We all want to have sex with Megan Rapinoe right?— Megan Gailey (@megangailey) July 7, 2019
Added: At Celeb Jihad, "ALEX MORGAN ULTIMATE ASS COMPILATION."
Commentary and analysis on American politics, culture, and national identity, U.S. foreign policy and international relations, and the state of education - from a neoconservative perspective! - Keeping an eye on the communist-left so you don't have to!
We all want to have sex with Megan Rapinoe right?— Megan Gailey (@megangailey) July 7, 2019
.@PatriarchTree "Anti-American Women Win World Championship of Anti-American Sport." #USWNT #Soccer #WordCup 🤷♂️🙄 https://t.co/kWhFZZW0NT pic.twitter.com/HPuJrHhUhB— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 8, 2019
If you don’t want to Make America Great Again, why should Americans cheer for you? If you are an American opposed to the freely elected government of your own country, our First Amendment protects your right as a citizen to engage in protest, but those who support the government cannot be required to endorse your protest.Still more.
How many celebrity athletes expressed Tea Party sentiments while Obama was president? Can anyone recall sports teams refusing to go to the White House after winning a championship during the Obama years? Perhaps you can think of a right-wing analog of Megan Rapinoe, but searching my memory, I don’t recall any Democrat president ever being openly insulted the way the U.S. women’s World Cup team has insulted President Trump. And if Rapinoe and her teammates imagine that soccer will become more popular because they have made their sport symbolic of an anti-American protest movement, my guess is that they will be learn otherwise. There has been a lot of noise about the disparity of income between men and women in professional soccer, but the fact is that in most of the world, this is a sport played primarily by men. Only in the United States, where real men play real football, is soccer regarded as a coed sport. One reason the U.S. women are so dominant in international competition is that in soccer-crazy countries like Brazil and Argentina, the sport is still regarded as too rough for girls to play. (And if you’ve seen how Brazilians and Argentines play the game, you understand why they routinely stomp the crap out of the U.S. men’s team.)
Honestly, I am pro-soccer...
My latest piece for The Hill:https://t.co/41ky5eohU4— Bill Schneider (@BillSchneiderDC) July 7, 2019
The first primary of the 2020 presidential campaign is underway. It’s called the “invisible primary.” Nobody actually goes to a polling place to cast a ballot — but there are winners and losers.Still more.
The invisible primary takes place the year before the presidential election. The winner is the candidate who ends the year with the most support in the polls and the most money raised.
Does the invisible primary predict the ultimate winner? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It worked four years ago when Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump came out on top of their respective parties. It didn’t work in the 2004 election when the winner of the invisible Democratic primary was Howard Dean. In January 2004, when the actual voting began, Dean came in third in the Iowa caucuses and second to John Kerry in New Hampshire. By mid-February, Dean was out.
So where does the Democratic race stand now?
California Sen. Kamala Harris was the clear winner of the first Democratic debate. That has brought her a huge amount of media attention and a rise in the polls. She may become the leading progressive candidate. But not necessarily the nominee.
Since World War II, Democratic primaries have often ended up as showdowns between progressives and populists. The difference is social class. Progressive Democratic voters tend to be relatively affluent, well educated and liberal, particularly on social issues like abortion and guns. Populist Democratic voters tend to be working class, non-college educated and moderate on social issues, though often liberal on economic issues like health care.
In the 1950s, Democrats were divided between Adlai Stevenson (progressive) and Estes Kefauver (populist). In 1968, it was Eugene McCarthy (progressive) versus Robert Kennedy (populist). In 1972, George McGovern (progressive) and Hubert Humphrey (populist). 1984: Gary Hart (progressive) and Walter Mondale (populist). 1988: Michael Dukakis (progressive) and Richard Gephardt (populist). 1992: Paul Tsongas (progressive) and Bill Clinton (populist). 2000: Bill Bradley (progressive) and Al Gore (populist). 2008: Barack Obama (progressive) and Hillary Clinton (populist). In the 2016 Democratic race, Bernie Sanders branded himself a populist, but his core support came from young progressives.
Democrats won in 2018 because, in a midterm, the party didn’t have to come up with one presidential candidate. In 2020, they do.
