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Madame Speaker Gets a Haircut And having been found out, she wants an apology from the shop owner.

Posted By on September 3rd, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/madame-speaker-gets-a-haircut-11599088944?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

Six months ago we suggested that many of the elected officials ordering economic shutdowns across the nation failed to understand the human misery they were causing. That thesis now sits atop a mountain of supporting evidence, and it would be easier to take if so many mayors weren’t caught visiting gyms, hair salons and restaurants in violation of ordinances the mayors themselves had imposed.

The news that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday visited a San Francisco hair salon, against standing city ordinances, was the latest exhibition of privileged unconcern. The Speaker—a forceful proponent of the lockdown orthodoxy—is seen in a security camera video, robed and hair wet, moving from one room to another in an otherwise closed salon. In San Francisco, salons and barbershops have been closed since March. Beginning Tuesday, they could offer services but only outdoors.

The salon’s owner, Erica Kious, rents chairs to independent stylists, one of whom came in to work on the Speaker’s hair. Ms. Kious resented the presumption. “It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know,” she told a Fox News reporter, “that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work.”

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Back to School: No Excuses Rhode Island shows you can reopen schools, despite teachers unions.

Posted By on September 3rd, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/back-to-school-no-excuses-11599088867?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

Democrats have been saying for weeks that parents don’t want to send their kids back to school. They must have figured out this is false, judging by Joe Biden’s speech Wednesday blaming President Trump for the failure of some public schools to reopen.

“Let me be clear: if President Trump and his administration had done their jobs, America’s schools would be open,” the Democratic nominee said. “Instead, America’s families are paying the price for his failures.” So President Trump is to blame for not eradicating the virus, which no country has managed to do.

The main obstacle to reopening schools isn’t the virus. It’s the teachers’ unions. The virus has been under control in New York City for months, yet the teachers union this week threatened a strike unless classroom instruction was delayed. Mayor Bill de Blasio naturally surrendered, though state law prohibits teachers from striking.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

BRIGADIER GENERAL DON BOLDUC FOR SENATE (R) NEW HAMPSHIRE

Posted By on September 2nd, 2020

https://donbolduc.com/
On September 8, 2020, New Hampshire voters will have the opportunity to vote in the Primary Election.

The resume and character testimonials of Don Bolduc are unmatched and it’s clear that Granite Staters have two choices: vote for a man who bravely served this country for more than 33 years and is willing to continue his commitment to public service, or allow money to decide who represents us in Washington, DC.

Below are a few video testimonials from a student and those who served with General Bolduc.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

‘I Threaten Their Entire Narrative’: John James Responds to Democrats’ Attacks by Reagan McCarthy Reagan McCarthy

Posted By on September 2nd, 2020

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/reaganmccarthy/2020/09/02/john-james-i-threaten-their-entire-narrative-n2575524

Michigan’s GOP nominee for the Senate, John James, responded to recent attacks by Democrats claiming that he is “owned” by President Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. The Army combat veteran and businessman set the record straight, and reminded incumbent Democrat Sen. Gary Peters that this is a two-man race.

“You’re [Sen. Peters] not running against President Trump or Betsy DeVos or any other boogeyman. You’re running against me. And this may surprise you, Senator, but no one owns me.”

James continued to call out the tasteless attack ads on Fox and Friends, and pointed to Democrats’ failure to condemn former Vice President Joe Biden’s racially-charged, “you ain’t Black” comments.

“I not only threaten this seat. Democrats are terrified, putting 4 ads up against me in the past week. Because I not only threaten this seat, I threaten their entire narrative. To insinuate that I can’t think for myself, or stand up for myself, when the Democrats have a presidential nominee who says that Blacks don’t have diversity of thought, is unconscionable. And Senator Peters still hasn’t spoken for that.”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

With Election Looming, Judge Sullivan Will Drag Out the Flynn Case By AndrewC. McCarthy

Posted By on September 2nd, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/with-election-looming-judge-sullivan-will-

There are many words one might use to describe Judge Emmett Sullivan. Chastened is not one of them.

