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October 2020

The Left’s Unfortunate Turn From Atticus Finch to Benjamin Crump Atticus leads with evidence. Crump leads with accusations of racism. by Jack Cashill

https://spectator.org/benjamin-crump-breonna-taylor/

With precious little comment from the mainstream media, American progressives have disavowed Atticus Finch and aligned themselves with the mob in front of the county jail — this summer, the mob calling for the head of whichever white cop Benjamin Crump has chosen to lynch.

This is no small transition. The Atticus of To Kill a Mockingbird (not the buzzkill Atticus of the Harper Lee’s earlier effort, Go Set a Watchman) defies the racist mob and demands due process. Crump stirs up the racist mob and subverts due process. Atticus leads with evidence. Crump leads with accusations. Atticus sticks to the facts. Crump invents facts, occasionally invents witnesses, and consistently conjures up an America foreign to every black person under 70.

Historically, the Left, with occasional help from the Comintern, has made heroes out of defense attorneys. If fictional defense attorneys like Atticus defended the innocent, his real-life counterparts were not so particular. That these attorneys often defended the conspicuously guilty — from Sacco and Vanzetti to Mumia Abu-Jamal — did not much matter. The larger goal was not to free the accused but to indict America for its systemic racism and injustice.

Crump also indicts America for its systemic racism and injustice. As a trial lawyer, however, he does so to stir the mob and scare the cash out of the besieged party, a reported $12 million out of the City of Louisville in the shooting death of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor. Last week found Crump back in Louisville inciting the crowd to disorder after the grand jury refused to indict any of the implicated three police offers for Taylor’s death. As is his custom — “Skittles and iced tea,” Hands up, don’t shoot,” “I can’t breathe” — Crump and his public relations team served up a mantra for the occasion: “Release the transcripts.”

The grand jury transcripts will prove nothing that is not already known. As with George Floyd, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin before her, Taylor’s consistently disastrous lifestyle choices put her in harm’s way. If Taylor had not been shot in the police raid, she might have ended up like Fernandez Bowman, the man found dead in her rental car in 2016. Or she might have ended up in prison like her boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, who made 26 of the 48 calls from that prison to Taylor.

Translating the Trump-Biden travesty into Hebrew Ruthie Blum

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/translating-the-trump-biden-travesty-into-hebrew-644229

Israelis were both bemused and comforted by the display of raised voices and ill manners at Tuesday night’s debate.

Israelis geared up for the US presidential debate on Tuesday night almost much as Americans, but the seven-hour time difference forced those of the former to stay up – or wake up – at 4 a.m. to watch it live. Others waited until later in the morning to view the full 90-minute broadcast on YouTube or enjoy snippets of the spectacle on social media.

“And what a spectacle it was; on this there seems to be universal consensus. Pundits across the political spectrum, while in dispute about who the “winner” was, agree that the behavior exhibited at the event – cohosted by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic both in Ohio – was unbecoming. And that’s putting it mildly.

It was immediately obvious during the debate which sound bites would be highlighted in newspapers and on Twitter. In this respect, the rhetorical battle between the Republican incumbent and Democratic contender Joe Biden was like a lush tree with an abundance of low-hanging fruit.

Indeed, the proverbial clicking of keyboards could be heard around the globe when Biden said to Trump, “shut up, man,” and after Trump responded to moderator Chris Wallace’s question about whether he would condemn white supremacy with the curious retort: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.” That Wallace, a seasoned Fox News anchor and show host, ended up sounding like a cranky teacher in a rowdy classroom contributed to the cringe factor. His irritation – particularly with Trump – was as painful to witness as the Cheshire Cat-like grin that Biden flashed whenever challenged.

SYDNEY WILLIAMS- ON THE DEBATE

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

Issues remain: COVID-19, the economy; riots in blue-run cities versus law and order, the Supreme Court, climate and the Green New Deal, illegal immigration, China, Russia and the Middle East. While voters know where Mr. Trump stands on these issues and what he has done, they received little insight as to what Mr. Biden would do. Mr. Trump was accused for not condemning far-right, white supremacists. That is not precisely true if one reads the transcript. Interestingly, Chris Wallace did not ask Mr. Biden to condemn left-wing extremists like Antifa, which is an “idea, not an organization,” according to Mr. Biden.

When I awoke on Wednesday morning, I received the following from a friend, a former British jurist now retired and living in Switzerland: “There can be no greater symbol of American decline than the sight of those two elderly gentlemen slugging it out without dignity or sell-restraint.”

It is hard to disagree with my friend’s assessment, and it is remarkable how far removed from Margaret Thatcher we have come. While it is likely that Mr. Trump did not pick up undecided voters, I suspect more damage was done to Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump played the role he has played for the past four and a half years – a crude, unabashed disruptor of political norms. On the other hand, Joe Biden, who has been largely invisible for the last few months, confirmed concerns of those who worry about his mental acuity. While most of his comments and answers were lucid, he stumbled over words and phrases, and his eyes, especially as time went on, took on a glazed, empty look. Mr. Trump is rude, while Mr. Biden is not well. The first we have known for years; the second we are just realizing.