Right now, Joe Biden dominates the populist wing of the party, often described as “moderates.”
The progressive field is more crowded — and more divided.
Harris is poised to challenge Sanders as the progressive alternative to Biden. But she faces a lot of competition from other Democrats popular with the NPR crowd — Elizabeth Warren, Julian Castro, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke, Kirsten Gillibrand. Biden has to hope progressives fail to unite behind a single “Stop Biden” candidate.
The polls show Biden doing best among older Democrats. To young progressives, Biden is a voice of the past. The English novelist L.P. Hartley once wrote, “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” Like bipartisanship and compromise. And collaboration with outright racists. To older Democrats, however, the past is when things used to work — before Trump came along to cause chaos and disruption. They’re counting on Biden to restore that past.
From the 1930s to the 1960s, white populists, led by organized labor, were the dominant force in the Democratic Party. They began leaving the party when Democrats embraced the civil rights movement. Non-college educated whites have not voted for a Democrat for president in more than 50 years.
The populist vote in the Democratic Party today is mostly minority voters. Southern whites and northern white ethnics (who used to be called “Archie Bunker” voters) have become out of reach for Democrats. White working-class voters are often depicted as the swing vote, but they’re unlikely to swing back to the Democratic Party, not even for Biden. Biden started the race with strong black and Latino support. He’s finding out that he can’t afford to alienate those minorities.
The swing vote today is college-educated white suburban voters who are appalled by President Trump. In 2018, Democratic House candidates made their biggest gains in affluent suburban districts like Orange County, Calif., and Fairfax County, Va. Those upscale voters respond to progressive messages on social issues like abortion and guns. Not to tax hikes or “socialism.”
The 2016 election taught Democrats an important lesson. They expected that revulsion at the prospect of a Trump presidency would rally the party. That didn’t quite happen. Here’s why...
Thanks Alan. Whew! https://t.co/BUJjv0ErzW— Juan Fernandez (@NewsJuan) July 6, 2019
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Southern California on Friday night, the second major temblor in less than two days and one that rocked buildings across Southern California, adding more jitters to an already nervous region.More.
The quake was centered near Ridgecrest, the location of the July Fourth 6.4 magnitude temblor that was the largest in nearly 20 years. It was followed by an aftershock first reported as 5.5 in magnitude. Scientists said the fault causing the quakes appears to be growing...
The Fourth of July, Independence Day, is not just a time for barbecues and fireworks. It is also a time for us to reflect on the meaning of the Declaration of Independence. That declaration is the most important document in our history, even more important than the Constitution. It sums up the principles by which the nation lives. Indeed, it is what holds us together as a nation.More.
We are a very unusual country, and were unusual even at the time of independence. Lacking a common ancestry, we have never been able to take our nationhood for granted. In America, said John Adams, the country’s second president, there was nothing like “the Patria of the Romans, the Fatherland of the Dutch, or the Patrie of the French.”
Even at the outset, Adams wondered whether a people composed of so many religious denominations and so many ethnicities could hold together as a nation. In 1813, he counted 19 different religious sects in the country. “We are such an Hotch potch of people,” he concluded, “such an omnium gatherum of English, Irish, German, Dutch, Sweedes, French &c. that it is difficult to give a name to the Country, characteristic of the people.”
No wonder then that at the end of the Declaration of Independence, the members of the Continental Congress could only “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” There was nothing else but themselves that they could dedicate themselves to: no patria, no fatherland, no nation as yet.
n comparison with the nearly two-and-a-half-centuries-old United States, many countries in the world today are new, some of them created in the relatively recent past. Yet many of these states, new as they may be, are undergirded by peoples who had a pre-existing sense of their common ancestry, their tribal and blood connections, by which they meant their nationhood.
In the case of the United States the process was reversed. In some sense we have never become a nation, and today, with people from all over the world gathered within our borders, we can never be a nation in any traditional meaning of the term.
In the present this peculiarity of American nationhood, this lack of a common ethnicity, may be our saving grace. It may turn out to be an advantage in the 21st century, dominated as it is by mass immigration from the south to the north and east to west. It certainly enables the United States to be more capable than other countries of accepting and absorbing immigrants.
Of course, America has its own recent problems with immigrants, but these problems pale in comparison with the problems of immigration the European nations are facing and will continue to face.
