Indictment of Trump and our Secret Police

 

Margot Cleveland at The Federalist puts the indictment of President Trump into the larger context:

Manhattan grand jury has indicted former President Donald Trump, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office confirmed following late-Thursday media leaks. While the indictment remains under seal, one thing seems certain: America has now entered the era of “show me the man and I’ll show you the crime” politics.

The Democrat district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, breathed new life into the infamous boast of Joseph Stalin’s secret police chief, Lavrentiy Beria, when the Manhattan prosecutor targeted the former president in connection to a 2016 payment made to Stormy Daniels. Bragg’s decision to push for an indictment against Trump, presumably for falsifying business records, promises to herald in a new political age — one in which local prosecutors will target partisan enemies, big and small, making a mockery of the criminal justice system in the process.

The fact that news of the charges leaked to the left’s favorite scribes at The New York Times, while the indictment remained still under seal, punctuates perfectly the Sovietesque times in which we live: The legacy media may not be state-run, but they peddle propaganda nonetheless.

And Ms Cleveland concludes:

. . . if the indictment contains no new details, the piling on to reach the reported 33 counts against the former president doesn’t make Trump look more guilty — it makes Bragg look more like Beria. 

Much more at the link here.

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The Real State of the Union

 

President Trump's Real State of the Union was reported and transcribed by Mike Landry at Western Journal:

Rather than reviewing what was said Tuesday to Congress, it’s better that you know the thoughts of Donald Trump, as he responded — point by point — to the claims by Biden.

Trump’s entire speech is less than 2 minutes, and it’s worth hearing every word because it shows us how things really are.

“Here’s the real state of the union,” Trump began. “Over the past two years, under Biden, millions and millions of illegal aliens from 160 different countries have stormed across our southern border.

“Drug cartels are now raking in billions of dollars from smuggling poison to kill our people and to kill our children.

“Savage killers, rapists and violent criminals are being released from jail to continue their crime wave.

“And under Biden, the murder rate has reached the highest in the history of our country.

“Biden and the radical Democrats have wasted trillions of dollars and caused the worst inflation in half a century.

“Real wages are down 21 months in a row.

“Gas prices have soared and are now going up much higher than even before. And the typical American family is paying $2,200 in increased energy and food costs each year.

“Joe Biden’s weaponized Justice Department — and I’m a victim of it — is persecuting his political opponents.

“His administration is waging war on free speech.

“They are trying to indoctrinate and mutilate our children.

“He’s leading us to the brink of World War III.

“And on top of all of that, he’s the most corrupt president in American history, and it’s not even close,” Trump said.

“But the good news is, we are going to reverse every single crisis, calamity and disaster that Joe Biden has created,” Trump continued.

“I am running for president to end the destruction of our country and to complete the unfinished business of making America great again.

“We will make our country better than ever before, and we will always put America first.

“Thank you,” Trump concluded.

If you prefer the video via Rumble, click here.

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Media "logic"

 

Jack Hellner at American Thinker points out the sheer idiocy of the mainstream media:

This morning on the Today Show, White House doctor and Covid-19 “response coordinator” Ashish Jha was asked about the shortage of children’s medicine. He said there is plenty of supply, but demand is just too high. The hosts on the Today Show didn’t seem to have a problem with such a stupid answer, as they breezed on without even taking a moment to consider the absurdity of his statement. Why is this man treated as an expert on anything?

Using Jha’s “logic”:

• Last year there was not a shortage of baby formula, there were just too many darn mothers wanting to feed their hungry babies.
• There will not be a shortage of heating oil this year, there will just be too many people wanting to heat their homes.
• The economy is doing fantastic, if only real wages hadn’t been dropping for two years straight. 
• The border is closed and secure, there are just too many illegals wanting to cross.
• The Biden policies are working well; conservatives are just racist.
• Crime is under control in major Democrat run cities; there are just too many criminals on the streets.
• The Afghanistan exit went perfectly well, if not for the deaths, and weapons left behind for terrorists.

