Sheriff Clarke on inner-city dysfunction and riots

photo credit: dailymail.co.uk

In a piece titled “Hard truths about inner-city dysfunction” at  Fox News Opinion, Cal Thomas cited America’s Sheriff, David Clarke of Milwaukee County:

. . . In an appearance Monday on Fox, Clarke, who is African-American, offered his explanation for the major cause of riots in Milwaukee and other cities: “You know what encourages this? The growth of the welfare state. These are underclass behaviors. Seventy percent of the kids born in Milwaukee are born without an engaged father in their life. So I look at the progressive policies that have marginalized black dads. They push them to the side and say ‘you’re not needed.’ Uncle Sam is going to be the dad, he’s going to provide for the kids, he’s going to feed the kids. Uncle Sam has been a horrible father. Uncle Sam does not love these kids. He might keep a little food in their mouths and that is about it. But we all know the importance of an intact family, what it can do to shape the behavior of kids.”

Clarke called progressive policies “a total disaster,” not only in Milwaukee, but in Chicago, Baltimore, New York and elsewhere. “These progressive policies have hit the black community like a nuclear blast and until we reverse this government dependency, that’s what creates all of this and it encourages it by the way, along with some questionable lifestyle choices.”

His answer? “Until the black community does a self-evaluation and until they begin to self-criticize about some of the lifestyle choices they are making, this stuff is going to continue to fester.”

. . .

Why do African-Americans continue to vote for liberal Democrats who have done little to help them and, in fact, often cause more harm than good?

Again, Clarke gets it right: “Until we push back against this progressive ideology, this dangerous ideology that has been very destructive to the black community and that’s what I’m trying to do -- it’s Job One right now in terms of messaging -- this thing is only going to get worse.”

Clarke expanded on the topic in a longer piece at The Hill (h/t HotGas).

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Pastor Darrell Scott on media bias and Trump

And speaking of media bias and coverage of Donald J. Trump, here is Cleveland Heights' Pastor Darrell Scott on Fox yesterday:

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Trump on Islamic threat: Make America Safe Again

photo credit: indianexpress.com

GOP Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump spoke today in Youngstown, Ohio on the threat to America and western civilization coming from Islamic jihad. The full text is here and contains extensive footnotes. Two take-aways:

The Obama-Clinton foreign policy has unleashed ISIS, destabilized the Middle East, and put the nation of Iran – which chants ‘Death to America’– in a dominant position of regional power and, in fact, aspiring to be a dominant world power. It all began in 2009 with what has become known as President Obama’s global ‘Apology Tour.’

In a series of speeches, President Obama described America as “arrogant,” “dismissive” “derisive” and a “colonial power.” He informed other countries that he would be speaking up about America’s “past errors.” He pledged that we would no longer be a “senior partner,” that “sought to dictate our terms.” He lectured CIA officers of the need to acknowledge their mistakes, and described Guantanamo Bay as a “rallying cry for our enemies.”

Perhaps no speech was more misguided than President Obama’s speech to the Muslim World delivered in Cairo, Egypt, in 2009.

In winning the Cold War, President Ronald Reagan repeatedly touted the superiority of freedom over communism, and called the USSR the Evil Empire.

Yet, when President Obama delivered his address in Cairo, no such moral courage could be found. Instead of condemning the oppression of women and gays in many Muslim nations, and the systematic violations of human rights, or the financing of global terrorism, President Obama tried to draw an equivalency between our human rights record and theirs. 

His naïve words were followed by even more naïve actions.

. . .

Our victory in the Cold War relied on a bipartisan and international consensus. That is what we must have to defeat Radical Islamic terrorism. But just like we couldn’t defeat communism without acknowledging that communism exists – or explaining its evils – we can’t defeat Radical Islamic Terrorism unless we do the same. This also means we have to promote the exceptional virtues of our own way of life – and expecting that newcomers to our society do the same. Pride in our institutions, our history and our values should be taught by parents and teachers, and impressed upon all who join our society.

Assimilation is not an act of hostility, but an expression of compassion. Our system of government, and our American culture, is the best in the world and will produce the best outcomes for all who adopt it.

This approach will not only make us safer, but bring us closer together as a country.

Renewing this spirit of Americanism will help heal the divisions in our country. It will do so by emphasizing what we have in common – not what pulls us apart.

The rest is here. Or if you prefer to watch on video, it’s here.

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Do you believe what you read and see in the media?

art credit: mediacontrolingourminds.wordpress.com

Is the election already over? In a short piece titled “Media-driven Political Insanity” at American Thinker, Joanna Rosamund begins:

Psycholinguistics and cognitive science have long been interested in linguistic relativity – the concept that language influences way of thinking.  George Orwell, the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, also considered: “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”  In the dystopian novel, Orwell depicted a totalitarian state using controlled language and “thought-crime” charges to keep people from thinking.  Throughout history, real-life dictatorships have been known to “pre-define” reality via meaningless slogans, political correctness, and punishment of cerebral dissent.