AOC Nixes Ceremony for Israeli Leader By P. David Hornik

https://pjmedia.com/columns/p-david-hornik/2020/10/01/aoc-nixes-ceremony-for-israeli-leader-n991877

On October 20 Americans for Peace Now, a left-wing Jewish group, will be holding a virtual commemoration of Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin was an Israeli military and political leader who served two terms as prime minister. On November 4, 1995, during the second term, he was assassinated by a far-right Israeli for his role in the Oslo peace process between Israel and Yasser Arafat’s PLO.

A wave of excitement washed through Americans for Peace Now when it seemed that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had accepted their invitation to take part in the virtual ceremony.

But the congresswoman quickly changed her mind after Twitter critics slammed her decision as “disgusting” and showing “total contempt for Palestinian lives.” Left-wing journalist Alex Kane tweeted that “In the US Rabin is viewed as a liberal peacemaker but Palestinians remember him for his brutal rule suppressing Palestinian protest during the First Intifada, as someone who reportedly ordered the breaking of Palestinian bones.”

Some of the more hopeful left-wing American Jews, however, tweeted their disappointment at AOC’s retraction. In a typical case, a progressive outfit called Zioness told her it was “deeply troubled that you have decided to pull out of the event honoring the life & legacy of former Israeli PM Rabin…who paid the ultimate price for his commitment to peace and justice…. Your decision…will advance the feeling of despair held by so many progressive Jews who feel abandoned by fellow justice seekers….”

Former Twitter CEO: Line Up and Shoot Non-Woke Business Leaders and He’ll ‘Happily’ Do the Video By Bryan Preston !!!!????

https://pjmedia.com/culture/bryan-preston/2020/10/01/former-twitter-ceo-dick-costolo-line-up-and-shoot-non-woke-business-leaders-and-hell-happily-do-the-video-n992609

Twitter has handed out lifetime bans for a lot less than this tweet, which former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo shot off Wednesday night:

Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo pushes murder for non-woke business leaders.

Costolo tweeted the above during an exchange regarding how business CEOs and leaders should deal with the crises 2020 has thrown at them — the pandemic, the reactions to George Floyd’s death, politics, woke cancel culture, the election, and so forth. Coinbases’s CEO Brian Armstrong had stated he would keep his business staff focused on its business, not woke activism.

That wasn’t good enough for Costolo, who subscribes to the “silence is not an option” rhetoric pushed by the capitalist Marxists at Cook Ross, the woke critical race theory firm making millions dividing society.

Critical race theory mongering for profit may be the most cynical industry in the industrialized world. It foments racial division and offers itself as a remedy — for a very hefty price — that ends up creating even more racial division. It’s commoditizing racial division and unrest.

Seriously? Moderator of Second Presidential Debate Served as an Intern for Joe Biden By Stephen Green

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2020/10/01/crazy-moderator-of-second-presidential-debate-served-as-an-intern-for-joe-biden-n992980

C-SPAN’s Steve Scully, who will moderate the second presidential debate, got his start as a staff assistant in Sen. Ted Kennedy’s communication office, and prior to that worked as in intern in the office of then-senator Joe Biden.

The second presidential debate is scheduled for October 15, just two weeks from now.

Scully’s complete work and education records — both impressive — can be found here on his page at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs.

You might know Scully as the guy who handles C-SPAN’s open phone lines, a job he handles affably and with grace.

Scully is generally well-regarded in Washington and in the media, but out here where I am in flyover country, he may at least be seen as too chummy with Democrats to serve as an honest broker for the second presidential debate.

Tweets like this one from 2016, and currently making the retweet rounds, don’t help.

“Love,” really?

Whatever else you might say — and I nearly bit right through my tongue — that is not a good look for the supposedly non-partisan moderator of a presidential debate.

The Unscientific Attacks on the Science of Dr. Scott Atlas By Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/scott-atlas-white-house-coronavirus-adviser-critics-ignore-science/

Critics of the distinguished White House coronavirus adviser don’t have a leg to stand on.

The news media until recently had rarely criticized the medical advice of experts — especially those who worked for federal bureaucracies, international organizations, or elite universities.

Yet the much-praised Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, has demonstrably weakened the effort to fight COVID-19.

During the critical initial weeks of the virus’s spread, Tedros parroted Chinese propaganda. He falsely assured a complacent world that the virus was probably not transmissible between humans and did not warrant travel bans. The fact that Tedros was the first WHO director not to have a medical degree was seldom cited by the media.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is known to the public for his past advocacy of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act. Although he now advises 77-year-old presidential candidate Joe Biden, Emanuel once wrote an article for The Atlantic titled “Why I hope to die at 75,” contending that life after age 75 is, and should be, mostly over — now an eerie idea in a time of a pandemic that targets the elderly.Emanuel has often weighed in on the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes in overly pessimistic fashion by suggesting that some acquired collective immunity and a viable vaccine were not likely to come soon.