Because we are not a traditional nation and have no ethnic base, the Declaration of Independence with its ringing affirmation that all men are created equal has become the sacred document holding us together. On the eve of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln came to realize how important the Declaration was in defining the nationhood of the United States, how it had become the adhesive for a diverse people.
Half the American people, Lincoln said in 1858, had no direct blood connection to the founders of the nation. These German, Irish, French and Scandinavian citizens had either come from Europe themselves or their ancestors had, and “finding themselves our equals in all things,” had settled in America. Although these different ethnicities may have had no actual connection in blood with the revolutionary generation, they had, said Lincoln, “that old Declaration of Independence” with its expression of the moral principle of equality to draw upon...
Six flags wouldn’t give me my picture 😔 pic.twitter.com/OfqxEl6T8Z
— Julia Rose (@JuliaRose_33) June 6, 2019
Intolerant man harasses people trying to have dinner and is shocked that he is asked to leave. https://t.co/KFvwGIQo0k
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) July 5, 2019
Not all heroes wear capes. pic.twitter.com/nzXxj4vCWw
— Jay Cost (@JayCostTWS) July 5, 2019
I'm sorry this is hilarious pic.twitter.com/uxcigNHaFE
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) July 5, 2019
"Happy Fourth of July, You Fascists!" https://t.co/v2riAw7pOT via @PatriarchTree #July4th #RadicalLeft pic.twitter.com/T9mwJBcvou
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 5, 2019
Fourth of July celebrations in Washington usually bring Democrats and Republicans together to mark the national holiday while taking a break from partisan politics.More.
Not this year.
With tanks on the streets of the nation’s capital, military jet flyovers and a presidential address on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, President Trump injected his trademark over-the-top style — as well as his divisive personality — into the traditional fireworks display at the National Mall.
While most presidents have steered clear of Fourth of July festivities to avoid politicizing the day, Trump has been personally involved in the details of the planning — much to the frustration of local officials and residents in the predominantly liberal city.
Ever since Trump’s 2017 visit to watch France’s Bastille Day celebration, he has pressed for a similar event at home. He initially tried to organize a military parade on Veterans Day, but plans fell apart amid opposition from the local government and estimates that the costs would run into the tens of millions of dollars. Even some Pentagon officials bristled at such an overt public display of American military power.
But many of those same ideas were part of Thursday’s celebration, including military tributes and flyovers. And Trump made himself the main event.
“We are one people, chasing one dream, and one magnificent destiny,” Trump told the crowd. “We all share the same heroes, the same home, the same heart, and we are all made by the same Almighty God.”
Despite fears Trump would use the opportunity to push his policies or criticize Democrats, the president stuck to a teleprompter and refrained from the combative language he prefers at campaign speeches and on Twitter...
‘Are you proud to be an American?’ How Trump’s 4th of July became a tale of three different celebrations
— Christal Hayes (@Journo_Christal) July 5, 2019
W/ @maxpcohen @sarahbishi @oliviarsanchez @LizLaw1126 @jasonlall9 https://t.co/7wQVCKckbt
This is Amiee LeDoux. She traveled with her family from New Hampshire to watch Trump speak and all the festivities for the 4th of July. She says Trump’s speech marked the first time she’s ever cried on the 4th of July. She started crying again as I spoke with her @USATODAY pic.twitter.com/Ca7epp5moo
— Christal Hayes (@Journo_Christal) July 5, 2019
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 4, 2019
— Alexis Ren (@AlexisRenG) June 14, 2019
I’m sad there isn’t a pointe shoe emoji pic.twitter.com/WEFWTVyKaa
— Alexis Ren (@AlexisRenG) July 2, 2019
#Democrats hate America. 🤷♂️ #July4th #Patriotism #Dems #Antifa #AntiAmericanism cc. @MichelleMalkin 😯 https://t.co/KH2RqkYKTd— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 3, 2019
The latest overall declines in patriotism are largely driven by Democrats, whose self-reported pride has historically been lower and has fluctuated more than Republicans'. Democrats' latest 22% extreme pride reading is the group's lowest in Gallup's 19 years of measurement, and is half of what it was several months before Donald Trump's 2016 election victory.