The fact that several months before elections we are constantly told that a candidate has already won definitely rings an alarm bell.  Orwellian “Newspeak” morphed today into NewsSpeak, with the mainstream media acting as thought police.  While we are being nonchalantly reminded about a long list of observable crimes that go unpunished, the media cheer those crimes’ authors and try to contaminate us with the “enthusiasm.”  One can’t help but notice how visionary Orwell’s writing was: “[s]o much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.”

Where did ol’ good logic go?  The processes used in thinking and reasoning should be natural to homo sapiens, and it’s impossible not to have a brain-ache when you clearly see that it´s not the case.

Read the rest here.

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Coulter on Trump, Media, & Crooked Hillary

art credit: guerillagraphix.com

Coulter on Trump, Media, Crooked Hillary, 

Guns, and the Second Amendment

I run hot and cold on Ann Coulter, but her column yesterday at The Daily Caller -- on Trump, the Media, Crooked Hillary, and the Second Amendment blow-up -- made sense to me:

Even having predicted that the media’s attacks on Trump would be unprecedented, I’m still amazed. Every single news outlet is dedicated to hysterically denouncing Trump, every minute of every day, while cooing at Hillary.

Everything Hillary has ever touched has failed, been engulfed in scandal, resulted in massive investigations, litigation, financial ruin, prison or death. The final stage of any Hillary enterprise is a grand announcement that Hillary did not technically break the law. Or no one can prove she did. Or, even if she did, no one ever gets prosecuted for it.

She’s prone to coughing fits and lapses of memory in the middle of speeches, and falls down all the time. But that’s not nearly as important as the media’s manufactured story about Trump throwing a baby out of a rally!

. . .

The main story this week: The media’s psychotic claim that Trump called for Hillary’s assassination.

Trump said: “Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”

Hmmm. What could Second Amendment people “do”? One thing they could do is what they did do — in 1994. That was the year gun rights supporters voted out dozens of Democrats who voted wrong on guns, ushering in the first Republican Congress in 40 years.

It’s been nearly a quarter century, and the Democrats are still so traumatized by their sweeping losses in 1994, that, even after Gabby Giffords was shot in Arizona, even after the Aurora movie theater shooting, even after the Sandy Hook massacre, Democrats refused to take up a gun bill in the U.S. Senate.

Apparently, the only news you’ll be getting from now until the election is the media’s own insane interpretation of every little thing Trump says or does. . . .There’s no way to phrase something so that it can’t be lied about.

. . .

There’s no strategy for overcoming this level of media hostility. Trump has made some mistakes during this campaign, but he hasn’t done anything wrong for months now. He could say “yes,” and the media would change the question to, “Are you a child molester?”

Just when you think it can't get any worse. . . .

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J. Christian Adams on rigged elections

art credit: therealside.com

J. Christian Adams is an election lawyer who served in the Voting Rights Section at the U.S. Department of Justice. His New York Times bestselling book is Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department (Regnery).  His website is www.electionlawcenter.com.

Many readers will recognize Adams as a frequent guest on prime-time TV news programs. He recently weighed in on various aspects of voter fraud, all of which will affect this year’s election. Here’s an extract from his article at PJ Media:

The integrity of our elections [is] suffering from a coordinated, multi-million dollar attack on multiple fronts. It’s far more complicated than one centralized high-powered conspiracy to “rig” the election. A more sophisticated understanding of what is happening is essential to combat the real threat to our elections.

Here are five ways that the integrity of elections are under attack:

5. Big money organizations fight against election integrity

Large brick-and-mortar organizations with multi-million dollar endowments are fighting to undermine the integrity of American elections. These organizations, such as Project Vote, Demos, the ACLU, Advancement Project, and the League of Women Voters have vast financial resources. They have used these resources in key states such as Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and elsewhere to attack election integrity measures. They bring attacks against Voter ID laws, but they also bring more important efforts, such as attacks against citizenship verification.

. . .

I am involved in litigation across the country to help election integrity. In one lawsuit in a swing state, we discovered that non-citizens were voting illegally in Presidential elections. This is both a federal and state felony. When we asked the election supervisor for records showing referral to law enforcement officials, none existed -- because no referral was ever made. Never mind that dozens and dozens of aliens were participating in the election process in just one county. Imagine how many participate statewide. Yet nothing was done to prosecute the illegal voting -- so word spreads through the community that illegal voting is a hobby that goes unpunished.

