The Power of “No”

art credit: callcenterhelper.com

Kurt Schlicter over at Townhall makes good points:

For way too long, too many conservatives and other normal people have failed to deploy our most potent weapon in the defense of free thought and expression – the utter refusal to go along with the demands of the carnivorous left. As has been said before by me and others, we need to introduce these spoiled brats to the concept of “no.”

. . .

But a larger, more comprehensive information operation is still ongoing, one in which a bunch of pampered SJW stormtroopers, aided and abetted by the weak and frightened elder caste of liberals occupying the heights of the establishment, are attempting to define the tolerable range of ideas and expression within our culture. In a shocking turn that would surprise only stupid people, the tolerable range of ideas and expression they wish to establish corresponds exactly to the ideas and expressions they agree with. The Venn diagram of what they think and what they allow to be thought is a single circle.

The rest of us are expected to shut up, and thereby concede and recognize their mastery over us.

We could do that, sure. 

Or we could tell them “no.”

The first four of his bullet points for effectively saying "no" are:

• ·         Never apologize.
• ·         Reject their demands. 
• ·         Speak truths they want suppressed. 
• ·         Laugh at them.

Read the rest here.

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76th anniversary of D-Day

Today is the 76^th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day landings 

on the beaches of Normandy.

Image credit: National Geographic

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Downtown Business Owner Tony George Sends Open Letter To Cleveland

I heard from several sources that Cleveland's "leadership" issued a stand-down order for law enforcement during the weekend riot.  Whether or not that is true, earlier today, Lou Dobbs reported on Fox Business that many cities under liberal leadership issued stand-down orders during the riots. Below is a letter by Cleveland businessman Tony George on the subject. 

Via WTAM News Radio:

My family has lived in the Cleveland area for generations. We are business people who provide more than 1600 jobs. We are invested in Cleveland financially, emotionally and spiritually. That is why it is heartbreaking to see the great damage done to our community by those who hijacked a protest held in the name of justice and peace.

Dozens of downtown businesses, including ours, sustained substantial damage during this past weekend’s riots. Those aren’t just businesses, they are the dreams of people who believe in Cleveland, who put life savings into enterprises to provide food, drink, music, baked goods, groceries, clothing, and other products and services for the benefit of our community.

We are Clevelanders. We support peaceful protest. We stand for the equality of all people. We abhor race-based violence, no matter who commits it. What makes Cleveland special is that people of every race, color and creed want to live and work together. I look around and I see the looting and the destruction to our downtown - - that is not who we are.

It is not enough to say that violence is happening everywhere, in response to the killing of George Floyd. Someone has to take responsibility for what happened, or didn’t happen in Cleveland. The city had 24-hour notice before the march. There was no preparation by city leaders to establish a strict parade route, to block off commercial districts, to protect against the infiltration of a peaceful march by those who came prepared to commit violence. There was no call-up of off-duty police to provide additional protection, in case things went out of control.

When the destruction and looting began it would appear that police were told to stand down. We must have an explanation! Who is in charge of Cleveland? Where were the elected leaders in this moment of crisis?

I have raised this question about our absent leadership repeatedly. This failure of leadership is why I supported council reduction. I reluctantly withdrew the issue from the ballot, in the hope that a renewed effort toward unity would be a wake-up call. Nothing doing.

Cleveland City Hall leaders, especially the Mayor, continue to be asleep at the switch, with devastating results for our city.

First Cleveland’s businesses had to shut down during the height of the Covid-19 virus. Then, when we try to open back up, the riots start and shut us down again. Add to that, the reduction in business, due to the curfew.

This is a nightmare, which can end only when we have leaders who can rise up to meet the moment.

A four-day curfew is not leadership. It’s a confession of an inability to control lawlessness, or a capitulation to thugs. We don’t pay taxes for the police to be ordered to stand down in the face of looting. We don’t pay taxes to ensure the security of our streets, only to see the streets taken over by gangsters.

Tony George

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Aftermath of the “peaceful” riots

Michael P. Ramirez cartoon via Townhall

Many media reporters and anchors turned into Baghdad Bobs, as they reported that the “protests” were/are mostly peaceful -- while buildings burned to the ground behind them.  And yet we all know liberals who buy into this phony narrative that the riots were indeed mostly peaceful and the "protesters" were spontaneous participants, expressing anger over George Floyd’s death. 