For their part, most Republicans have remained extremely proud of their country, and the latest 76% reading is just 10 points below the high recorded in 2003. Even when Barack Obama was in office, Republicans' extreme pride never fell below 68%.
Independents have historically been less proud of the U.S. than Republicans have been; currently, 41% express extreme pride -- which is, by one point, the lowest reading in the trend.
Several subgroups that typically identify as Democrats -- women, liberals and younger adults -- all express lower levels of extreme U.S. pride than their counterparts...
D Is for Damaged, Dangerous and Delusional https://t.co/fVKUdAmhqL pic.twitter.com/SgTSe8vocc— American Greatness (@theamgreatness) July 3, 2019
If you watched either or both of the two Democratic Party presidential candidate debates, and if you are a liberal, a conservative or a centrist, you had to have been depressed. The intellectual shallowness, the demagoguery and the alienation from reality were probably unprecedented in American political history. Only a leftist, a socialist or a communist could have gone to bed a happy person on either night.
If you think this is a baseless generalization, here are a few of myriad examples from the first night:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.): “(The economy is not doing great) for the African Americans and Latinx whose families are torn apart, whose lives are destroyed and whose communities are ruined.”
Two things stand out: First is Warren’s morally reprehensible and false description of the economy. She never explains how the American economy is tearing families apart, destroying lives or ruining communities. Aside from being baseless, it is another left-wing libel against America.
She went on to explain economic inequality in America: “Corruption, pure and simple. We need to call it out.” It is difficult to overstate the contempt she and the rest of the left have for America.
Even more troubling was Warren’s use of the term “Latinx.” When leftist Orwellian newspeak makes its way into the United States Senate and into the vocabulary of a presidential candidate, the country is in trouble.
Here is how HuffPost explains the term (of which it approves):
“Latinx is the gender-neutral alternative to Latino, Latina and even Latin@. … Latinx is quickly gaining popularity among the general public. It’s part of a ‘linguistic revolution’ that aims to move beyond gender binaries and is inclusive of the intersecting identities of Latin American descendants. In addition to men and women from all racial backgrounds, Latinx also makes room for people who are trans, queer, agender, non-binary, gender non-conforming or gender fluid.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.): “If billionaires can pay off their yachts, students should be able to pay off their student loans.”
My only response to this statement is to ask, Do most Democrats find that a compelling argument? Do they not realize what a non sequitur it is—and therefore how demagogic?
Billionaires, like non-billionaires, pay off their debts because they do not incur debts they cannot repay, not because they are billionaires. Senator Klobuchar apparently believes that non-billionaires need not pay off their debts. Every Democrat who addressed this issue said American society should repay student debts—which amount to $1.6 trillion. The party of “fairness” thinks it’s fair that every student who repaid his or college debts—and every young American who never went to college—must pay off that debt.
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro spoke in Spanish. Perhaps they—like all on the left—are unaware of the importance of all Americans speaking English in uniting the most ethnically disparate nation in human history. You cannot say “diversity is our strength” if you do not work to unite all the diverse cultures into Americans. And you cannot unite Americans without one language.
Their speaking Spanish was so transparently pandering to Latin, Latino, Latina, Latin@ and Latinx Americans that, for that reason alone, that group should decline to vote Democrat.
O’Rourke: “This economy has got to work for everyone. And right now, we know that it isn’t.”
This is just not true. Given some of the lowest unemployment rates in modern American history, this economy seems to be working quite well—certainly for all those willing to work.
Booker: “This is actually an economy that’s hurting small businesses and not allowing them to compete.”
The question I always want answered when someone on the left tells an outright lie is, Does he or she believe it? Someone should ask this of Booker. As the National Federation of Independent Businesses announced last month:
“Optimism among small business owners has surged back to historically high levels, thanks to strong hiring, investment, and sales,” said NFIB President and CEO Juanita D. Duggan. “The small business half of the economy is leading the way, taking advantage of lower taxes and fewer regulations, and reinvesting in their businesses, their employees, and the economy as a whole.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio: “There’s plenty of money in this country. It’s just in the wrong hands. Democrats have to fix that.”
