criminals.

“Here’s the facts: Five times more people are killed in America by knives… than they are by rifles,” Huckabee explained.

The most recent FBI data shows that in 2016, there were 374 murders committed using rifles in the entire United States. That includes so-called “assault rifles.” However, a stunning 1,604 murders were committed using “knives or cutting weapons.”

Even hands, fists, and feet were used to kill more often than rifles: Criminals committed 656 murders using just their body.

“It’s also true that over 86 percent of the 20,000 police chiefs and sheriffs in America do not support repealing concealed carry, but rather rather support (gun ownership),” Mike Huckabee went on. “And they don’t support more gun control methods.” 

There’s a good reason for that: As concealed carry has become more common in America, the country has become more safe.

As we’ve previously reported, there was an amazing 215 percent increase in concealed carry permits between 2007 and 2015. During the same time period, there was a 14 percent decrease in the murder rate. In fact, violent crime has been cut in half since about 1990, yet the media constantly acts as if violence is spiraling out of control.

Mike Huckabee’s primary point is so good, it must be repeated: “Emotion is a terrible substitute for truth.” 

The left and the mainstream media seem to be purposely burying facts or even outright lying about statistics in order to promote an agenda.

American schools are actually some of the safest places in the country. Contrary to the narrative, mass shootings in schools have not be dramatically increasing in recent years. Students have a higher probability of being killed riding their bikes or walking to school than by a school shooter.

Huck’s line about emotion over truth is an apt summary of not only the current push against lawful gun ownership, but also almost all of liberalism. One of the hallmarks of being responsible adults is using logic and critical thinking over fear-based reaction and hysteria.

The next time you see a news headline or hear a statement from a protester, ask yourself: “Is this based on reasoned logic and truth, or all emotion?”  That’s an incredibly useful tool to decide which side of an issue to stand on… and in today’s world, detecting the truth is more important than ever.

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NFL Is Failing, Record Low Ticket Sales May Doom Organization


disclaimerReported By Steven Beyer | December 12, 2017 at 3:57pm

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/nfl-record-low-ticket-sales/

fans pulling the plug on the nfl

There aren’t many things you can purchase these days for only $2. You can’t even buy a gallon of gas for $2. One thing you can buy with $2, though, is an NFL ticket. Well, at least on Sunday you could.

In a match-up between the Buffalo Bills and the Indianapolis Colts, Vivid Seats was selling tickets for as low as $2. Even the really good seats near the 50-yard line were going for $29. Granted, there was a snow storm that day in Buffalo, but that game wasn’t the only one selling tickets for extremely low prices. Tickets for the Green Bay Packers and Carolina Panthers game were going for as low as $7.

In contrast, New York Upstate reported that in the same area as the Bills game, a college hockey team had tickets for $28. Ouch. That hurts. 

It should be noted that not all teams are suffering from those extremely low ticket sales, but overall, ticket prices aren’t what they used to be.

When Colin Kaepernick started his protests by kneeling during the National Anthem, he probably never expected the negative impact that his decision would have on the NFL. The NFL never really learned its lesson, though. In fact, earlier this year, players doubled down on their protests and continued kneeling despite pressure from fans to stop. Fans responded in force by turning the TV off, and they also stopped going to the games.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell needs to learn the basic economic principle of supply and demand. Provide a product that people actually want to see, then your prices will skyrocket due to demand. Tick your fan base off, and ticket sales will plummet due to the lack of demand.nfl sponsers taking a knee because of falling ratings

You know things are bad for the NFL when tickets for the game are cheaper than a hot dog and drink at the stadium.

Goodell doesn’t have the backbone to deal with the protesters, though. In fact, it was even suggested by some owners that players should just stay in the locker room during the National Anthem next year.

Yeah, that’s a great idea. Instead of dealing with the problem, let’s just try and hide the players. 

It takes leadership to run the NFL, Mr. Goodell. Leadership requires that you make the right decision even when it’s unpopular. It’s time to deal with these protesters once and for all. Require them to stand for the anthem and watch those ticket prices jump back up to normal levels. If not, I’ll send you a bottle of ibuprofen (which is something else you can’t buy for $2). You can expect more economic headaches in the future.

H/T TheBlazeplease likeand share and leave a comment

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Sponsors Threaten NBC if They Continue to Show NFL Protests


Reported By Kim Smith | November 7, 2017 at 5:03pm

The NFL continues to feel the pain from football players’ national anthem protests. NBC Universal’s head of advertising, Linda Yaccarino, said network advertisers are not happy with the ongoing protests. They’re so unhappy, in fact, that marketers told the network to stop airing the protests or they will pull their ads, Business Insider reported.

Speaking during an interview Friday, Yaccarino said that while no advertisers have pulled out of NFL games yet, that could change. Yaccarino said that although it’s hard to prove definitively, she believes the protests are having a negative impact on ratings.

“I don’t think there’s any way to prove it, but I do think it has affected the ratings,” she said during a “fireside chat” with Oath CEO Tim Armstrong at the Manhattan offices of Verizon’s media agency, R/GA.

