Jim Brown on President Trump, our national anthem, and race

Photo credit: mmqb.si.com

I’m old enough to remember football legend Jim Brown playing for the Cleveland Browns back in the 1960’s. He is still "the greatest football player of all time." And he is speaking up about President Trump, taking a knee, and the black community. Brian Kilmeade interviewed him on Fox and Friends. I missed it, but Steven Beyer at Western Journal reported on the interview:

NFL legend and social activist Jim Brown appeared on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning and delivered a charge to the “black community” by asking it to take responsibility over shifting the blame onto President Donald Trump.

The former star running back started the interview by heaping praise on Trump for being “accessible.”

He told Fox’s Brian Kilmeade, “I have access to the president, and anytime I have access to the president, and he will listen to my thoughts, that’s all I can ask of him.”

“This president is accessible,” Brown said. “He’s different. He’s challenging, and he pays attention to what I say.”

Brown then turned his attention to the black community, telling Kilmeade, “We should look at ourselves first before we look at the president.”

Kilmede asked him if he felt Trump was doing a good job of “producing” for the black community.

“Well, I tell you it’s very hard to produce for the black community in a certain way,” Brown replied. “The black community, and I’m a part of the black community, has a responsibility regardless of what the president does. If you have a homicide rate in your black community, then it’s not the president that’s created that homicide rate. It’s the black community itself that needs to address it.”

“So I don’t want to put everything on him, and I’m sorry to say the black community is not doing what we should do, and that includes myself,” Brown added.

Kilmede asked Brown if he believed the president to be a racist.

“I’m so glad you asked me that,” Brown replied. “Of course not. Is America racist? Of course not.”

Brown went on talk about the national anthem protests saying, “We should never denigrate our flag and our national anthem. We should always be Americans first and we should work our butts off to do the right thing and make it a better country.”

“But to not respect your flag and national anthem is something I’d never do,” he added.

The video interview is embedded at the link here.

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Navy Week in Cleveland

Cleveland.com reports:

Navy Week, featuring a variety of events here to celebrate that branch of the service, will formally open with a 5 p.m. ceremony on August 28 at the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument on Public Square.

The free event will include remarks by Vice Admiral Forrest Faison III, and performances by the U.S. Fleet Forces Band and Navy Ceremonial Guard Drill Team.

For Navy Week, which runs through Sept. 2, the monument has created a special display focusing on three admirals who were Northeast Ohio natives.

More info and schedule of Navy Week events, including the Air Show, is here.

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What is their endgame?

image credit: theburningplatform.com

I go hot and cold on Mark Levin. But his column yesterday was the lead link at Doug Ross’s Director’s Blue blog, and it’s a good one. Here’s his conclusion:

Challenge socialists on this single point: What is their endgame?

When is enough government control enough? Why won’t socialists -- or Democrat Socialist -- share their blueprint for society? What industry is a “bridge too far” for socialism? Why can’t they tell us what their limits are on taxation, control of industry, and how much of society should be dependent upon their handouts?

Conservatives know their endgame: it is called the United State Constitution. These four pages of wisdom, condensed instructions gleaned from thousands of years of human experience, ended up germinating the most magnificent nation-state yet to arise from humanity’s tumult.

And a great percentage of our fellow citizens neither recognize nor appreciate the magnificent society with which they have been bequeathed. They take for granted this unique and precious anomaly in the context of human history.

Only education can help them. Not all of them, to be sure, but many: those who possess both open minds and a willingness to learn.

He asks a good question, one which my ultra-liberal friends and relatives might have difficulty responding to. The full article is here. 

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Social media, surveillance, and your vote

image credit: picstopin.com

Breitbart has reported on the "the extent to which major technology companies such as Google are surveilling their users." But the segment that I hope everyone will watch (it’s less than 4 minutes) is Dr. Robert Epstein’s appearance on Tucker Carlson from (apparently) a few months ago and re-broadcast last Friday. 

Video credit: YouTube [another platform for surveillance] via thelibertydaily.com

Here’s a partial report and transcript from The National Sentinel: 

Dr. Robert Epstein, a research psychologist at the American Institute of Behavioral Research and Technology, joined Carlson to discuss an upcoming presentation on “The Search Suggestion Effect (SSE): How Search Suggestions Can Be Used To Shift Opinions and Voting Preferences Dramatically.”

The researchers looked at the power of Google and Facebook to influence elections over a period of five years and came up with powerful results.

“I can tell you we should be paranoid because what Google and Facebook can do is really mind-boggling,” he told the host.

“For example, if Mark Zuckerberg on election day last year, if he had chosen to press the enter key early in the morning and just sent out a message to Hillary Clinton supporters only saying, ‘Go out and vote,’ that would have sent her an additional 450,000 voters that day with no one knowing that this had occurred. And that’s just Facebook,” he added.

