Gosnell, free speech, and free markets

image credit: thoughtsonfilm.com

The film about “America's all-time champion serial killer” Kermit Gosnell opens later this week at a few theaters, and its subject matter is outside Cleveland Tea Party’s core mission. But the topic of “free markets” is very much a core Tea Party value.

The film Gosnell has been an uphill battle from the start. It was difficult to produce, and efforts to market it are being thwarted as I type. If this film is emblematic of the closing of free markets and increasing censorship in the mainstream media and on social media, then it is very much on the front burner of the Cleveland Tea Party. How can one have free markets if a legal product is not allowed to be promoted in the marketplace?

Fox News is running paid ads, but NPR and PBS won’t run them, and Facebook has banned any ads promoting this film. It should not matter whether you are Pro Choice, Pro Life, or undecided. The issues of Roe vs Wade and abortion were hot talking points during the entire nomination process of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, so the film has a place in the current and ongoing debate. 

The other day I attended a presentation by the filmmakers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer followed by a private screening of Gosnell. Mark Steyn’s must-read blog on the film is here. The website for the film is here and it includes a drop-down which specifies theaters showing this film, listed by state. Only two were located in the greater Cleveland area (Valley View and Solon).

The goal of the two film-makers is to get enough venues and audiences to get this film to be eligible for NetFlix general access/release. If I understood them correctly, if they get enough showings and viewings in theaters this year, they can get a much wider distribution for this film via NetFlix, and they intend to categorize it as a crime drama along the line of, say, Law and Order, to reach an audience that might otherwise not choose to watch a film advertised as being about abortion per se. I thought that was a good marketing strategy. And if you are reading this blog, I hope you will consider seeing the film later this week, even if you don't think you'll like it.

From SteynOnline:

If making the film was hard, breaking through the societal omertà is harder: The Hyatt in Austin, for example, just canceled a screening at the behest of Planned Parenthood. So do be alert both to bookings of Gosnell at your local multiplex and to attempts to get it bounced. As producers and (with Andrew Klavan) screenwriters, Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer set out to tell a story none of the big studios would touch, and their doggedness deserves to find an audience.

In a free market, the producers would be free to buy ads. Facebook claims the ad does not meet their “standards.” No, Facebook just doesn’t like the film and doesn’t want any more exposure of the Gosnell case. That’s not what's supposed to happen to free speech in free markets. How can you function in a free market when you are muzzled because you have a different view? No, that’s censorship, and that is why I posted with these links.

Exit question: Who will be censored next?

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Cordray vs DeWine

Yesterday evening, Ohio gubernatorial candidates Richard Cordray (D) and Mike DeWine (R) debated each other at Cleveland State University. Cleveland.com reported (link not available) but the Cincinnati Enquirer included a few video clips, including one of a “testy” exchange. Link is here.

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WHY we celebrate Columbus Day

image credit: brainskewer.com

Mark Antonio Wright at National Review explains WHY we celebrate Columbus Day (h/t Chicks on the Right):

Let us dispense with any pretense that the indigenous peoples of the Americas lived in a peaceful idyll in harmony with their neighbors and with nature, and that the advent of Columbus destroyed a noble paradise. The great civilizations of the Western Hemisphere were indeed advanced, and yet, like Europeans, Asians, and Africans, the American peoples used their technology to subjugate. Anyone familiar with the expansionist and warlike cultures of the Aztec and Inca Empires should know that the tables would have been turned had it been the New World that “discovered” the Old and possessed the power to conquer it. Human nature, tainted with original sin, is what it is and has been — of that we can be certain.

Europeans, beginning with Columbus, treated the Indians pitilessly — that should not be whitewashed or forgotten — but, in the same way, we should not ignore the genuine good that has come down to us as a result of the course of human events — namely, the space for a unique idea to grow and flourish: the self-government of a free people, with an ever-expanding idea of who can partake of that promise.

How much is Columbus personally responsible for all of this — for the good and the ill? Only as much as any one man can be. As the historian William J. Connell has written, “What Columbus gets criticized for nowadays are attitudes that were typical of the European sailing captains and merchants who plied the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in the 15th century. Within that group he was unquestionably a man of daring and unusual ambition.”