The riot in Cleveland was pre-organized.  Rocks were pre-set in various locations.  In other cities, pallets of bricks were pre-staged.  But it’s the rioters’ playbook that gives them away.  Let the local protesters who are there out of genuine outrage and anger start things off with signs and chants. Then the rent-a-mob rioters start doing what rioters do:  they throw objects to injure, deface, or damage; vandalize; loot; set buildings and cars on fire; and so on.  Peaceful? 

Here is a link to Instapundit with a compilation of videos of destruction in Minneapolis, Atlanta, Santa Monica, DC, etc.  Click here.  

And here’s what downtown Cleveland looks like today in the aftermath.  Every door or window that is now boarded-up was deliberately smashed, and in the case of several stores (Geiger’s and Heinen’s among others) looted and trashed.  Clevelanders will recognize downtown restaurants, businesses, theaters, and landmarks.  Click here.

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WKYC wants to bail out looters

From our friend Steve Salvi at Ohio Jobs & Justice Pac posting via social media: 

Channel 3 TV Cleveland wants to help bail out the rioters and looters that caused millions of dollars of damage to hard working Clevelanders trying to make a living and destroyed lots of public property including damaging historic statues and buildings.

Why don't you contact Channel 3 and tell them what you think about them bailing these people out? I'm sure they will be so grateful they won't smash your company's windows, loot your property, and burn your car.
.
In case you want to reach out to Cleveland TV3: 216-344-3333

Riots: What is really going on?

Patricia McCarthy at American Thinker has a column titled “Who is recruiting, moving and paying the professional anarcho-rioters?”  Good question.  Here are some of her thoughts:

The death by cop of George Floyd in Minneapolis was grotesque, a clearer example of police brutality that has otherwise rarely been filmed for all to see.  Even if, as has been reported, Floyd did not die of asphyxiation or strangulation as it appeared, his death was without a doubt caused by that officer’s cruel and unnecessary action and the inaction of his fellow officers who stood by and watched. 

Yet that does not begin to explain the rioting. McCarthy continues:

Is it really the citizens of Minneapolis [and other cities, including Cleveland] who have set the city on fire, burning down small businesses as well as the police precinct building, libraries, etc.?  Who are those masked men in black with secret-service quality ear-pieces, military grade gas masks and backpacks full of Molotov cocktails?  They are very likely professional rioters, recruited, transported and paid by the likes of some George Soros front group or other anonymous Cloward-Piven devotees who share Soros’ hatred of America and want to see this nation bought to its knees.  Panic over the virus was waning. These orchestrated riots across the country are the next ploy.  Someone is organizing this madness.  Someone is supplying the most lethal rioters with all the accoutrements of conflagration and moving them into place to all the affected cities.  That all costs a great deal of money.  Antifa owes its funding to Soros as do the more violent branches of Black Lives Matter.  These players seem strangely secure that they will not be arrested or that if they are, they will be quickly released.

. . .

What is happening all over America these past several nights is not about George Floyd.  The rioters are using his death to embark on rampages, to loot small and large businesses alike.   These are not protests.  What we are seeing is mass thievery under color of protest.  Chances are if the looters in Los Angeles were asked “who was George Floyd,” they would not have a clue nor would they care. 

. . .

No matter how much the media loves to fan the flames, indicting America as a racist nation and blaming Trump for every single thing they can, these riots have nothing to do with race beyond it being a convenient excuse for criminal behavior.  Those rioting, setting things on fire, smashing store windows and looting businesses are black, white, and Hispanic; they are a conglomeration of races, but are all thugs without a shred of decency.   

Read the rest here.

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Not “protests” - RIOTS

The outrage over the death of George Floyd is justified;  the violent “protests” are not.  Many of the local news outlets are reporting on the “protests” today in downtown Cleveland.  Here’s Cleveland.com’s headline:

Protestors break windows, set police cars on fire 

as George Floyd demonstrations turn violent in downtown Cleveland

And Fox 8 news:

Protests Continue in Cleveland

Not "protests."  RIOTS.

Here’s footage from earlier today taken from a balcony overlooking Lakeside Ave.:

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