Article by Clarice Feldman in "The American Thinker"
If you are like me, you face each day knowing that some other crazy claim will sweep up millions of uncritical people, people willing to live in a contrafactual and contralegal world. There are too many examples of these waves of lunatic hysteria to recount here but let me note two: Russiagate and BLM.
Russiagate
Media coverage of the developments debunking the preposterous claim that the President colluded with Russia is both spotty and sparse. There’s a reason for it. Major media almost entirely swallowed the claim, conspired with its promoters, endlessly and prominently mongered it and has never apologized for so doing.
This week Professor Charles Lipson wrote the very best chronicle of the most serious domestic political crime I can think of. I urge you not only to read it but also clip and save it as textbook level recounting of the events. Here’s a sample of this well-organized account of the critical facts:
Mueller was appointed in May 2017. But the FBI and DOJ had all this vital information in hand by February 2017. They knew the stories about Trump contacts with Russian intelligence were false. They knew the Steele Dossier was worthless. No one seemed to care. Senior officials at the FBI and Justice Department ignored the evidence, continued their probe, and then handed it off to Special Counsel Mueller. Mueller and his team had all the FBI’s information and conclusions in hand the day they started their investigation.
Instead of assessing these materials, finishing their work promptly, and giving the American public the results, they ramped it up, hyped it up, kept it up, and turned it up to 11. Their efforts and the resulting media narrative made “Russia collusion” the dominant issue in American politics for over three years. It had very little foundation and, not surprisingly, produced only meager legal results.
The political consequences were not meager at all. The ongoing investigations tied up the president, damaged his party, and may have cost Republicans their House majority in 2018. These effects were well understood at the time. They were welcomed by those who continued the investigations and the reporters and politicians who crafted the public narrative.
Those of us who pay attention despair of the likelihood that any of the top miscreants in this scandal will be called to account for their criminality.
From time to time, whispers that the axe will fall any day now appear. Former Fox reporter Adam Housely, was among those who assert inside information gives us reason for optimism:
Adam Housley
@adamhousley
Durham and Barr do not want this investigation to be used for political points, which is the way it should be. There are major rumors that there are already indictments. There are some indictments in the pipeline also for sure. The scope of this investigation is huge. Massive.
So much of what we know is already on the public record as a result of declassifications and court records, it’s hard to comprehend why we still see no indictments. I understand that when you charge someone high up with a crime, you can be sure you will face well-paid, skillful defense counsel and as the cases will be tried in Washington D.C. (about 96% of whose denizens are Democrats) the cases must be very solid. Still, it is puzzlement, and we’re running out of time and patience.
Systemic Racism and BLM
Every few years it seems that the Democrats gin up riots in response to the death of a black criminal at the hands of the police. And each time the media play along. I don’t need to remind you of the Holder DoJ stirring up the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases, which fell apart before juries when the facts were finally presented in open court. Not before the false tales precipitated substantial destruction to lives and property -- largely of those minorities living in the areas of these incidents.
This time, the race baiting has gone beyond targeting the individual citizens and cops involved to argue that there is systemic racism in law enforcement. And the claim has been the rallying cry of the Black Lives Matter gangs.
Matt Walsh at the Daily Wire busts that narrative wide open, systematically examining every police shooting and finding that:
It is by now well publicized -- at least in some corners -- that, despite all of the panicking and rioting over race-based police brutality, only a very small number of unarmed black men are killed by police each year. But an even closer look at the data, and a study of each “unarmed” killing, reveals that the real number of unjustified police shootings of actual unarmed people -- black, white, or any other race -- is much smaller still.
First, to put the statistics into perspective, it’s helpful to begin with the overall number of arrests. According to the DOJ, police make about 10 million arrests each year. As a rough average, 7 million of the arrested suspects are white and 3 million are black. Out of that number, last year, 25 unarmed white people were killed by police, compared to 14 unarmed black people, according to the Washington Post database of police shootings. That means about .0004 percent of all blacks arrested were killed while unarmed. The percentage for whites is comparable. In total, 1,000 people were shot and killed by police in 2019, the vast majority of whom were armed. Still, that’s a mere .01 percent of all arrests.
