The Morning Briefing: Police MIA at Nazi Rally and Much, Much More

Good Monday Morning.

Here is what’s on the President’s agenda today:

In the morning, President Donald J. Trump will depart Morristown, N.J., for Joint Base Andrews en route to the White House. The President will then meet with Chief of Staff General John Kelly.
In the afternoon, the President will sign a memorandum on addressing China’s laws, policies, practices, and actions related to intellectual property, innovation, and technology.
The President will then meet with the National Economic Council.
In the evening, the President will depart the White House for Joint Base Andrews, en route to John F. Kennedy International Airport. The President will depart John F. Kennedy International Airport to Trump Tower—New York.
The President will then speak with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan by telephone.

Where were the police and National Guard at the Charlottesville race riot?

The garbage governor of Virginia, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, was making excuses for the piss-poor security at the white power rally in Virginia over the weekend.

“It’s easy to criticize, but I can tell you this, 80 percent of the people here had semiautomatic weapons,” the anti-Second Amendment McAuliffe said. As an aside, there was much concern about all the open carry at the riot, but no one was shot.

Remember the “event” was not a surprise; the ACLU sued for the group to obtain their permit after there were problems with the city. There was plenty of time to plan for security and the National Guard was on standby for this obvious powder-keg in the making. And yes, the Nazis have a right to hold their event on government property.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, which tweeted that counter-protesters were not happy with the police, also reported police saying that they would “not intervene until given command to do so.” Why was that command not given?

Usually, dueling protestor groups are separated by the police and they demonstrate in different locations. We did we not have that in the case of Charlottesville. WHY NOT?

Said the mayor of Charlottesville, Mike Signer “There was a ton of preparation that went into one goal for government which was setting the conditions so that people could express themselves and assemble peaceably, and what happened was you had a lot of people who were not willing to accept even that basic condition of what we do in our democracy.”

Video replayed over the weekend on cable news and social media appears to show long brawls between protesters and counter-protesters that went uninterrupted by police.

Here’s an account from ProPublica’s A.C. Thompson:

At about 10 a.m. today, at one of countless such confrontations, an angry mob of white supremacists formed a battle line across from a group of counter-protesters, many of them older and gray-haired, who had gathered near a church parking lot. On command from their leader, the young men charged and pummeled their ideological foes with abandon. One woman was hurled to the pavement, and the blood from her bruised head was instantly visible.

Standing nearby, an assortment of Virginia State Police troopers and Charlottesville police wearing protective gear watched silently from behind an array of metal barricades — and did nothing.

It was a scene that played out over and over in Charlottesville …

Brian McLaren, a former priest and nationally known religious author and speaker, described: “police hung back quite a distance away from the ‘center of the action.'”

Chuck Ross at The Daily Caller writes, “When police were ordered to disperse the alt-right rally, that act directed the white nationalists into the antifa demonstrators, leading to further street brawls. Police didn’t seem to try to get in between the two groups or suppress the fights.”

“There was no police presence,” Brittany Caine-Conley, a minister-in-training who protested the alt-right rally, told The New York Times. “We were watching people punch each other; people were bleeding, all the while police were inside of barricades at the park, watching. It was essentially just brawling on the street and community members trying to protect each other.”

Cui bono? Anyone who wanted a spectacle and opportunity to tie the Nazis and alt-right to the GOP and the president, who did not help himself by not denouncing antifa fascists and Nazi fascists explicitly. Also on the list of beneficiaries are those who would like to see that pesky First Amendment eroded with speech codes and “hate speech” limitations.

The DOJ has launched an investigation. Hopefully, part of that investigation will include stand-down orders and the lack of police interference.

Sadly, this won’t be the last “Charlottesville.”

Pompeo assures no “imminent” threat from the NorKs

“There’s nothing imminent,” Pompeo told “Fox News Sunday.” “There’s no intelligence indicating we’re on the cusp of a nuclear war.”

President Trump has come out strong against the crazy North Korean regime, alarming some in the media who believe the U.S. might be provoking the lunatic leader.

Pompeo said Sunday, “The president made clear to the North Korea regime how America will respond if certain actions are taken.

“We are hopeful that the leader of the country will understand [Trump’s remarks] in precisely the way they were intended, to permit him to get to a place where we can get the nuclear weapons off the peninsula. …. That’s the best message you can deliver to someone who is putting America at risk.”

Venezuelan leader put hit on Marco Rubio

The Miami Herald reports that Diosdado Cabello, a leader of Venezuela’s socialist party, has put out a hit on Senator Marco Rubio.

Though uncorroborated, federal authorities reportedly took the threat seriously. Rubio’s beefed-up security detail was first spotted at a July 19 Senate hearing and following the senator the past several weeks in both Washington and Miami.

Last month, a memo from the Department of Homeland Security was sent to several law enforcement agencies outlining the possible threat against Rubio.

The Miami newspaper obtained the memo that described an “order to have Senator Rubio assassinated.” It also noted Rubio and Cabello have publicly attacked each other with words in the past.

According to the memo, “unspecified Mexican nationals” were enlisted to assassinate Rubio. The Venezuelan embassy had no comment about the report.

Historical picture of the day:

President Ronald Reagan muses with reporters and photographers after being taken by surprise by his faithful canine companion, Millie, Aug. 14, 1981, in Santa Barbara. Millie joined her master shortly after the president completed signing landmark legislation cutting the federal budget and taxes at his California ranch near Santa Barbara. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)

Other morsels:

$180 Wagyu beef sandwich coming to San Francisco as part of $595 dinner

Back to school crisis: Lack of school bus drivers plagues the nation

Rare white moose captured on film in Sweden

Archaeologists uncover the ‘French Pompeii’

133% leap in children admitted to ER for marijuana, study finds

GoDaddy bans neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer for disparaging woman killed at Charlottesville rally

France reports 60 percent increase in radicalization in two years

Tom Cruise injured filming stunt on ‘Mission: Impossible 6’ set

Watchdog group wants to know how FBI let Comey walk out door with sensitive docs

Drunk American tourist beaten up after giving Nazi salute, police say

Texas police chief asked to leave doctor’s office for carrying gun