She may not think there is a way to prove it, but anyone paying attention is well aware that protests are a big problem for the league. Yaccarino said there are many advertisers who are reaching a boiling point.

“There is a list of advertisers that have made themselves very clear: ‘If you continue to cover the political coverage of the issue, we will not be part of the NFL,’” Yaccarino said, according to Deadline.

“Think about it — they have half the country that is cheering about that and half the country that is emailing them saying, ‘Don’t do that.’ That’s a real thing.”

Last Wednesday, Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter attributed slow sales in the third quarter of 2017 to the controversy surrounding the protests, asserting that the controversy was diminishing the pizza chain’s advertising.

“NFL leadership has hurt Papa John’s shareholders,” Schnatter said, in a call with analysts, as reported by CBS. “This should have been nipped in the bud a year and a half ago.”

Schnatter criticized NFL leadership for letting the issue fester.

“We’re certainly disappointed that NFL and its leadership did not resolve the ongoing situation to the satisfaction of all parties this year, year-and-a-half ago,” he said.

“Good or bad, leadership starts at the top, and this is an example of poor leadership,” the CEO said.

Schnatter hit the nail on the head, and his comments reflect how many Americans feel about the matter. That’s probably why advertisers are reconsidering advertising during NFL games.

H/T Independent Journal Review

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NFL Legends Put Anthem Protesters to Shame With Special Tribute to Christ


Reported By Davis | October 25, 2017 at 2:38pm

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/anthem-protesters-to-shame/?

In light of the ongoing anthem-protesters by entitled football millionaires, a group of former NFL legends showed the current crop what true greatness is all about. This past summer, 18 NFL Hall of Famers were baptized in the Jordan River in Israel, Sports Spectrum reported.

In Matthew 3, the Scriptures record that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist.

The group of players who were baptized included Jim Brown, Joe Montana, Roger Staubach, Joe Greene, Cris Carter, Andre Reed, John Stallworth, Eric Dickerson, Marshall Faulk, Dave Casper, Jerome Bettis, Ron Yary, Aeneas Williams, Lem Barney, Willie Lanier, Mike Singletary, Andre Tippett and Bruce Smith, according to Sports Spectrum.

Former Arizona Cardinals player Aeneas Williams, who is a pastor at The Spirit Church in St. Louis, Missouri, was there to help perform the baptisms for the players.

This is the sort of stuff that the media should be covering, but of course they won’t because it would show something other than people kneeling on the ground to take part in a pointless protest.

“Baptism is an outward sign of what has already happened on the inside of us,” Williams explained.

“Getting in the water, literally, your sins have been washed away and when you come up, it is symbolically a new person. The old person has been buried. We rejoice in the Lord,” he stated.

You can watch a video about the baptism here.

This action also highlights the generation gap between football players. The old guard are concerned with their love for God, while the newer generation is more concerned about how many people will like a picture of them kneeling.

The newer generation really has its priorities screwed up. In a few years, once their bodies are completely shattered from playing football, they will be completely forgotten by the American public and will having nothing to show for their protests.

However, the old guard have made their peace with God, and have clearly accepted something more important than a cool hashtag and a 30-second sound bite.

This is the sort of stuff we should be promoting.

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This Week In The NFL: Pictures Reveal Nearly Empty Stadiums As Fans Lash Back Against Protests


Reported By Jack Davis | on October 16, 2017 at 11:38am

URL of the original posting site: https://www.westernjournalism.com/week-nfl-pictures-reveal-nearly-empty-stadiums-fans-lash-back-protests/?

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It’s not quite the No Fan League yet, but on Sunday, NFL stadiums illustrated the damage that has been done by the seemingly endless national anthem protests, which have driven away thousands of football fans.

Dylan Gwinn, writing on Breitbart, called it the “’new normal’ in the age of anthem protests: empty seats.”

Multiple games were played with clearly visible holes in the stands.

In Jacksonville, Florida, the smallest crowd since 2009 watched the Jaguars lose to the LA Rams 27-17, according to the Florida Times-Union. The crowd of 56,232 was about 5,000 fewer fans than the audience that attended the team’s home opener.

“Granted, this is Jacksonville and they’ve never really packed the house. Yet, even by Jaguars standards, that’s empty,” Gwinn wrote.

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The Jaguars weren’t the only team to suffer this fate. As can be seen below, many other stadiums experienced a visible drop in attendance.

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“The fact that those same levels of emptiness can be seen at other stadiums throughout the league, means that the fan backlash against the NFL has now turned everyone into Jacksonville. That’s a problem,” Gwinn wrote.

Not so, said Jacksonville defensive tackle Malik Jackson.

“We only worry about the people who come support us,” he said. “If you don’t want to come support us because of the views we have off the field, that’s your problem and I think you have to look at yourself.”

The lackluster attendance has added to the NFL’s concerns as it approaches a lease meeting at which the protests will be discussed. However, the league has already indicated it is not likely to require players to stand, as demanded by President Donald Trump.

CBS Sports quoted a source predicting how the meetings might go.