Yet Emanuel also has been largely exempt from media criticism. No reporters have questioned his epidemiological expertise despite his background as an oncologist specializing in breast cancer.

On Court-Packing, Biden Is Afraid of Losing the Radical Left By Andrew C. McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/on-court-packing-biden-is-afraid-of-losing-the-radical-left/

He knows Democrats are unlikely to have the votes to abolish the Senate filibuster and pack the Court. He’s playing coy on the issue to preserve his base.

 I t is always better to be ahead than behind, so former vice president Joe Biden is no doubt relishing the solid lead he maintains in national polls. But we don’t have a national election; we have 50 state elections, and the race is still tight in the battleground states, where every vote continues to count.

Consequently, Biden cannot afford to ignore the radical Left, which doesn’t have much enthusiasm for him, but is enthusiastic about defeating President Trump.

That is the main reason why Biden is dodging questions about whether he favors court-packing, which would require eradicating the Senate filibuster, which, in turn, would open the floodgates for the enactment of other radical elements of the Left’s agenda: government-monopolized health care, statehood for Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, the Green New Deal, Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Accountable Capitalism Act, etc.

When a politician is dodging a question, he is trying to fool somebody. On court-packing, it comes down to whether Biden is trying to string along his core left-wing supporters or dupe moderate voters (in particular, independents, centrist Democrats, and Republicans who have grown weary of the, shall we say, challenging Trump persona).

Mapping Los Angeles’ Homeless Encampment Challenge – Nearly 100,000 Cases Reported Since 2019 Adam Andrzejewski Adam Andrzejewski

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/09/30/mapping-los-angeles-homeless-encampment-challenge–nearly-100000-cases-reported-since-2019/#6d635e794dee

Los Angeles represents the glitz and glamour of the California lifestyle. It’s a tourist mecca that boasted 50 million visitors in 2019 – an all-time high.

The greater Los Angeles area can also claim Muscle Beach in Venice; the Hollywood movie studios; the rich and famous in Beverly Hills; and a previously booming economy that trailed only New York City and Tokyo.

But the city itself is in trouble, and tourists should be advised to avoid some neighborhoods and streets entirely.

Today, Los Angeles hosts an estimated homeless population of nearly 40,000 people (the entire states of Texas and Florida have between 25,000 and 28,000 respectively). Affluent sections of the city have become dangerous with open-air drug use, human feces, medieval diseases, and, sadly, homeless encampments.

Since 2019, there have been at least 94,430 reported complaints of homeless encampments in public spaces –an average of 4,500 per month.

First elected in 2013, Mayor Eric Garcetti promised to clean things up. However, conditions are the same or worse. Last year, the number of encampment complaints spiked to 55,569. The same pace has continued in 2020 with 35,241 instances already reported through August.

THE FESTIVAL OF SUKKOT- OCTOBER 2-7 EXPLAINED BY YORAM ETTINGER

Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) Guide for the Perplexed, 2020
 https://bit.ly/3n2dZVR  

1. Jewish national liberation is the 3rd Jewish pilgrimage holiday (following Passover and Shavou’ot – Pentecost), which has been celebrated for the last 3,300 years. Sukkot commemorates the Exodus, the 40 years of wandering in the Sinai Desert, the construction of the Holy Tabernacle and the victories along the way into the Land of Israel. It reaffirms faith in G-D, gratitude for the harvest and the Ingathering of Jews in their Homeland, and the highlighting of reality-based optimism.

2. Commemorating the Exodus. Sukkot (in Hebrew) is named after the first stop during the 40-year-Exodus from Egypt, the town of Sukkota (סוכותה), as documented in Exodus 13:20-22 and Numbers 33:3-5.  It commemorates the gradual transition from slavery in Egypt and nomadic life in the desert to liberty in the Land of Israel; from oblivion to deliverance; and from the spiritual state-of-mind during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to the mundane of the rest of the year.

3. The Hebrew meaning of Sukkot. The Hebrew root of Sukkot ()stands for the key characteristics of the relationship between the Jewish people, the Jewish Homeland and faith in God. The Hebrew word Sukkah () means wholeness and totality (), the shelter of the tabernacle (), to anoint (), divine curtain/shelter() and attentiveness ().

4. The 7-day-holiday. The 7 days of Sukkot are dedicated to the 7 Ushpizin (monumental leaders/guests), who represent positive human and, particularly, leadership qualities in their pursuit of ground-breaking initiatives: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David, who were endowed with faith, humility, magnanimity, compassion, reality-based optimism, tenacity in face of dramatic odds, courage, peace-through-strength, principle-driven leadership.