Yesterday, in an en banc (full court) ruling that went 8–2 in Judge Sullivan’s favor, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to order him to grant the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the prosecution of Michael Flynn. (I have a column on the homepage about the Circuit’s decision.) Today, Sullivan has reacted by issuing an order that contemplates several more weeks of litigation before he resolves the motion — a very simple motion, on which he was previously prepared to hold a hearing in mid-July (which itself was a dawdling pace).

The judge is clearly taking the Circuit’s decision as vindication, particularly after the two judges in the minority (Republican appointees on a heavily Democratic court) initially ruled that a writ of mandamus should issue. That prior ruling was wiped out, at Sullivan’s urging, by the en banc decision.

It was probably too much to hope that Judge Sullivan would take solace in yesterday’s victory, get back to work, and make his ruling on the dismissal motion. Moving quickly would have been consistent with the Circuit’s stated expectation, in the last line of its majority opinion, that the district judge “proceed with appropriate dispatch.”

Instead, Sullivan is dragging the case out. His directive today (known as a “minute order”), anticipates that in three weeks (by September 21) Flynn and the Justice Department will submit a joint status report. The judge intimates that this three-week delay is required due to a Circuit rule that orders denying mandamus do not become effective for 21 days unless some accelerating action is taken. But this is sheer gamesmanship. Nothing prevents the judge from acting on the case now. (In fact, he took action while the mandamus litigation was ongoing.) Judge Sullivan knows the parties would not object; they want a quick resolution. And the court doesn’t need a status report. Sullivan knows the status of the Flynn case like the back of his hand. The Justice Department has moved to dismiss, Flynn concurs in that motion; and even though Sullivan should not have permitted and appointed third parties (the amici) to intervene in the case, he did so, and they filed submissions. Sullivan just needs to hold a hearing (if he really thinks he needs one) and rule on the motion.

ELECTIONS, ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Biden Tries To Play Both Sides Of Green Energy Politics

Posted By on September 2nd, 2020

https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=a9fdc67db9&u=9d011a88d8fe324cae8c084c5

Do you think that Joe Biden has signed on to the Green New Deal? Do you have the idea that Biden is fully committed if he becomes President to doing away with fossil fuel energy and replacing it with the wind and sun as quickly as possible? Where could you possibly have gotten those ideas? More on that later in the post.

Certainly in the past couple of weeks you might have gotten exactly the opposite impression. You probably know that Pennsylvania has in recent years become a major producer of natural gas from “fracking.” Tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians now work in the industry, and hundreds of thousands have jobs in some way supported by the industry. Pennsylvania is a swing state that both Biden and Trump likely need in order to win. In August Trump campaign allies started running ads in Pennsylvania accusing Biden of seeking to ban fracking, which would thereby destroy a substantial Pennsylvania industry. On August 18, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the Biden campaign had requested various television stations to take down those ads on the ground that they were “inaccurate.” Then yesterday Biden showed up in Pittsburgh to make a rare campaign speech. Key quote on this subject:

I am not banning fracking. Let me say that again: I am not banning fracking. No matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Meet the Travel Act By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on September 2nd, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/meet-the-travel-act/

Joining President Trump in Kenosha yesterday was Attorney General Barr, who did not mince words about mounting an aggressive federal response to the violence roiling the country. The AG asserted that “radicals” are crossing state lines and “carrying out, planning a coordinated attack on law enforcement, on public property, and on private property. And that can’t be tolerated.”

It is thus worth making a few observations about the Travel Act.

The Travel Act is codified as a crime in the anti-racketeering chapter of the federal criminal code, specifically, in Section 1952. It has been a staple of organized crime cases since the 1980s. As a prosecutor, I charged it more times than I could hope to remember.