The media personalities that allow Jha a pass on his contradictions are the same people that have done little (if any) reporting on the outrageous collusion between government Swamp creatures and the leftwing activists at Twitter to squelch bad press on the Biden family corruption. They were not outraged that Trump and other conservative voices were silenced. They didn’t care that respected and renowned members of the medical community were banned from a social media platform for daring to offer alternative views on the Covid-19 narrative, or disagreeing with governments dictatorial edicts. . . .

The above is most of the column;  the last little bit is here.

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Planet Earth: Down the Drain?

 

Ed Brodow isn’t too optimistic, either; his title is “Running the World into the Ground”.  Here are the first few paragraphs at American Thinker:

The actions of the people who are in charge of governments are supposed to benefit the countries they serve -- in theory, at least. In practice, the opposite is true. In the West, our leaders are destroying everything they can get their hands on.

This is certainly an apt description of the Biden/Harris administration. They inherited a healthy country from President Trump. The economy was taking off, inflation was practically nonexistent, the U.S. was energy independent for the first time in decades, and the border was closed. So what did Biden do? He immediately set out to reverse everything Trump achieved.

Who can claim to be better off under Biden? The economy has tanked, inflation is at a 40-year high, people can’t afford to heat their homes or fill up their cars with gas, crime statistics are off the charts, and confidence in America is at an all-time low. Biden’s open-border policy, which is opposed by a majority of American citizens, is leading to social unrest and economic chaos. A country without a functioning border is not a country, yet that is where Biden has taken us.

America is marching toward totalitarianism as Biden empowers the DoJ and FBI to go after his political opponents, i.e., at least half of the population. His worst offense, however, is following the climate dictates of the World Economic Forum. Biden is torpedoing the robust U.S. economy in service of a totally false assumption -- that human beings are able to change the planet’s climate. He is raising taxes so that billions of your dollars can be wasted on ridiculous anti-fossil fuel projects.

Biden has declared war on the energy industry in the name of global warming. He wants us to believe that oil, gas, and coal are killing the planet. What is the result of his climate policy so far? “Harvesting of fuel was cut back drastically,” explained Bill O’Reilly, “and that caused the price of oil worldwide to rise, and that caused the price of gas at the pump to rise, and that lit inflation, as all other goods went up in price as well because they are trucked in to the stores and businesses. That is all on President Biden.”

First, human beings are incapable of controlling the climate, which operates in cycles and always has since the planet was created. Second, our economy is dependent on fossil fuels, and -- contrary to the lies fed by the administration -- fossil fuel alternatives do not exist, and will not exist in the foreseeable future. . . .

Read the rest here.  Mr Brodow ends on the hopeful note that the next two elections in the U.S. will reflect the wishes of the voters.  Fingers crossed.

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A F Branco: Root Causes

 Another A F Branco cartoon that hits the mark:

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Incompetence or deliberate destruction?

 

Brian Lonergan at American Greatness points out the distinction between rank incompetence and deliberate destruction.  He cites the illegal immigration crisis at our southern border to make his case. Here’s a short extract:

. . . The tone was set even before January 20, 2021. In Democratic primaries the year before, candidate Joe Biden openly urged foreign nationals to “surge the border” if he were elected. This was followed by a blitz of executive orders on his first day in office. Many of the Trump border policies were ended, including those opposing sanctuary policies, preventing illegal aliens from being counted in the census, and authorizing construction of the border wall.

Did any of those Biden executive orders make things better for Americans living in America? Of course not. They only helped foreign nationals and extremist anti-borders groups with an agenda to weaken the United States. You, the anonymous, hard-working, taxpaying American citizen or legal resident, get to suffer the consequences.