“Basically, the message from the NFL is going to be that it has empathy for its players and the situation they now find themselves in,” the source said. “And therefore you’ve seen no enforcement of the rule about the anthem in the gameday manual. But now this has morphed into something that is seen as divisive and disrespectful toward the flag and our servicemen and women by a segment of the country, and that’s not what was intended by the players or the NFL.

“So the league is going to encourage the players to follow the gameday manual and vow to continue to engage directly with players and the NFLPA on a platform to work for positive change in their communities. It’s not going to be – ‘If you don’t stand then you are going to get fined.’ Some owners might favor that, but that’s not the intention here,” the source added.

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Breaking: Huge CEO Takes Stand, Hits NFL With Devastating News


Reported By Ben Marquis | on September 27, 2017 at 1:40pm

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/ceo-takes-stand-hits-nfl/?

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After President Donald Trump expressed his opposition to the growing trend of professional athletes taking a knee in protest of the national anthem, the NFL responded by supporting the protests, and some 200 players on countless teams “took a knee” this weekend.

Fans who were disgusted by the protests — viewing it as an anti-American middle finger to the flag and all it represents — have begun fleeing the game in droves, so much so that DirecTV felt compelled to offer refunds to customers seeking to cancel their NFL package subscriptions.

Now, a CEO for a company that advertises during NFL games and provides wardrobes for NBC’s on-air NFL analysts and sportscasters has decided to take a stand against taking a knee. In fact, he has announced that he is pulling all ads and will no longer provide clothing to NBC talent, according to Independent Journal Review.

That CEO is Allan Jones, owner of the payday lending chain Check Into Cash and Hardwick Clothes — billed as America’s oldest suit-maker — according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

“Our companies will not condone unpatriotic behavior” in the NFL, Jones said in a statement. Jones, who has been a big supporter of President Trump, ordered his media buyer — ad agency Tombras Group in Knoxville — to pull all ads for Check Into Cash, Buy Here Pay here USA, or U.S. Money Stores from all NFL games “for the entire season.”

“When I see Colin Kaepernick lecturing the ‘oppressed’ wearing a Fidel Castro T-shirt you realize the hypocrisy to this stupidity,” Jones stated, according to The Chattanoogan. “I love America. They have the right to protest and I have the right to turn off the channel and place our ads elsewhere.”

“The next time someone ask the public to finance a stadium this will have a very long term effect,” he continued. “These guys should really be the lead plaintiffs in the head injury cases — that’s the only jury that will find sympathy!”

“If you will research why Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner you will realize why I am upset about these NFL players protesting. They don’t even know what it is they are protesting,” Jones lamented. “The flag was still standing. 200 English ships tried to take it down. They kept it up all night and it could only be seen when the bombs were bursting in the air. So many patriots gave their lives to keep the flag up — and now to have people protesting who don’t have a clue about any of this bothers me.”

“Our companies will not condone unpatriotic behavior!” he added. “TAKING A STAND … NOT A KNEE!”

Whether Jones is just the first domino to fall or will end up being the lone CEO to walk away from the NFL remains to be seen. However, if public pressure continues to mount and the NFL refuses to address the issue that is driving fans away, we suspect Jones will likely be the first of many to choose standing patriotically over kneeling.

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Fans Turn On NFL Legend After He Kneels For National Anthem


Reported By Jack Davis | on September 29, 2017 at 4:50pm

URL of the original posting site: https://www.westernjournalism.com/fans-turn-nfl-legend-kneels-national-anthem/?

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As the voices of football fans and patriotic Americans continue to swell in opposition to protests taking place before NFL games, even athletes who endeared themselves to the fans are feeling the sting. Retired Baltimore Ravens star linebacker Ray Lewis is an example.

Lewis made the Pro Bowl in 13 of his 17 seasons, was named Super Bowl MVP, and had a statue erected in his honor outside the Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium.

Then came Sunday, when Lewis dropped to his knees during the singing of the national anthem at Baltimore’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London — and now a petition calling for the removal of his statue has collected over 50,000 signatures.

By Friday, a change.org petition for the removal of the statue had almost 69,000 signatures.

Officials are not taking the fans’ passion as lightly as are the NFL’s players.

“There is additional security at the statue plaza at this time,” said Rachelina Bonacci, a spokesperson for the Maryland Stadium Authority.

“Certainly observers can notice the presence of uniformed security officers at M&T Bank Stadium, which includes the statue plaza,” she said. “The additional officers and other security enhancements have been in place since Sunday afternoon.”

The petition reads, “I want the Ray Lewis statue at Ravens Stadium removed because of his refusal to stand during the national anthem. That song honors our country and our veterans who fought for it. To kneel during it is disrespectful, regardless of what you are protesting. I will not stand for that kind of disrespect towards our country, especially from a legend such as Ray Lewis. You stand for the National Anthem as a salute to those who can’t stand because they fought for this land.”

The petition was accompanied by a soul-searching letter from Eric Moniodis, who started the petition, to Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti.

“I sit here heartbroken, searching for answers, and questioning why it has come to this. I am disappointed, to say the least. The team that I have loved since 1996, and the Raven I came to respect more than any other, has defiled my National Anthem, my country, and all of it’s (sic) troops,” he wrote.