Rigged?

These same big money organizations send swarms of lawyers to the smallest court hearings, so many that sometimes there isn’t enough room for them in the courtroom.

. . .

Non-citizen voting helps the left win elections. Most of the groups in this traveling roadshow are 501(c)(3) charities.

I doubt very much that Lois Lerner’s Exempt Organizations Unit at the IRS has sent them a letter asking for their social media passwords or the text of prayers recited at meetings.

4. A focus on process brings policy results

Republicans focus on policy. Democrats focus on process. Democrats and the left know if they alter the rules, they can win the elections. Better still, if they alter the rules and brand it a civil rights matter, they disguise their partisan goals with something that sounds better.

What do I mean by process?

Years ago, we all voted on Election Day. That made it harder for the machine to motivate the unmotivated on one single day. Now? The election is spread out over weeks of early voting.

We used to register to vote in advance. Now, instant registration is another process that helps the demographic that has difficulty planning ahead. It means you can register and vote at the same time, making it harder to verify eligibility.

In Ohio, you could register to vote and vote weeks in advance at the same time. When Ohio discovered that California and New York residents such as Amy Little and Yolanda Hippensteele were registering and voting simultaneously for Obama in 2008, Ohio changed the law to eliminate this “Golden Week.”  Naturally, the Big Money Organizations (See #[5], above) sued.

Bush-appointed federal judge Michael Watson ruled that such a change violates the Voting Rights Act and struck down the election integrity measure.

Out-of-precinct voting, mandatory voter registration, felon voting, dirty voter rolls, underage registration, and simple refusal to enforce election integrity laws are process priorities of the left.

You don’t need someone sitting in a smoke-filled command bunker to rig an election. There are more subtle and more effective ways to affect elections.

3. Big Law

The well-funded organizations fighting to block election integrity laws are helped by some of the nation’s largest law firms -- for free!

These law firms use the inflated fees their corporate clients pay to subsidize helping left-wing groups attack election integrity laws.

. . .

The attack on Voter ID isn’t the only instance where large law firms donate their free time to leftist organizations with multi-million dollar endowments. Nearly any time there is an attack on election integrity, Big Law helps.

. . .

2. Failure to maintain rolls

Millions of voter registrations are wrong or out of date. Hundreds of counties, including many in swing states, have more registrants than eligible people alive. That doesn’t mean millions of votes are being cast illegally -- but corrupted rolls provide the perfect environment for election corruption. It’s what allowed Democratic Congressional nominee Wendy Rosen to vote twice for President Obama in both Maryland and Florida.

The guiltiest culprit for corrupted rolls is the Obama Justice Department. It refuses to do anything about the failure to keep rolls clean. Their failure to act is both deliberate and ideologically driven.

. . .

If Trump becomes president, sweeping away the lawlessness inside the Justice Department that turned the federal government into silent partners with election gangsters like Wendy Rosen should be a top priority.  It’s no accident that vote fraudsters across the country, including Melowese Richardson and others, get a free ride from this DOJ and never face criminal prosecution.

1.    Academics and media lying about election integrity

The final way our electoral system is endangered is through the pack of lies pushed by academics and the media. If you pay attention to legacy media, voter fraud doesn’t exist -- only racists want election integrity, and Jim Crow is back.

When it comes to covering election integrity, some of the media are lazy, the rest are activists with by-lines.

. . .

Is the November election rigged? Certainly not in the way you might have thought it was. The election is afflicted with something far more dangerous than a single plot to flip the outcome. The affliction is diffuse, decentralized, and funded by millions of dollars.

Read the rest here (and weep).

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Media Mission: Destroy Donald Trump

art credit: pinterest

Jeffrey Lord is a regular contributor to The American Spectator blog, but more Tea Party people may recognize him as a regular panelist – often the only conservative – on CNN prime time news. He attended a recent Trump rally and published a piece exposing the utter dishonesty in the mainstream media. The following is an extract from NewsBusters:

The other night I spent some time with Donald Trump. He had come to Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, a mere five or so miles up the road from my house.

The Trump rally was filled - completely - with thousands inside and outside thousands more waiting (in vain) to get in the door. Here’s what interested.

Never once - not once - did I hear Donald Trump mention the Khans, the now famous parents of a son killed in battle in Iraq. Even more to the point? In talking with many people in the audience before and after the rally, no one - say again not a single soul - mentioned the Khans. What I did hear from Trump was talk about jobs, trade, the economy, ISIS and more. Which was the talk from members of the audience when I spoke to many of them before and after the rally. They volunteered directly to me, conversation after another, their thoughts about ObamaCare, a sick child, jobs, trade ,pride in America, Hillary and so on.