The noxious tentacles of these policies are so long and intricate, it would take volumes to document and untangle all of them. The outcomes include more violent crime in the United States interior, death and suffering among those making the dangerous journey through Mexico, and a seemingly endless flow of people crossing our border about whom we know virtually nothing related to their backgrounds or intentions. What leader of a nation would allow this, much less intentionally cause it?

His brutal conclusion:

This is not incompetence; it is sabotage.

Read the rest here.

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Victor Davis Hanson: The Real Reset

 

Victor Davis Hanson thinks that things will get better. His column at American Greatness, “The Real ‘Reset’ Is Coming” concludes:

In the November 2022 midterms, we are likely to see a historic “No!” to the orthodox left-wing agenda that has resulted in unsustainable inflation, unaffordable energy, war, and humiliation abroad, spiraling crime, racial hostility—and arrogant defiance from those who deliberately enacted these disastrous policies. 

What will replace it is a return to what until recently had worked. 

Closed and secure borders with only legal and measured immigration will return. Americans will demand tough police enforcement and deterrent sentencing, and a return to integration and the primacy of individual character rather than separatist fixations on the “color our skin.”

The public will continue to tune out of the partisan and mediocre “mainstream” media. We will see greater increased production of oil and natural gas to transition us slowly to a wider variety of energy, strong national defense, and deterrent foreign policies.

The prophets of the new world order sowed the wind and they will soon reap the whirlwind of an angry public worn out by elite incompetence, arrogance, and ignorance.

I hope he’s right.  But if election integrity is not restored, all bets are off.  His full column is here.

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VDH: Totalitarian Wokeism

 

Victor Davis Hanson knocks another one out of the park. His “Wokeism is A Cruel and Dangerous Cult” at American Greatness begins:  

Wokeism has been described by its critics as the omnipresent use of race—and to a lesser extent, gender—to replace meritocracy and thus ensure equality of result. What follows from implementing that ideology are reparatory actions to reward those of the present by atoning for the injustices done to others in the past. 

Some see it as an update of 1960s cultural Marxism fads. Others scoff that it is just a return to 1980s-style political correctness. 

Still more see it as the logical successor to 1990s-type race, class, and gender obsessions—albeit with a shriller and more dangerous Jacobin, Soviet, and Maoist twist. Wokeism’s hysteria also invites comparisons to the Salem witch trials and McCarthyism. 

But few have described wokeism as the cruel creed that it is. 

Wokeism’s natural logic is to destroy the lives of people of both genders, of all races, and—if need be—those of every age, all to leverage an otherwise unworkable ideological agenda. It is nihilist and destroys everything it touches. It tears apart foes and friends alike, whether by fueling media-driven hatred of Donald Trump or faux-deification of the disaster that is now Joe Biden. 

One of the take-away quotes: "Equity in our Orwellian world is not equality, but payback." The full article is here. Recommended.

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Wokeness erasing America

 

Most excellent commentary from Victor Davis Hanson at American Greatness:

If wokeness should continue and “win,” by now we all know where it will end up. After all, this is not a prairie-fire, peasants-with-pitchforks, spontaneous bottom-up revolution.

The woke Left seeks a top-down erasure of America, engineered by the likes of LeBron James from his $40 million estate talking revolution to Oprah at her $90 million castle, as Mark Zuckerberg throws in $500 million here, and his colleagues $400 million there, and as the top executives of Coke, Target, and Delta Airlines believe their $17 million-a-year salaries make them experts on the crimes of non-diversity, exclusion, and inequity. Anytime revolutionaries at the outset of their enterprises seek exemption from the consequences of their own ideology, we know their plans will end badly for everyone else.

. . .

Full article is here.

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VDH: Radical new rules for post-America

 

At American Greatness, Victor Davis Hanson identifies ten ways in which America is changing, “maybe permanently.” Below are his “rules” summarized as bullet points.  Click on the link to read his full article;  he elaborates on each rule, and it’s not a pretty picture.

1) Money is a construct. It can be created from thin air. Annual deficits and aggregate national debt no longer matter much. 