He analyzes eight cases tagged as the killings of eight “unarmed suspects” and shows why “No reasonable person could describe any of the cases just listed as cold-blooded murder, much less racist hate crimes. These were violent criminals shot while in the act of physically attacking and threatening officers.”
Still, BLM, linking up with Antifa and just plan looters, screams “systemic racism,” and far too many corporations and colleges play along.
While, for the most part, the press is reporting the thuggery in places like Portland and Seattle as “peaceful protests” or “mostly peaceful protests,” they’ve hidden from the readers and viewers what has been going on there.
Portland
From the New York Post:
“A federal agent’s hand was impaled by planted nails, another federal agent was shot with a pellet gun, leaving a wound deep to the bone, and tragically, three federal officers were likely left permanently blinded by the rioters using lasers pointed directly into their eyes,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Friday.
The press cut away from the conference when McEnany showed videos of the destruction. Federal officers have guarded federal facilities there because local authorities refuse to enforce the law. As if to prove that the local authorities are complicit in this mayhem, Oregon’s Attorney General Ellen Rosenbaum sought a restraining order against the federal officers but lost. The judge accepted the argument by the federal government that the state lacked standing to sue on behalf of the protestors. Apart from lack of standing, the government attorney asserted that the claim itself was based on ”a few threadbare declarations from witnesses and a Twitter video.” (Maybe Rosenbaum confused this court with FISC.)
Federal officers have arrested 18 people in Portland for their lawless acts at the federal courthouse.
Seattle is much the same. There the riot-friendly city council banned the police from using necessary and standard riot control techniques. Chief of Police Carmen Best warned owners and residents that given these restrictions the force could not be deployed to handle rioting:
July 24, 2020
Dear Business Owner and/or Resident:
Please know that the Seattle Police Department is committed to addressing life safety incidents and calls for service, and responding to ongoing demonstrations and unrest in the city.
Please also know that the City Council Ordinance 119805 Crowd Control Tool goes into effect this weekend on Sunday, July 26, 2020. This ordinance bans Seattle Police officers the use of less lethal tools, including pepper spray that is commonly used to disperse crowds that have turned violent. Simply put, the legislation gives officers NO ability to safely intercede to preserve property in the midst of a large, violent crowd.
It is important to bring to your attention that yesterday, I sent the City Council a letter ensuring them that as the Chief of Police, I have done my due diligence of informing them numerous times of the foreseeable impact of this ordinance on upcoming events. The letter is attached for your reference.
For these reasons, Seattle Police will have an adjusted deployment in response to any demonstrations this weekend -- as I will never ask our officers to risk their personal safety to protect property without the tools to do so in a safe way.
Sincerely,
Carmen Best
Chief of Police
Again, the federal government went to court to halt this idiocy and protect the people of Seattle who elected these leftist nitwits. And once again a federal judge issued a restraining order (temporarily) to block the measure.
I suppose these Democrat politicians think this will win them hearts and votes from minorities, but if this week’s Rasmussen poll is any indication, it seems to be boomeranging. And why shouldn’t it? The suburban white kids who seem at the forefront of these rampages can go home to safety, but those who live in the urban ghettos cannot:
Rasmussen
FOR - July 24, 2020
National Likely Voter (LV)
Job Approval of@POTUS - 49%
Men LV App -48%
Women LV App - 50%
GOP LV App - 81%
Dem LV App - 27%
Ind LV App - 41%
White LV App - 48%
Black Total LV App - 49%
Other Non-White Total LV App - 57%
It’s
early. Polls are iffy and premature so far in front of November, but
this has been a consistent trend -- minorities are not supporting the
far-left orientation of the party they once supported in great numbers. FOR - July 24, 2020
National Likely Voter (LV)
Job Approval of@POTUS - 49%
Men LV App -48%
Women LV App - 50%
GOP LV App - 81%
Dem LV App - 27%
Ind LV App - 41%
White LV App - 48%
Black Total LV App - 49%
Other Non-White Total LV App - 57%
If these crazy times (and the lockdowns) are stressing you out, there’s a glimmer of hope. Tucker Carlson reports, “The Pentagon has been conducting classified hearings on UFOs for more than a decade. We know very little about what they found, but apparently just recovered are off-world vehicles not made on this earth.” I’m trying to book the first flight out of here.