Moniodis said Lewis was once a legend, but is so no longer.

“A legend is a hero both on and off the field, and by disgracing this great country by kneeling during the national anthem, on foreign soil no less, he has lost the respect of myself and many of my peers who used to see him in a different light,” he wrote.

Moniodis called refusing to stand for the anthem “blatant disrespect to our country’s solute to our troops, veterans and first responders.”

Lewis spoke about the petition during a local sports radio show.

“It only bothers me if I blatantly did something to gain awareness for myself. What I did — is for our country. That’s why I challenge people,” he said.

Lewis said there was significance in the fact the he knelt on both knees, and not only one. “You can protest, I’m gonna pray,” he said.

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Kaep Loves Protesting on Live TV, but Here’s the 1 Photo He Wants Kept Secret


Reported By Ben Marquis | on September 28, 2017 at 4:05pm

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/kaep-photo-wants-kept-secret/?

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When former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began the anti-American trend of sitting or taking a knee while the national anthem was played, he insisted he was using his platform to raise awareness and start a broader dialogue regarding perceived racial inequalities in America and police brutality.

Other players who have joined the protest trend have echoed those sentiments, and while some of them may truly believe it and think they aren’t being disrespectful or un-American, the reality is that many Americans do indeed find their actions to be quite disrespectful and offensive.

And in Kaepernick’s case, just a wee bit hypocritical.

You see, while the bi-racial Kaepernick rails against the perceived oppression of minorities in America by a “white supremacist” system, he himself doesn’t appear to have been all that “oppressed” and held back from opportunity by “white people,” but was in fact raised and presented with a multitude of opportunity by white people, namely his adoptive white mother and father.

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Breaking: NFL Just Got Catastrophic News About Ticket Sales. It just keeps getting worse for the Goodell and the gang.


Reported By George Upper | on September 28, 2017 at 3:38pm

URL of the original posting site: https://www.westernjournalism.com/breaking-nfl-just-got-catastrophic-news-about-ticket-sales/?

At an Alabama rally Friday night, President Donald J. Trump argued that NFL owners should release any team member who “disrespects our flag.” Apparently, America agrees.

Since the president called on team owners to take action — and those same owners, along with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, essentially thumbed their collective nose at him — ticket sales have plummeted.

Online ticket re-seller TickPick told Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner that NFL sales for Week Four games dropped nearly 18 percent since prior to Trump’s statement.

According to the Examiner, TickPick cited two numbers damning to the NFL’s response to Trump and the recent national anthem controversy:

17.9 percent decrease in NFL orders this week compared to the previous week.

Last year the drop was 10.8 percent in orders on Monday & Tuesday following Week Three games.

Bedard referred to the sharp decline as the “Trump Effect.”

Trump said at the Alabama rally that he would “love to see” players fired who participated in protests, such as kneeling, during the pre-game playing of the national anthem, according to NPR.

“‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired,” Trump said he’d like to hear NFL owners say. “‘He’s fired.’”

After those statements, many, many more NFL players — some joined by coaches and other staff members — publicly took a knee during the national anthem, bringing even more attention to the controversy and apparently angering many fans.

Nonetheless, Goodell didn’t appear ready to back down.

“The way we reacted today, and this weekend, made me proud,” Goodell said Sunday of the NFL’s response to Trump’s statement, which he called “divisive,” according to Sport Illustrated. “I’m proud of our league.”

“We have seen a massive decrease in NFL ticket purchases this past week in comparison to years past,” TickPick’s Jack Slingland told the Examiner. “Week 3 seems to usually have less ticket orders than week 2, but this year ticket purchases are down more than 7 percent from this time last year.”

“While we can’t specify if this decrease is due to the president’s comments, player and owner protests, play on the field, or simply the continued division of consumer’s media attention, the conversation around the NFL this week has focused on the president’s comments as well as the players’ and owners’ reaction,” Slingland said.

“As viewers continue to abandon their NFL Sunday habits, both the number of ticket sales and the purchase price of tickets will drop,” he predicted.

Others agreed:

Are planning to watch any NFL games this weekend?

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The John Elway Way: Stand For The Anthem And Get Politics Out Of Football


Reported By Jack Davis | on September 27, 2017 at 11:16am

URL of the original posting site: https://www.westernjournalism.com/the-john-elway-way-stand-for-the-anthem-and-get-politics-out-of-football/?

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In response to the epidemic of national anthem protests sweeping the National Football League, NFL legend John Elway has made two things clear.

First, he will always stand for the national anthem even if others exercise their right to protest. Second, it is long past time to get politics out of football games.

Elway, who starred with the Denver Broncos as a player and is now the team’s general manager, made it clear this week that while not condemning players who kneel, he would never join them.

“I’m one that believes in standing for the national anthem, and I’ve always believed that. I believe that this is the greatest country in the world. We are very fortunate to live here, but it’s obviously not perfect,” he said.

“There are a lot of things that need to be corrected, and we will continue to work on those things. I’m one that really believes in standing for the flag,” Elway said.