In essence, the Travel Act makes it a crime to travel across state lines, or otherwise to use facilities in interstate commerce (e.g., the U.S. mail and electronic communications devices), to commit acts of violence, or otherwise to promote “unlawful activity” (which Section 1952 broadly defines — a definition that explicitly includes arson and extortion). There is a broad range of penalties. If the offense involves carrying out violent activity, there is a potential 20-year prison sentence; if death results, a defendant can be sentenced to “any term of years or for life.”

The Travel Act is very attractive to federal prosecutors for three reasons.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, MEDIA Comments turned off

‘You’re nothing but a stooge’: C-SPAN callers go all in on Brian Stelter and trash CNN as ‘the enemy of the truth’ Spencer Neale

Posted By on September 2nd, 2020

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/youre-nothing-but-a-stooge-c-span-callers-go-all-in-on-brian-stelter-and-trash-cnn-as-the-enemy-of-the-truth

One of CNN’s top political commentators sat through a string of frustrated C-SPAN callers during a Tuesday morning segment on the network.

Appearing on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, two separate callers criticized Brian Stelter, decrying his anti-Trump obsession and accusing his home network of obfuscating the news cycle. One caller from Minnesota said Stelter’s new book, Hoax, is propaganda that would be used to divide the nation during unprecedented levels of tension across the political aisle.

“I don’t know if there’s any journalists left at CNN, but I know that if I were to estimate about 300 different distortions or misinformation that we get out of CNN … if you added all that up to 46 months, it comes out to be 300,000-plus distortions of truth,” the caller said. “This is how low you’ll go is that you went out, and you made lies, and you defamed a child, and then, you had to settle out of court to pay this child for distorting information about this young individual.”

Video HERE.  

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Biden Has Become a Tragic Prisoner of His Own Paradoxes . By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on September 2nd, 2020

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/09/02/biden_has_become_a_tragic_prisoner_of_his_own_paradoxes_144120.html

Joe Biden and his handlers know that he should be out and about, weighing in daily on the issues of the campaign.

In impromptu interviews, Biden should be offering alternative plans for dealing with the virus, the lockdown, the economic recovery, the violence and the looting, and racial tensions.

Yet Biden’s handlers seem to assume that if he were to leave his basement and fully enter the fray, he could be capable of losing the election in moments of gaffes, lapses or prolonged silences.

So wisely, Team Biden relied on the fact that the commander in chief is always blamed for bad news — and there has been plenty of bad news worldwide this year.

That reality was reflected in the spring and early summer polls that showed growing discontent with the incumbent Trump, as if he were solely responsible for one of the most depressing years in U.S. history.

But news cycles, like polls, are not always static.

What was true in July is not necessarily so in September and especially in November. Volatile years produce volatile voters. Now, many voters think they see a waning of the virus, a need to get their kids back in school, and a glimmer of hope that the economy is recovering.

A large segment of the public is becoming irate at the nightly looting, destruction and arson that no longer seem to have much to do with the May death of George Floyd while in police custody. Where are the police, the mayors and the governors to protect the vulnerable, the law-abiding and the small-business owners?

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

From riots to the filibuster, liberal America won’t accept political opposition Scott Jennings

Posted By on September 2nd, 2020

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/09/02/democrats-liberal-intimidate-silence-trump-conservatives-column/5683248002/

This is a frightful, dangerous moment for America, where free speech and robust debate are under assault by one half of America’s political spectrum.

America’s left-wing has taken a dark and dangerous turn, now openly expressing a desire for its political opposition to be delegitimized, criminalized, intimidated and ultimately banished.

This attitude has been boiling since Donald Trump became president. He’s too dangerous to be allowed to speak, they said, as the likes of Sen. Kamala Harris called on Twitter to suspend his account.

But that seems quaint compared to the left’s rhetoric of the last few days. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi labeled Republicans “domestic enemies” and “enemies of the state” in an unhinged rant rivaling any of Trump’s crazier tweets. And that was after Rep. Ayanna Pressley called for GOP officials to be harassed with “unrest in the streets.”

Words have consequences. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and his wife, Kelley, were put in danger as they walked out of Trump’s GOP acceptance speech in Washington on Thursday night.