The notion that America’s money is “in the wrong hands, (and) Democrats have to fix that” should frighten every American who believes in private property and who opposes dictatorships and theft.
Castro: “I don’t believe only in reproductive freedom; I believe in reproductive justice.”
Here’s an important rule: Whenever anyone adds an adjective to the word “justice,” know that the person is not speaking about justice but about something else entirely. “Social” justice is another such example.
Castro boldly proclaimed his view that unauthorized border crossing should be decriminalized and announced, “In my first 100 days with immigration reform (I) would put undocumented (i.e., illegal) immigrants, as long as they haven’t committed a serious crime, on a pathway to citizenship.”
Though not one Democrat candidate used the term, every single one believes in open borders...
I can finally tell you...that I've collaborated with @pepejeans to create the Dua Lipa x Pepe Jeans collection for you! I've wanted to learn about designing as another way to express myself because i’m always imagining the clothes I want to wear and now im putting it into action! pic.twitter.com/jtJYe47BtE
— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) July 3, 2019
"#bottlecapchallenge #challengeaccepted This thing landed on my head from @johnmayer but will quickly go to a couple of fellas we’ve seen do push ups badly. All yours Guy Ritchie and @jmoontasri" | https://t.co/J1X9XWKxHl pic.twitter.com/RT16VahcMv
— Jason Statham (@realjstatham) July 1, 2019
RUSH: So, Mr. Snerdley walked in here, looks at me, and says, “You’re gonna catch hell today, buddy.” I said, “Why? What did…? What did I do?” He said, “You gotta get that Nike shirt off, man! You can’t show up on the Dittocam…” “Oh, my God. I forgot. I didn’t even think about it.” So I made a mad dash into the dressing room in there that we use about twice a year when I do television. Thankfully, I had a shirt not made by Nike in there. It’s a Steelers coach’s shirt. So I slapped it on there. It’s a good catch by Mr. Snerdley. I didn’t even think of it. It didn’t even occur to me.
Who makes the shirt doesn’t matter to me when I go grab ’em and put ’em on. It’s not why I bought ’em. Anyway, greetings, folks. Here we are set, ready, and loaded to unload on another day in the United States of America. We’re coming up on Independence Day, which is Thursday, a couple days from now. Oh, by the way, have you heard? Mike Pence was scheduled to do an event in New Hampshire and his plane has been called back. The event, whatever it was in New Hampshire, has been canceled.
Pence is on the way back now to D.C. (he may be back by now) for an unspecified emergency. I haven’t seen any more on it than that. If there is something, it has escaped me. But whatever. When we learn more, we’ll pass it on. I wonder what it is. You know, then you realize Trump is gonna be front and center in Washington on Thursday. He’s asked for there to be tanks and a flyby on The Mall as part of the celebration of America. That is gonna… (chuckles) If that happens, can you imagine the provocative nature? I mean, putting tanks on the street!
The Democrat Party, the American left is gonna go bonkers. By the way, folks, is there any doubt that what we’re dealing with here — flat-out, now — is straight-up anti-Americanism? When I have mentioned casually and pointedly over the recent past that the American left has now become a political group that does not believe America could be fixed. America needs to be disbanded. America needs to be ripped up, torn apart, and rebuilt. We are forever flawed because of our founding.
Even though all of the grievances that they have about the founding have been addressed, have been fixed, such as women being able to vote, slavery and any number of things. That’s not good enough — and this Nike situation with Colin Kaepernick proves it! Colin Kaepernick is objecting to today’s flag, not the flag that flew before slavery. He’s objecting to today’s flag, and here’s Nike (because one of their paid athletes objects to the flag) pulling the shoe made with the American flag on it! I mean, there isn’t any question here that what we’re dealing with is not people who are aligned with us on things in common.
It used to be said of the two political parties that we all want what’s best for America. That can’t be said anymore. And it has not been the case for a long time, if you ask me. These people are not interested in what’s best for America. They want to tear it down, folks. They’re not even hiding it anymore. They’re not trying to even camouflage it. They aren’t trying to mask it. They aren’t trying to deceive us. They’re flat-out in our faces. They don’t like this country, and it’s not about fixing it. It’s about tearing it down. It’s about ripping apart the fabric of this country and destroying the people who are the descendants of those who founded it.