Connell concluded that “what really mattered was his landing on San Salvador, which was a momentous, world-changing occasion such as has rarely happened in human history.”

Hannah at Chicks on The Right comments:

I’d also like to note that on Columbus Day, we’re not celebrating HIM as person. 

We’re not celebrating genocide or racism. The day marks a significant event. Big difference.

The current Columbus Day narrative only tells half of the story. It’s revisionist history. It’s all rooted in Western guilt.

ANYWAY. Trump tweeted about Columbus and got slammed on Twitter:

Christopher Columbus’s spirit of determination & adventure has provided inspiration to generations of Americans. On #ColumbusDay, we honor his remarkable accomplishments as a navigator, & celebrate his voyage into the unknown expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.

You can read more here. Happy Columbus Day.

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Register to vote

The US Vote Foundation is a resource for voter registration requirements and deadlines. The page for the state of Ohio is here, and if you are not already registered to vote in the November 2018 election, you have until Tuesday, October 9 to do so.

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Kavanaugh sworn in

The Fox headline: 

Kavanaugh sworn in as 

114th Supreme Court justice, 

hours after Senate votes to confirm

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Senate Votes To Advance Kavanaugh

From Fox News --

The Senate voted Friday to end debate on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, setting the stage for a final vote in the chamber Saturday evening -- where the White House now believes it has the votes to confirm Kavanaugh. 

The vote to invoke cloture was 51-49. While the vote was not necessarily indicative of the final confirmation vote, it moved him one step closer to sitting on the highest court in the land, with three out of four key undecided senators voting "yes" to advance the nomination. 

Republican Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, voted to move forward. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted "no." With a 51-49 majority, Republicans can't afford more than one defection if all Democrats were to vote together. Collins is expected to announce her decision in a speech on the Senate floor at 3 p.m. Friday. Flake later said he intends to vote "yes," "unless something big changes." 

The math for Republicans became somewhat trickier late Thursday when Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said he would be attending his daughter's wedding in Montana on Saturday. He said he would return to cast the decisive vote if needed. 

President Trump welcomed the vote in a tweet, saying he was "very proud" of the Senate. A source familiar with the lobbying efforts to confirm Kavanaugh told Fox News that the White House believes it has the votes to confirm Kavanaugh. 

The source said that the White House believes Murkowski will ultimately be a "no," but Manchin, Collins and Flake will all vote "yes."
Kavanaugh’s nomination was embroiled in a controversy that gripped the nation after multiple women made sexual assault allegations originating from his time in high school and college. The most prominent allegation was from California professor Christine Blasey Ford, who said that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a high school party. That allegation resulted in a high-stakes Senate Judiciary hearing last week where both Ford and Kavanaugh testified. 

Democrats said the allegations were credible and deserved a full investigation, while Republicans accused Democrats of using uncorroborated allegations to scuttle or delay the nomination -- leading to a stream of angry flashpoints between lawmakers. The accusations eventually led to President Trump ordering an FBI investigation. Republicans who had seen the FBI’s report said the FBI had produced no credible corroboration of the allegations. 

JUDICIARY COMMITTEE RELEASES EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF SUPPLEMENTAL FBI REPORT ON KAVANAUGHVideo 

Protesters flooded the capital in the days ahead of the vote, and clashed with Republican lawmakers in an effort to sway their votes, and initially appeared to have some success. Flake demanded the limited FBI investigation last week after being cornered in an elevator by screaming protesters moments before a Senate Judiciary Committee vote to recommend Kavanaugh’s nomination. 

Other Republicans later pushed back against protesters. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told protesters chasing him to “grow up” while Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., responded to one protester’s call for Kavanaugh to take a polygraph test, asking: “Maybe we can dunk him in water and see if he floats?” 

After the vote on Thursday, protesters once again yelled at Republican senators as they walked through the Senate building.