2) Laws are not necessarily binding anymore.  

3) Racialism is now acceptable. 

4) The immigrant is mostly preferable to the citizen. 

5) Most Americans should be treated as we would treat little children. 

6) Hypocrisy is passé. Virtue-signaling is alive. 

7) Ignoring or perpetuating homelessness is preferable to ending it.  

8) McCarthyism is good. 

9) Ignorance is preferable to knowledge. 

10) Wokeness is the new religion, growing faster and larger than Christianity itself. 

VDH concludes:

Americans privately fear these rules, while publicly appearing to accept them.

They still could be transitory and invite a reaction. Or they are already near-permanent and institutionalized.

The answer determines whether a constitutional republic continues as once envisioned, or warps into something never imagined by those who created it

VDH is an historian and scholar -- hardly a rabble-rouser.  For his full take on these scary rules, click here.

# # #

 

Heather Mac Donald on crime, race and policing

photo credit: City Journal 

John Hinderaker at PowerLine announces an event with Heather Mac Donald tomorrow Jul-30 at noon central / 1 pm EST.  I’ll post the link (probably  later tomorrow) that will let you watch and listen at your leisure.

AMERICA’S TOP EXPERT DEFENDS THE POLICE

Thursday, day after tomorrow, at Noon Central, Heather Mac Donald, the nation’s premier expert on the intersection of crime, race and policing, will deliver the definitive smackdown of the anti-police myths that not just liberals, but corporate America, sports teams, and many Republicans have bought into. The truth is that there is no “systemic” racism in American policing. Heather’s data-rich presentation will make that clear.

How do I know that Heather will lay waste to the mythology of the Left? I’ve seen the script. The data are overwhelming. Contrary to popular belief, blacks are not “over-represented” in “police shootings,” the vast majority of which are praiseworthy. On the contrary, using crime data as the guide, they are under-represented.

There is much more, which you won’t want to miss. To see our event live, go here to register. The event is free. Registration means you will get email reminders, but anyone can watch the event live on American Experiment’s YouTube channel or Facebook page, and it will be archived for a long to come on YouTube, Facebook, the American Experiment site, and more.

Hope to see you on Thursday. It should be a dynamite event.

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Illegal aliens and national security

From our friends at Ohio Jobs & Justice PAC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 31, 2019

Is U.S. State Department Burglary suspect a known Mexican Illegal Alien?

Cleveland, Ohio – Steve Salvi, Founder of Ohio Jobs & Justice PAC today is calling for a federal investigation regarding serious breaches of security in January at State Department buildings in Washington, D.C and Arlington, VA. The two State Department buildings were burglarized January 3. A suspect, Joel Enriquez-Bueno was later arrested by the Arlington Police Department. Salvi believes the suspect now in detention at the Arlington County Detention Center may be the same Mexican illegal alien felon he has been recently investigating.

Salvi, who has conducted immigration policy and national security research since 2001, stated that he has federal criminal court documents for a Mexican illegal alien defendant also named Joel Enriquez-Bueno. Salvi says that that Joel Enriquez-Bueno is a convicted felon and has an arrest record dating back to 2003.

“If the two Joel Enriquez-Bueno's are one in the same, an investigation needs to find out how he has been able to remain free in the U.S. For so long. According to court records, he is an illegal alien with no known address, no money, but able to get multiple past arrest charges for assault from 2013 dismissed in New Jersey. In 2016 he was caught in possession with an illegally issued New York State Benefit card and U.S. Social Security card. Any individual, prosecutor, or city found violating the law by providing him sanctuary, should be prosecuted,” said Salvi.

“How is it possible that anyone, especially an illegal alien felon, is able to gain access to two U.S. State Department offices and walk off with dozens of government cell phones and other electronics that may contain sensitive if not classified information? There's more to this story than we currently know and what has reported in the press, “ Said Salvi.