Elway indicated that he believed comments from President Donald Trump, who strongly criticized protesting NFL players, were a major factor in the protests that took place last weekend.

“I understand the players and the way they felt from the comments that were made earlier in the week. They felt they had to go down and kneel and that’s up to them,” he said.

But enough is enough, Elway also said.

“Hopefully, as we go forward we can start concentrating on football a little bit more. Take the politics out of football. But I think that last week was a good show of unity by the NFL and hopefully this week we can move forward,” he said.

Elway’s remarks mirrored those of Broncos head coach Vance Joseph, who said his players have the right to protest, even if he believes in standing for the anthem. Jones also seemed to finger Trump for the latest round of protests.

“That’s their right as U.S. citizens. The comments didn’t sit well with our football team or the entire NFL,” Joseph said. “Hopefully, we can move past this and play football because politics and football don’t mix, in my opinion. I’m a football coach and they’re football players, and our job is to win football games. Hopefully, we can get back to that this week.”

Elway had been asked about protests in August, and responded with a clear focus on job one — winning football games.

“My stance is that everybody has their right to do what they wish to do and their beliefs are their beliefs. That’s why we live in this country. They have the right to display whatever they wish to display,” he said then.

“I think one thing — where we stand and where I stand with the Broncos — is, ‘That’s OK and we will respect that and whatever you want to do is fine with us. But the bottom line is that can’t get in the way with our main goal. And that is to compete for world championships,’” he said.

“I just don’t want that pulling away from our team. It can pull (you) away, because it does get a lot of attention. The only thing that I would say to our players is to make sure it’s not hurting your teammate. If the questions and everything — if the tenor changes of what goes on in these interviews and you’re not talking about our next opponent, you’re talking about what’s going on in the world — that’s not the best thing for our football team,” Elway said then.

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Viral Cartoon Perfectly Explains How Utterly Pointless Kaepernick’s “Protest” Is


Reported By Davis | on September 25, 2017 at 2:24pm

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/cartoon-perfectly-kaepernick/?

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The debate over NFL players kneeling in protest of the national anthem, a protest started by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick last year, grew thick over the weekend when President Donald Trump waded into the middle of it.

Proponents of the protest insist that kneeling during the anthem is a way to draw attention to the racism and police brutality that occurs within the United States. While these protests certainly have brought up the topics of race and police, in reality they have accomplished nothing. A cartoon that is circulating the internet perfectly sums up just how ineffective these protests are.

The cartoon depicts Kaepernick sitting on top of a pile of bodies, labeled “black on black murder”. In a word bubble, cartoon Kaepernick states that he’ll continue to sit until police brutally is eliminated.

Despite Kaepernick’s supposed care for violence against blacks, has said little of the bloodshed that has ravaged the black community in the form of black on black crime. In fact, 2015 data from the FBI showed that 2,380 African-Americans were killed by other African-Americans, while 229 African-Americans were killed by people identified as white.

Those are some pretty lopsided statistics, but you don’t see anyone kneeling during the national anthem protesting “black-on-black” murders — or making a stand against black crime whatsoever. That’s because these protesters don’t actually care about stopping violence against African-Americans — all they care about is themselves.

These football players see these protests as a chance to gain a following (because being professional football players apparently isn’t enough). If they cared about stopping the violence, they would do something other than kneel.

Take a look around. Have the kneeling NFL players actually accomplished anything other than dividing this nation further? Kneeling, linking arms, and even staying in the a locker room during the national anthem accomplishes nothing — all it does is show a complete lack of respect for those who sacrificed their lives for this nation.

There are racial problems in America — there’s no denying that — but trying to paint a one-sided picture of violence in the United States is only makes things worse.

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Former Army Ranger Is Only Pittsburgh Steeler To Appear For Anthem


Reported By Jack Davis | on September 25, 2017 at 7:10am

URL of the original posting site: https://www.westernjournalism.com/former-army-ranger-pittsburgh-steeler-appear-anthem-1/?

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin wanted to play football, not politics. Steelers offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva felt he had a higher duty. Thus, the former Army Ranger was the only Steeler visible on Sunday during the playing of the national anthem before the Steelers took on the Chicago Bears.

Tomlin admitted that two days after President Donald Trump tweeted out his condemnation of anthem protests, sparking a fierce negative reaction among NFL players, he wanted unity. Tomlin had said before the game that the team would not be on the field for the anthem, citing the players’ decision. Afterward, he said he wanted to respected what his players felt was best.

“Like I said, I was looking for 100 percent participation, we were gonna be respectful of our football team,” Tomlin said.

He said he let the players decide, with one condition.

“Many of them felt like something needed to be done. I asked those guys to discuss it and whatever they discussed that we have 100 percent participation or we do nothing,” Tomlin said.

“They discussed it for an appropriate length of time and they couldn’t come to an understanding, so they chose to remove themselves from it. They were not going to be disrespectful in the anthem so they chose not to participate, but at the same time many of them were not going to accept the words of the president,” he added, saying the team decided to remain out of view.

