Good Wednesday Morning.
Here’s what is on the President’s agenda today:
- In the afternoon, President Donald J. Trump will depart New York, N.Y., en route to Bedminster, N.J.
- The President will then sign H.R. 3218, the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act.
Hope Hicks to be named White House comms director
Press conference gone wild
Yesterday, the President held a press conference to announce his infrastructure plan and it turned into something much different, something outrageous.
The outrage focuses on the equivocation of the alt-right and the alt-left. The media has willfully ignored the dangerous alt-left movement so those who depend on their news and information from places like CNN and the New York Times are unfamiliar with the political violence these anarchists have been inflicting on people around the country. So perhaps they are surprised to see another group put in a similar position on the moral index as the universally reviled neo-Nazi movement. The alt-left is very dangerous and they don’t just want to go after Nazis. Is violence against these sad White Power characters justified? There are people that believe so. But if this is your position, tell me what other groups are entitled to be violently attacked. I support the 1A right of the Nazis to hold their rally on government property, but I most certainly do not support their message. Am I fair game now?
Here’s my special message to the Nazis.
Where we are now
Calls to tear down Confederate monuments are increasing. Early this morning, Baltimore took down “a number” of statues.
Witnessed a Confederate monument being taken down tonight. Ashamed that I didn't even know it was there. pic.twitter.com/WWNoYNl3Eu
— Mike Kulnich (@MiKulnich) August 16, 2017
The governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper (D), has called for all the Confederate statues to come down.
“Some people cling to the belief that the Civil War was fought over states’ rights. But history is not on their side,” he wrote. “We cannot continue to glorify a war against the United States of America fought in the defense of slavery. These monuments should come down.”
The Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matters joined in the chorus.
The group, in a series of tweets, wrote, “The fact that the Confederate flag & statues permeate the south is evidence that white supremacy was never overthrown in the United States.”
Comparing Confederate symbols and monuments to Germany’s ban on all Nazi-related propaganda, the group added, “After WWII, Germany outlawed the Nazis, their symbols, salutes & their flags. All confederate flags & statue, & groups should be illegal.”
If you do think Confederate monuments need to come down, do it legally. A 22-year-old woman was arrested in connection with the statue removal at Durham.
PJ Media’s Tyler O’Neil asks, where does it stop?
Law enforcement under scrutiny
We are learning more about the state and local government’s hand in the Charlottesville violence.
Writes CNN: “But both sides agree that one group didn’t do enough to prevent the violence as the crowds grew and tensions flared: the police.”
Said one riot attendee, “In the entire hour that I was there,” she said, “at no point did I see the police intervene in any violence they were witness to, including my own.”
Another reported “I will give credit where credit is due, but I will say that was too little, too late,” he told CNN. “If the police had acted differently in the beginning of the day — before 1:42 p.m. — maybe we wouldn’t be talking about Heather Heyer right now. Maybe she would still be alive.”
And this astonishing observation:
Another protester, Hawk Newsome, president of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, told CNN affiliate WCAV the police response to “Unite the Right” was different than at rallies he’s attended in the past. He said the police in Charlottesville were too far away to prevent any violence.
“The police actually allowed us to square off against each other,” Newsome said. “There were fights and the police were standing a block away the entire time. It’s almost as if they wanted us to fight each other.“
As I have said here before, the police don’t make these decisions on their own. Who told law enforcement to stand down?
March against Google cancelled
On account of “left wing terrorism.”
“The Peaceful March on Google has been postponed due to credible alt-left terrorist threats for the safety of our citizen participants,” organizers wrote in a blog post.
The WaPo article trashes organizer Jack Posobiec. Why can’t the WaPo just report the story? Do they have an interest in downplaying lefty threats and violence?
In his blog post announcing the postponement, Posbiec blamed the mainstream media, and in particular CNN, for making “malicious and false statements that our peaceful march was being organized by Nazy sympathizers.”
He said that someone had threatened to use a vehicle to drive into the march.
The march on Google was a response to the firing of a Google employee for sharing his thoughts on the company’s human resources practices.
What fresh hell is this?
No, not the same. One side is racist, bigoted, Nazi. The other opposes racism and bigotry. Morally different universes.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) August 16, 2017
This day in history: Elvis dies, August 16, 1977
Underneath the Army helmet is none other than Pvt. Elvis Presley as he arrived in Friedberg/West Germany, as a tank crewman with the U.S. 7th Army in Oct. 1958. (1958) (AP Photo)
Other morsels:
Moore, Strange head to Alabama Senate runoff
Jurors begin deliberating in trial of four Bundy supporters in Nevada
Dem Rep. arrested at White House immigration protest
Sisters file $3M suit over Charlottesville attack
Lionel Richie may boycott Kennedy Center Honors because of ‘controversies’
Obama never told 21 states Russians were hacking their voting systems
Daniel Craig confirms he’s returning for James Bond
Mindy Kaling confirms pregnancy
Michael Moore leads audience of Broadway play to Trump Tower
Swiss hotel tells ‘Jewish guests’ to shower before using the pool
That’s all I’ve got, now go do whatever you have to do today.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member