Ahead of the cloture vote, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, urged the Senate to say “no to mob rule.” He also blasted Democrats for their treatment of Kavanaugh, describing it as “nothing short of monstrous.” 

“The conduct of left-wing dark money groups and allies in this body have shamed us all,” he said. “The fix was in from the very beginning.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that the vote was "a pivotal day for us here in the Senate." 

"The ideals of justice that have served our nation for so long are on display," he said, calling the last two weeks a "disgraceful spectacle." 

But Democrats had pointed to not only the sexual assault allegations, which they described” but also questions about Kavanaugh’s temperament during the hearing last week and whether he had lied about his drinking during high school and college, and what certain references in his high school yearbook meant. They also sought to paint him as a justice that would swing the court deeply to the right. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, accused him of being evasive in his answers during his confirmation hearings on key topics. He said his views are “deeply at odds with the progress America has made in the last century of jurisprudence and at odds with what most Americans believe.” 

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on the Senate floor before the vote, raised concerns that Kavanaugh would vote to overturn Roe v Wade -- the 1973 decision that found a constitutional right to abortion -- and was extreme on gun rights. 

But she said the last few weeks had raised further concerns, particularly his emotional defense in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he had blasted Democrats for their treatment of the sexual assault allegations against him. 

“This behavior revealed a hostility and belligerence unbecoming of someone seeking to be elevated to the Supreme Court,” she said. 

Kavanaugh defended his behavior in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal late Thursday, in which he expressed some regret for his fiery attack on Democrats. 

“I was very emotional last Thursday, more so than I have ever been. I might have been too emotional at times,” he said. “I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said.” 

He added: "I hope everyone can understand that I was there as a son, husband and dad. I testified with five people foremost in my mind: my mom, my dad, my wife, and most of all my daughters."
 

Vote NO on Issue 1 / Save Ohio Lives

A very contentious Issue 1 will be on the ballot this November.  Issue 1 is a very dangerous issue that will weaken drug laws in Ohio to almost the weakest in the nation.  Passage of Issue 1 will much put out the welcome mat for drug users to flock to Ohio!

In addition to weakening our drug laws - the dangerous thing about Issue 1 is that instead of making these changes how they should be - through the legislative process of our elected officials - Issue 1 will make these weak drug laws part of our Ohio Constitution.  

It is important to not get caught up in the "helping the marginal user or addict that needs help" argument.  Without a a doubt some of the drug laws in our state need to be reviewed.  But we do not want to put out a welcome mat and become enablers!

Below is part of an Op-Ed from Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor of the Ohio Supreme Court... 

The lack of consequences for fentanyl possession also applies to possession of other lethal substances, (cocaine, K2, meth and heroin, etc.). Current possession felonies become misdemeanors.

What criminal wouldn’t want to set up their drug business in Ohio?

The adoption of Issue 1 will, I predict, have a devastating consequence on our drug courts. We know, through multiple studies, that drug courts are highly effective but only when they combine the "carrot" of treatment and support with the "stick" of judicial accountability, including incarceration when needed. The courts will be unable to incentivize an addict’s participation in drug court because the "carrot" of not having a felony conviction record is gone. There would be no felony!

Who would want to participate in a drug court program knowing that they only face probation for possession of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, K2, heroin, and so forth? I predict that we will see a severe drop-off in drug court participation at the very moment when it is needed most. Lives will be lost.

To make matters worse, Issue 1 would freeze our criminal drug offense laws in time. It expressly mandates that its provisions be implemented based on the laws in effect on Jan. 1, 2018. Our General Assembly couldn’t, by passing a statute, fix all that is wrong with Issue 1.

Keep in mind that out-of-state special interest groups spent more than $4 million to put Issue 1 on the ballot and will spend more to mislead and confuse you regarding Issue 1.

The proponents seek to address a very real problem: the impact of substance abuse on our society and our criminal justice system. But by taking a hammer to that problem, the proponents have set Ohio on a dangerous course of lenient drug laws. Issue 1’s passage would gravely endanger Ohioans while doing very little, if anything, to help our addicted population. Lives will be lost. Read More....

For more details on Issue 1 Click Here.