Tomlin said his focus was the game, not the anthem.

“We’re not politicians. We’re coaches and professional athletes,” Tomlin said Sunday. “If those of us or individuals choose to participate in politics in some way I’m going to be supportive of that. But when we come out of locker rooms, we come out of locker rooms to play football games.”

Offensive tackle Chris Hubbard said the players, by a slim majority, voted in favor of staying off the field instead of standing on the sideline holding hands, but that players knew Villanueva was going to do what he wanted.

“Al was cool with it, with whatever we went through. He was on board. That’s Al, man,” Hubbard told Penn Live. “He’s a good guy.”

“We thought we were all in attention with the same agreement, obviously,” said linebacker James Harrison. “But, I guess we weren’t.”

Villanueva, A Bronze Star recipient who three tours of duty in Afghanistan, has said there is a difference between changing society and protesting during the anthem.

“I agree that America is not perfect, I agree there are lot of issues with minorities in this country, I agree we should do something about it,” Villanueva in August 2016, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “But I don’t know if the most effective way is to sit down when the national anthem of the country that is providing you freedom and providing you $16 million a year is the best way to do it when there are black minorities that are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan and protecting our freedom for less than $20,000 a year.”

“I just know I’m very thankful to be an American,” Villanueva said.

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It’s Starting: Dem Rep. Announces Insurrection, War in Streets Against Trump


Reported By Davis | on September 7, 2017 at 9:06am

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/dem-rep-insurrection-trump/?

President Donald Trump’s announcement this week that he would be ending the program for illegal aliens called “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” has sent liberals into overtime screaming and raving about how terrible it is. All of them have ignored the fact that the only reason Trump is ending the program is to give Congress a chance to pass a suitable replacement the right way. The outrage over Trump’s decision has grown by the day, and some of the rhetoric has bordered on disturbing.

Democrat Illinois Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez released a video reacting to Trump’s decision on DACA where he implied that DACA recipients and their supporters should be turning to violence.

“I want to say something that so that we’re clear,” Gutierrez stated on the video. “Yes, we will be on the streets fighting.”

Over the past month we’ve seen what liberals fighting in the streets looks like, and it is quite violent and quite brutal. Gutiérrez is essentially calling for more violence in the United States.

“Yes, we will go to the courts to fight, and we will also insist that our friends and our allies in the Congress of the United States don’t sign a budget, don’t support a budget, don’t collaborate with Republicans and give us a budget unless there is a safe place legislatively, an avenue legislatively, that secures the future for the 800,000 DACA recipients,” he added.

“Let’s be clear. We are going to fight in the courts, we are going to fight in the streets, but also we are going to fight in the Congress of the United States to make sure legislatively we have a solution,” he concluded at the end of the video.

You can watch the promise of violence here:

Gutiérrez has been a particularly outspoken proponent of DACA. In August, he was actually arrested at a protest outside the White House demanding that Trump keep DACA in place.

The Washington Times also noted that Gutiérrez (who has not served in the military) claimed that White House chief of Staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, is a “disgrace” to the military because he didn’t stop Trump from ending DACA.

“General Kelly is a hypocrite who is a disgrace to the uniform he used to wear. He has no honor and should be drummed out of the White House along with the white supremacists and those enabling the president’s actions by ‘just following orders,” his statement read.

Rhetoric like that isn’t really going to help Gutiérrez convince people that his side is right. Calling for fighting in the streets and disparaging a decorated Marine general only makes sane Americans think you are off your rocker.

H/T Informed Folks

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Students Stage Walkout After MN City Votes To Disband Local Police Department


Reported By V Saxena | May 11, 2017 at 2:37pm

URL of the original posting site: http://conservativetribune.com/teenage-students-right-way-police/

Hundreds of well-behaved middle and high school students staged a peaceful protest Tuesday by walking out of their classes in Forest Lake, Minnesota, in response to the city’s presumably leftist-led council having voted a day earlier to literally disband the local police force.

As reported by local station KARE, the students marched out of their respective schools at 1:15 p.m. and made their way to City Hall, where they then proudly chanted “FLPD!” before eventually advancing into the council chambers. The best part about the whole event was that there was not a smidgen of violence or debauchery of any kind. It was peaceful and organized, in stark contrast with the depraved protests and riots preferred by leftist anti-cop hooligans.

Watch the kids arriving at City Hall in the video below:

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FKentErdahlNews%2Fvideos%2F10154382535142056%2F&show_text=0&width=470

Police Chief Richard Peterson was touched, to say the least.

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“This is absolutely amazing,” he told KARE. “The students are fantastic. The community is fantastic. We are absolutely humbled by the support we’ve been given, really appreciate it.”

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the council voted Monday evening to disband the local police force of 23 officers and outsource its policing to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office to save $385,000 per year.

Speaking Tuesday morning on Fox News, councilwoman Mara Bain, who reportedly voted against the measure, noted that the $385,000 amounted to just $36 a year per household, which she claimed was an amount her constituents were willing to bear.

“Our residents have said we will pay it,” she said. “We will pay more.”