“What Google can do is really off the scale. Our studies show that Google can take a 50-50 split among undecided voters and change it into a 90-10 split with no one knowing they had been manipulated and without leaving a paper trail,” the research continued.

“It has to do with those search suggestions. Literally from the very first character that you type into the search bar you are being manipulated,” Epstein said. “And we’ve done 16 months of experiments. We’ve done all the research now and we know exactly how this works… The threat is absolutely, positively profound.”

Read the rest here or watch the video. Please share with all your social media friends.

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Troy Balderson wins the race

art credit: thebigrocks.com

It’s finally official. Cleveland.com reports:

After millions of dollars spent, a presidential visit, and a lengthy vote certification process, Republican Troy Balderson has become the newest congressman representing Ohio's 12th District --  at least, for the next two months.

Balderson, a state senator from Zanesville, beat Democrat Danny O'Connor, the Franklin County recorder, by 1,680 votes, according to final vote totals from the Aug. 7 special election released Friday by elections officials.

. . .

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UPDATE: Cleveland.com ran an editorial applauding Secretary of State's John Husted "timely demolition of fraud rumors in 12th District results." This blogger was suspicious.

Priorities in the Age of Trump

one version of Donald Derangement Syndrome

James Delingpole at Breitbart published an article, “Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Making Conservatives Lazy, Cowardly and Stupid”. He’s sorting through Never Trumpers, conservatives, and semi-conservatives. He concludes:

Let’s get this straight. We – at least the vast majority of us – on the side of the argument that Donald Trump is currently representing believe in stuff like: national borders, free speech, protecting citizens’ interests, equality of opportunity, lower taxes, smaller government, democratic accountability, the family, personal responsibility, rising standards of living, property rights, the rule of law, checks and balances, the Constitution, liberty. There is nothing in any of this we should feel awkward or guilty about. It does not make us Nazis. Or even semi-Nazis. Or alt-right. Or any of the other pejorative terms which – according to our opponents – make it wholly acceptable to punch the teeth out of anyone in a MAGA baseball cap.

Trump Derangement Syndrome has caused some conservatives – not all of us, thankfully – to lose sight of why it is that we fight.

We fight because we’re right. And yes – as Trump is one of the few conservative presidents to get – it really is that simple.

I am posting and linking since I expect it will resonate with most Cleveland Tea Party members. Full article is here.

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A bad idea from the Cuyahoga County Council

art credit: gamesageddon.com

Cleveland Tea Party would not have a role to play in, say, the ongoing targeting of the Colorado baker who won’t produce a cake celebrating gay marriage or transgendering. However, one of the three core Tea Party values is limited government, and the Cuyahoga County Council is planning to take it upon itself to further meddle in the lives of residents. Our friends at Ohio Value Voters sent out the message below (warning: Cringe Alert). Mark your calendar, make some phone calls, or send messages:

Re: Cuyahoga County Human Rights Commission 

Residents of NE Ohio

Public Testimony Requested

Wednesday, September 12^th at 5:00 Pm

The Cuyahoga County Council has been quietly working on legislation to establish a county-wide "Human Rights Commission" that will affect every city, resident, business, and church in the county.  The three-person commission is intended to hear ALL cases of discrimination in Cuyahoga County relative to sexual orientation/gender identity.  LGBT citizens will be provided legal assistance paid for by our tax dollars.  This piece of legislation hurts business, puts our safety at risk, and punishes people of faith.   This ordinance permits biological men, who consider themselves to be women, to enter a woman's bathroom or locker room in "all places of public accommodation."

On Wednesday, September 12th at 5:00 pm the County Council of Cuyahoga County, Ohio will hear public testimony against Ordinance No. O2018-0009 sponsored by: County Executive Budish and Councilmembers Brady, Miller, Houser, and Simon.  

Resources/Articles and ACTION items: 

Click Here For Council Meeting Instructions [includes free parking info]

Action Item: Tell the council (by phone/email) to Vote NO on Ordinance No. O2018-0009. Click Here for a list of Phone Numbers/Email Addresses of Council Members

Read this article, "How to think about Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Policies and Religious Freedom," by Ryan T. Anderson

Resource: List of Gender Identities & Pronouns

The above linked Heritage Foundation article is good but rather long. I found a shorter related article – and it pulls no punches – zeroing in on “Marxism and Marriage” at American Thinker here. 

I also checked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which already has jurisdiction over claims related to LGBT; see here. The Cleveland Field Office website is here; its page for filing a charge of discrimination is here. So the Cuyahoga County Council's intended power-grab can also be filed under the Department of Redundancy Department.

I’ll re-post the alert again after Labor Day.

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