And yet? Mysteriously when I returned home and turned on the television or checked on-line it seemed to be all-Khan all-the-time. As if Trump had spent the evening re-hashing the whole subject yet again. Which he had not.

In my conversation with Donald Trump himself he was upbeat, every bit as enthusiastic as his audience. Yet what was the media take on the Trump campaign this week? Here’s ABC’s Jon Karl:

“I am told that senior officials at the party are actively exploring what would happen if Trump dropped out. How to replace him on the ballot.  They can’t force him out, he would have to go out voluntarily. And then it would be the 168 members of the RNC through a complicated process they would pick a new candidate.” 

Over here at Politico was this headline:

Insiders to Trump: Drop out

'I’d rather take our chances with nearly anyone else than continue with this certain loser who will likely cost the Senate and much more,' said a New Hampshire Republican.

This media jewel began this way:

“Amid widespread chatter that Donald Trump could drop out of the presidential race before Election Day, Republican insiders in key battleground states have a message for The Donald: Get out.”

And over here at The Washington Post was this: 

GOP reaches ‘new level of panic’ over Trump’s candidacy

“Turmoil in the Republican Party escalated Wednesday as party leaders, strategists and donors voiced increased alarm about the flailing state of Donald Trump’s candidacy and fears that the presidential nominee was damaging the party with an extraordinary week of self-inflicted mistakes, gratuitous attacks and missed opportunities.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was described as “very frustrated” with and deeply disturbed by Trump’s behavior over the past week, having run out of excuses to make on the nominee’s behalf to donors and other party leaders, according to multiple people familiar with the events.

Meanwhile, Trump’s top campaign advisers are struggling once again to instill discipline in their candidate, who has spent recent days lurching from one controversy to another while seemingly skipping chances to go on the offensive against his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

“A new level of panic hit the street,” said longtime operative Scott Reed, chief strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “It’s time for a serious reset.”       Hours later Politico took note of the Trump announcement of his economic team - a team filled with seriously competent businessmen  with considerable experience in making the American economy work.  What did Politicosay? This: 

Trump unveils all-male economic advisory team

“Donald Trump's campaign on Friday announced more than a dozen members of the Republican nominee's all-male economic advisory team, including several prominent real-estate investors, hedge-fund managers and bankers.”

Then there was this from the Media Research Center: 

CNN's 'New Day' Airs Nearly 200 Times More Coverage On Trump Controversies Than Iran

“CNN set aside nearly half of its air time on Wednesday's New Day to various recent controversies involving the Trump campaign — 1 hour, 24 minutes, and 18 seconds over three hours. By contrast, the program clearly didn't think much of the Wall Street Journal's Tuesday revelation that the Obama administration secretly airlifted $400 million in cash to Iran. John Berman gave a 27-second news brief to the report, but didn't mention that the payment was sent on "an unmarked cargo plane" New Day, therefore, devoted over 187 times more coverage to Trump than to the millions to Iran.”

. . .

To the larger point.

Monday night at that Trump rally here in Pennsylvania, a rally I have described here in The American Spectator, Trump drew what was unarguably his most sustained applause when he said of his campaign: “the biggest problem is the media.” The audience erupted, applauding and cheering, with many turning - unasked by Trump - to the back of the room where the television cameras were perched on risers and booing repeatedly. Trump went on to say this:

These are among the most dishonest people you will ever, ever meet. These people — you know, I’ve had days where I have said, ‘Boy, this was a great day. I’ll look forward to seeing it tonight or tomorrow and it’s brutal.’ And I say, ‘What happened?’

We are going to punch through the media. We have to! The New York Times is totally dishonest. Totally dishonest. The Washington Post has been a little bit better lately but not good. By the way The New York Times, which is failing badly. I call it ‘The Failing New York Times.’ Every story that they write is a hit job. I could do the greatest thing in the history of the world. I could come up with a cure for the most horrible disease in the world and they give me a front-page horrible, horrible story. The New York Times is very dishonest but it will be out of business soon. I hope. It will be out of business. It will. Really dishonest reporters. Not all of them, but most of them.

There was more, with another attack on CNN. 

But the point here is very simple. Out and abroad in the land there are millions of Americans who feel intensely that “the media” - fill in an outlet of your choice in print, TV, radio and now the Internet - are out there with the sole object of destroying Donald Trump [emphasis added]. That the slightest misstep of Trump’s will be magnified and replayed over and over endlessly - while major events like the clear case of the Obama administration’s payment of $400 million in cash to ransom Iranian hostages are simply downplayed.

. . .

Buckle in. It is a long way to November. And everything including the kitchen sink is coming in Trump’s direction courtesy of the media.

Read more here.

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