Thankfully, the efforts of Forest Lake’s students seemingly worked, as the city council reportedly withdraw its deal with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office a day later.

“This has been only the result of this community banding together and showing its … undying support for the police department,” Bain told the Forest Lake Times after the decision was announced. “This is a great day for the Forest Lake community.”

It should also serve as a crucial reminder to liberal troublemakers and rioters of what a peaceful protest ought to actually look like.

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Truck Rolls Through Protesters Attempting To Block The Street


Reported By Martin Lioll | May 4, 2017 at 6:39 am

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URL of the original posting site: http://conservativetribune.com/handle-libs-blocking-your-street/

This past Monday was May Day, the high holy day of the godless commie year. Normally, May 1 festivities are limited to countries where socialism is a lot bigger. However, given that Trump’s victory has led to the American left dropping any pretense of not being socialists, it was time for some antifa-ing in the streets this year.

There were plenty of May Day protests from Philly to Portland this year, although the numbers seemed to come in at well below organizers’ expectations (85 percent short in Los Angeles, for example).

But, God bless ’em, the liberals did what they could — and what they could do was block roads. The left is usually pretty good at this, but in this video posted to YouTube, one truck driver was even better.

According to the uploader, DC Statesman, this video was recorded during a May Day protest in Durham, North Carolina. To be fair, Durham isn’t exactly a hotbed of leftist sentiment, but after managing to rustle up a few politically challenged community college students and some high-visibility orange vests, they decided to block themselves a street. Unfortunately for them, the driver of the Dodge truck was having none of it. He inched through the crowd as these protesters tried to desperately assail the truck and force him to stop. Alas, it was to no avail.

Take a look:

Whoops. That doesn’t look like it ended the way these leftists were hoping.

Let me here say I don’t quite grasp this whole blocking-the-road tactic, which doesn’t seem to have any connection to what any of these people are putatively supposed to be protesting. What do they think it’s going to do?

Has any driver caught in one of these antifa-created traffic jams thought to themselves, “Oh, now I get it! They’re blocking this intersection because they want to drive home the necessity of intersectionality in a post-capitalist America! I’m going to turn around and go to that ‘revolutionary’ bookstore downtown which smells like pot, mold, and worthless postgraduate degrees, and I’m going to buy a copy of bell hooks’ ‘Teaching to Transgress!’”

You know, that’s actually a better rationalization than I’ve ever heard any of these erudite individuals give. I probably should have asked for royalties.

H/T WZ

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North Carolina House Passes Bill To Protect Motorists Who Hit Protesters While Driving


Reported By Martin Lioll | on May 1, 2017 at 7:37am

URL of the original posting site: http://conservativetribune.com/north-carolina-protect-motorists/

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A bill that has passed North Carolina’s House of Representatives would shield motorists who unintentionally hit protesters blocking roads from civil liability, WFAE reported.

House Bill 330, introduced by Rep. Justin Burr, “provides that a person driving an automobile while exercising due care is immune for civil liability for any injury to another if the injured person was participating in a demonstration or protest and blocking traffic.”

It passed the House of Representatives by a 67-48 vote on Thursday, the Raleigh News & Observer reported.

“As we’ve seen, time and time again, as folks run out in the middle of the streets and the interstates in Charlotte and attempt to block traffic,” Burr said. The Republican said he wants to make sure “drivers don’t have to fear driving through Charlotte or anywhere in North Carolina.”

“This bill does not allow for the driver of a vehicle to target protesters intentionally,” he added. “It does protect individuals who are rightfully trying to drive down the road.”

Protests blocking roads and highways were common in Charlotte after the death of Keith Lamont Scott last year.

“These people are nuts to run in front of cars like they do … and say, ‘me and my buddy here are going to stop this two-and-a-half-ton vehicle,’” Rep. Michael Speciale, who supports the bill, said. “If somebody does bump somebody, why should they be held liable?”

Needless to say, Democrats pitched a fit.

“We all know this is being done to try to make a point about protests,” said Democrat Greg Meyer. “It is just going to embarrass us. There is no good reason to pass this bill.” >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Yes, apparently, protesters blocking roads for no good reason aren’t going to embarrass the state of North Carolina, but a bill protecting motorists from lawsuits will.

The bill now heads to the Senate for approval. One hopes the upper chamber acts quickly and passes this bill.

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Town Hall Project Founded By Former Clinton Staffer


waving flag disclaimerAuthored BY: | February 22, 2017 | 4:00 pm

URL of the original posting site: http://freebeacon.com/politics/town-hall-project-founded-former-clinton-staffer/

A town hall meeting with Rep. Dave Brat (R., Va.) / AP

A town hall meeting with Rep. Dave Brat (R., Va.) / AP

Democrats have insisted that recent town hall outbursts against Republican politicians occurred organically, likening them to the Tea Party, while President Donald Trump yesterday tweeted that the “so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous occasions, planned out by liberal activists. Sad!”partyof-deceit-spin-and-lies

The Town Hall Project, a group that serves as a one-stop shop of information for town hall protests across the country, is connected to a former Clinton staffer and is also closely affiliated with a number of liberal groups. The group, which has been referenced by media outlets on numerous occasions, bills itself as a “volunteer-powered, grassroots effort that empowers constituents across the country to have face-to-face conversations with their elected representatives.”

