Remembering Pearl Harbor

"A date which will live in infamy"

Today we remember those who were caught by surprise when the Japanese attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor. 2,403 Americans died in the attack. Above is footage of our flag flying over the Arizona memorial, taken by Cleveland Tea Party roving photographer Pat J Dooley.

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Presidents and PRESIDENTS

Americans witnessed Donald J. Trump’s transition from private citizen to candidate for the highest office in the land. DC Whispers ran this at their blog:

So much of what the Establishment Media says about the Trump presidency is a lie. As an incredibly successful private citizen Donald Trump swapped a life of luxury for a life of service and in doing so some estimate he’s lost a billion dollars or more in personal wealth to do so. Not since the days of the Founding Fathers has a president sacrificed so much for the betterment of so many. It is a stunning contrast to the Obamas who had almost no private life experience but instead have been feeding from the public monies trough since they were attending college on the people’s’ dime. There are givers and there are takers. In this case it’s very clear who is who…

The short blurb with image is here.

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Cleveland: a not-so-safe city

Adam McCann, a Financial Writer at a blog I never heard of, Wallet Hub, reports on the safest cities in the United States.

To determine where Americans can feel most secure — in more than one sense — WalletHub compared more than 180 cities across 39 key indicators of safety. Our data set ranges from assaults per capita to unemployment rate to road quality. Read on for our findings, a detailed description of our methodology and a Q&A with safety experts for additional insight.

In the overall rating, Cleveland is #169. Ugh. Full report and listings are here.

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Why Mr. Instapundit cancelled his Twitter account

I’ve posted earlier links on this subject here. Glenn Reynolds’s (Mr. Instapundit) USA column today expands on why he cancelled his Twitter account. His opener:

I deactivated my Twitter account about a week ago. I was partly acting on impulse, because the social media site had just, for no obvious reason, “permanently banned” someone I follow, something that seems to be happening more and more. 

But I was also acting on my growing belief that Twitter is, well, horrible.

All social media have their issues. The “walled garden” character they create is the antithesis of the traditional Internet philosophy of openness. They are actually consciously designed to be addictive to their users — one company that consults on such issues is actually called Dopamine Labs — and they tend to soak up a huge amount of time in largely profitless strivings for likes and shares. They promote bad feelings and bad behavior: I saw a cartoon listing social media by deadly sins, with Facebook promoting envy, Instagram promoting pride, Twitter promoting wrath, Tinder promoting lust and so on. It seemed about right.

But as someone who spends a lot of time on the internet and whose social media experience goes all the way back to the original Orkut and Friendster, I think that Twitter is the worst.  

In fact, if you set out to design a platform that would poison America’s discourse and its politics, you’d be hard pressed to come up with something more destructive than Twitter. Twitter has the flaws of the old Usenet newsgroups, but on a much bigger scale.

The full column is here.

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FIRST STEP Act: another report against it

This blog has posted several links concerning the FIRST STEP legislation on criminal justice reform.  In particular, I noted that two conservative columnists who are both strong supporters of legal immigration and law enforcement nevertheless disagree on the merits of this bill. Michelle Malkin supports it. Ann Coulter opposes it.

Now Matthew Boyle at Breitbart reports:

A Republican U.S. Senate document circulating among GOP offices opposed to the so-called FIRST STEP Act, a criminal justice reform bill making its way through Capitol Hill, lists 20 violent crimes that would be eligible for early release under the legislation.

. . .

The letter goes on to list the 20 violent crimes that would be eligible for early release under the bill:

1. Trafficking cocaine or methamphetamines, even if convicted as a kingpin (18 U.S.C § 841(b)
2. Strangling a spouse or an intimate partner (18 U.S.C. §113(a)(8)
3. Trafficking fentanyl, except in rare cases (18 U.S.C. § 841(b))
4. Providing or possessing contraband, including firearms, in prison (18 U.S.C. § 1791)
5. Felonies committed while in a criminal street gang (18 U.S.C. § 521)
6. Escape of prisoners (18 U.S.C. § 751)
7. Rioting in a correctional facility (18 U.S.C. § 1792)
8. Importing aliens for prostitution (18 U.S.C. § 1328)
9. Assault with intent to commit rape or sexual abuse (18 U.S.C. § 3559(c)(2)(F))
10. Threatening to murder a congressman, senator, or government official (18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)
11. Drug-related robberies involving assault with a dangerous weapon (18 U.S.C. § 2118(c)(1)
12. Violent carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury (18 U.S.C. § 2119(2))
13. Stealing immigration documents for the purpose of keeping an immigrant in slavery (18 U.S.C. § 1592)
14. Attempt or conspiracy to engage in human smuggling (18 U.S.C. § 1592)
15. Failing to register as a sex offender (18 U.S.C. § 2250)
16. Arson (18 U.S.C. § 81)       
17. Blackmail (18 U.S.C. § 873)
18. Domestic assault by an habitual offender (18 U.S.C. § 117)
19. Hate crimes (18 U.S.C. § 249)
20. Assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon (18 U.S.C. § 111(b))

At that point, the GOP senate document lists a series of questions for proponents of the bill:

1. Would you consider these low-level or non-violent crimes?
2. How can we trust the BOP to correctly categorize who is high vs. low risk?
3. If the reasons these are not on the list is because they are obscure crimes, why is drug trafficking – the single most common offense – missing?
4. Why are obscure violations of the Atomic Energy Code on the exclusion list but not these crimes?
5. If you added provisions to the bill that Senator Booker and Democrats wanted, why won’t you add more violent crimes to the ‘exclusion from early release’ list that Republicans want?
6. Why have an exclusion list in the first place if these crimes are missing from it?
7. Can you promise that no offender who commits these crimes will ever be released early?
8. How many offenders are in prison for each of these crimes and how many will be eligible to be released into my home state?

The full report is here. There are questions about the source of the document, but if it’s reliable, it’s a frightening prospect. If you go to the Breitbart page, take a look at some of the reader comments.

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Politically incorrect baker

Photograph forwarded on social media:

click to embiggen

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That’s our Governor

A.F. Branco cartoons at Legal Insurrection

The blog Freedom’s Lighthouse posted a video on ABC News of our Governor earlier this week, along with these comments:

Oh my goodness. Here is John Kasich over the weekend saying he is “very seriously” considering running for President in 2020.

Kasich only won one state – his home state of Ohio – during the 2016 GOP Presidential Primaries against Donald Trump.

He then refused to support Trump in the General Election against Hillary Clinton and would not even attend the Republican National Convention held in his own state of Ohio. Totally despicable. But Trump won Ohio anyway!

Kasich here floats the possibility of running as a Third Party Candidate – essentially to be a spoiler, just to keep Trump from winning. He is a NeverTrumper and he would clearly rather see a radical Leftist Democrat win that see Trump get re-elected. What a buffoon.

Yup.

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