Salvi's investigation of the Department of State burglaries uncovered a January 18, 2016 U.S. District Court Criminal Complaint for the Western District of Texas. That criminal complaint charged a Joel Enriquez-Bueno with violating Section 1326 of Title 8 of the United State's Code.

According to Salvi, Section 1326 offenses generally relates to aliens who have previously attempted illegal entry into the U.S. and or previously removed from the U.S. by the Department of Homelands Security. He said that Enriquez-Bueno had already been removed from the U.S. four times according to federal court records.

“Any breach of security is bad. If State Department security was breached by a foreign national, it doesn't get worse. This breach could have resulted in espionage, a shooting, or bombing in addition to theft of devices that may contain sensitive if not classified information.”

“This should be a wake up call not only for State but those who also oppose border infrastructure, call to abolish ICE, and create sanctuaries for criminal illegal aliens like Joel Enriquez-Bueno. ”

“It's time our public officials stop ignoring the lessons of 9-11 and take homeland security and immigration law enforcement seriously,” said Salvi.

-30-

Ohio Jobs and Justice PAC website: click here.

Jailbreak and Ohio Issue #1

art credit: uclu.org

Paul Mirengoff at PowerLineblog was considering the case of the dud bomber – what was this guy doing out on the streets and not in jail for priors.

Our Under-Incarceration Problem, Explosive Packages Edition

Inevitably, Democrats and their partners in the mainstream media want to focus on the political leanings of the man suspected of sending packages to leading leftists. However, Daniel Horowitz contends that the real story here is “jailbreak,” i.e., the failure to put criminals behind bars and keep them there.

I agree that this is a key element of the story. The suspect apparently has a lengthy rap sheet that included dealing drugs, theft, traffic violations, and battery. A close analysis of his record will likely show he should have been in jail.

This is a recurring but almost always ignored phenomenon. In one high-profile case after another, we learn that the criminal is a chronic offender with a rap sheet that, in a properly functioning society, would have mandated his incarceration at the time of his latest offense.

Yet, Democrats and too many Republicans, including some in the White House, are dead set on increasing the number of convicted felons, including dealers of drugs like fentanyl, on the streets. They want shorter sentences for such offenders and they want them released from jail early — an obvious recipe for more crime faster.

In short, the bipartisan leniency-for-felons crowd seeks to make our under-incarceration problem worse, even though doing so can only increase the occurrence of crime, including violent crime. The consequences of this perverse policy are there for all to see, but the leniency crowd averts its eyes.

This line of reasoning also relates to Ohio Issue #1, on the ballot in just over a week. Issue #1 would reduce penalties for drug offenses. An earlier CTP blog quoted Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor’s views on Issue 1. Click here.   

# # #

Donald J. Trump's Statement On America’s Future

Whether you watched the Clinton Coronation ceremonies or not, you will not want to miss Mr. Trump’s response to the DNC this past week:

Donald J. Trump Statement On America’s Future [from his website]

At Hillary Clinton’s convention this week, Democrats have been speaking about a world that doesn’t exist. A world where America has full employment, where there’s no such thing as radical Islamic terrorism, where the border is totally secured, and where thousands of innocent Americans have not suffered from rising crime in cities like Baltimore and Chicago.

In the Democrats’ fantasy world, there is no problem with Hillary Clinton maintaining an illegal, exposed server full of classified information that could have been hacked by any foreign enemy, and in which Hillary Clinton risked prison time to delete 33,000 emails that were simply about yoga and wedding planning. In this world, there is no Hillary Clinton disaster in Syria, Libya and Egypt, ISIS doesn’t merit a mention, Iran isn’t on the path to nukes, convention stages don’t need American flags, and our great men and women of law enforcement, our police, do not need to be honored.

I propose a different vision for America, one where we can break up Washington’s rigged system, and empower all Americans to achieve their dreams. In our vision, we will put America First.

If we deliver this change, the future is limitless and we will Make America Great Again for everyone.

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