Jimmy Dahman, a former field organizer for the Clinton campaign in Iowa, founded the Town Hall Project. Dahman claimed on CNN that the town hall events are “all organic and happening at the grassroots level.” Dahman’s group is closely involved with MoveOn.org, a major progressive activist group that recently launched a website, called ResistanceRecess.com, to encourage activists to attend town hall events.point-counterpoint

The Town Hall Project’s parent company is The Action Network, which was involved in demonstrations against Walmart and the protests in Ferguson.

The Action Network’s board of directors includes Mark Fleischman, a former vice president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Brian Young, who worked on campaigns for Howard Dean and John Kerry; Jeffrey Dugas, who worked for John Podesta’s Center for American Progress and Elizabeth Warren’s 2012 Senate campaign; and Rich Clayton, who worked for the SEIU and the shareholder activism arm of Change to Win, a labor group that describes itself as a “strategic organizing center.”

The Action Network is located at the same Washington, D.C., address as United We Dream, the “largest immigrant youth-led organization in the nation.” United We Dream has received funding from liberal billionaire George Soros. It began organizing “sanctuary campus” anti-Trump protests shortly after the election. The Action Network also shares the same address as Change to Win, the labor organizing group. Change to Win’s leadership council is chaired by James P. Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Its secretary is Mary Kay Henry, president of the SEIU.picture2

The Town Hall Project’s website refers readers to the Indivisible Guide, a “practical guide for resisting the Trump agenda.” The guide includes information on how to “organize local groups to fight for your congressional district” and “four local advocacy tactics that actually work.”Alinsky affect

A Town Hall Project spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon that the Action Network is a service used to manage their list of volunteers and supporters and that the group would never pay any person to attend a town hall. They added that anyone is free to use their services.

Update February 23, 2017, 10:40 a.m.: This post has been updated to reflect comment from the Town Hall Project.

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‘Black Lives Matter’ Forces L.A. Mayor Garcetti to Flee Town Hall


waving flagby Joel B. Pollak 20 Oct 2015

URL of the original posting site: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/20/black-lives-matter-forces-l-a-mayor-garcetti-to-flee-town-hall

Black Lives Matter disrupts Garcetti (Mark-Anthony Johnson / @FlyEgret / Twitter)

Mark-Anthony Johnson / @FlyEgret / Twitter

Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti was forced to cut short a town hall meeting with the black community on Monday evening after it was disrupted by Black Lives Matter protestors. The meeting, at the Holman United Methodist Church, was attended by several hundred people, but several dozen activists interrupted repeatedly and forced Garcetti to flee. The LAPD had to disperse the crowd before he could depart, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The organizers of the forum urged the protestors to have a “civil conversation.” Instead, they chanted “”Black lives, they matter here!” and forced Garcetti to leave under police guard. NBC Los Angeles recounted: “Garcetti initially came to answer questions from citizens regarding economic opportunity and community safety before protestors began chanting. But the event quickly turned to chaos as Black Lives Matter protesters rushed the podium.”Really with logo

Black Lives Matter organizer Dr. Melina Abdullah, a professor of Pan African Studies at Cal State L.A., posted a list of the protestors’ demands to Facebook, which includes a demand for the resignation of Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck, as well as the payment of “reparations” to the community for police violence.

BLM LA Demands (Melina Abdullah / Facebook)

hateBlack Lives Matter protests have been staged sporadically throughout Los Angeles over the past year, in response to the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri as well as police shootings closer to home, such as the Ezell Ford shooting. Garcetti was criticized when he skipped the inquiry into Ford’s death for a fundraiser in Washington.

Since then, Garcetti has been doing damage control. On Monday, he attempted to show solidarity with the Black Lives Movement by explaining, as other Democrats have been forced to do, why it was wrong to say “all lives matter.” The Times quoted Garcetti:Black-lives-matter stop killing each other

“Let me say, you’re right, your analysis,” Garcetti said. “I hate this back-and-forth we hear nationally, where people say black lives matter and politicians say all lives matter. Black lives matter in a unique way, and you and I see eye to eye on this.”

He added: “If you just try to say all lives matter, you write people out of history. You write slavery out of history. You write oppression and violence out of history. You write racism and lynching out of history. So I get why it is important — just hear me out for one second — you’re right.”black-lives-matter-lol

That was not enough for the protestors, however, who turned their backs to the stage and booed repeatedly. Their cause of deathgoal was to stop Garcetti from speaking, not to listen to his explanations.

Garcetti later issued a statement:

Tonight, we had hundreds of South LA residents attend a community meeting – leaders, business owners, mothers and children, who took time out of their evening to discuss the critical issues that matter most to all of us. I am disappointed that our conversation was cut short when there is so much work for us to do together to make our neighborhoods stronger and safer. I believe in our City and my commitment to our shared concerns continues, stronger than ever.

 

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