I don’t mean in a genetic sense. But people who believe in the founding, they’ve gotta go. Make no mistake about it. Colin Kaepernick and his behavior and Nike going along with him, in my estimation, is flat-out un-American. It’s anti-America, let’s put it that way. We don’t have any overlap here where it used to be said (impression), “Yeah, well, we’re all… We all want the best for America. We just have different, uh, theories about how to get there.” They’re not looking at the best! They want to rip this country apart. They want to tear up the concepts of the American founding.
Here we are two days before the Fourth of July, and I wouldn’t blame any of you if you’re out there kind of pulling your hair out, saying, “Can we not just have one day to celebrate this country? Can’t we just have one day between us?” This little AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and this gaggle of hysterical women that she takes down there with her to the border, lying their way through that border visit. You know, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has had happen to her what a bunch of shock-jock type people on the radio always have happen.
After a while, your gig gets old, your schtick no longer shocks, and so you have to keep crossing new lines. And that’s all she’s doing. She’s addicted to getting noticed. She’s out there, a former bartender, saying that Ivanka Trump has no business being a diplomat. “She’s got no experience being a diplomat! She doesn’t know what being a diplomat is,” from a former bartender who’s been elected to Congress with one of the lowest vote it turns out in the history of the congressional district.
Now she runs down there and starts trashing and lying about conditions at the border and the people who administer the people who come into this country illegally. She flat-out lies that the detainees are being forced to drink out of toilets! The Border Patrol and ICE people are denying this. Even this gaggle of lunatics with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez admit they haven’t seen it. There aren’t any witnesses have actually seen people being forced to drink water out of a toilet.
But, my friends, based on what we’re told about the circumstances where these people are fleeing, maybe toilet water’s a step up for some of them. Based on what the left is telling us their homelands are like. So we’ve got that to deal with. Now we have Nike canceling the rollout of a flag shoe — a new flag shoe — at the behest of a triggered anti-American ex-jock, Colin Kaepernick. But in a way, you can’t blame Nike because Kaepernick and that ad campaign they ran sold a heck of a lot of shoes. You couldn’t blame Nike for thinking that Kaepernick’s audience and the people that buy tennis shoes or whatever are indeed themselves anti-American. Not un-American, anti-American...
BREAKING: @MiniAOCofficial has deleted her account after her family was doxxed and received death threats pic.twitter.com/fz4TzYD13Y— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) July 3, 2019
Michael Eric Dyson compares Betsy Ross Flag to a swastika or burning cross during MSNBC hit. https://t.co/q0RAY4dqtW pic.twitter.com/EDoA7DgcZa
— David Rutz (@DavidRutz) July 3, 2019
Weird that no one had a problem with The Betsy Ross Flag when it flew over Obama’s inauguration. Now it’s not patriotic... ok got it. 🙄 #morons https://t.co/wkxDRZs6bM
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 3, 2019
Frankly, that was the most enjoyable part of the game. 🤷♂️⚽️🤓🇺🇸👍 #USWNT #MeganRapinoe #WorldCup https://t.co/3dw4nfQ0Nm
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 3, 2019
No. 13 on her birthday. In honor of those 13 colonies.
— U.S. Soccer WNT (@USWNT) July 2, 2019
That’s. The. Tea 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Go on, @alexmorgan13, what a birthday! pic.twitter.com/Rge0HMMrCk
.@lamblock #Angels Pitcher #TylerSkaggs Has Died: https://t.co/tIIcMxUN3N 😢
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 1, 2019
How awful. Just 27 years old. https://t.co/JTO2Zx0QFP
— Nathan Fenno (@nathanfenno) July 1, 2019
Latest on @Angels LH Tyler Skaggs vs. Southlake Police Dept. (and @nathanfenno):
— mike hiserman (@MikeHiserman) July 1, 2019
The police were called to the team hotel and found him "unresponsive" in his room. "No foul play is suspected. This investigation is ongoing ..."
More from police regarding Skaggs: "At this time no foul play is suspected, and the investigation is ongoing."
— Mike DiGiovanna (@MikeDiGiovanna) July 1, 2019
Southlake Police Department Press Release 7/1/19 pic.twitter.com/vgZTUBIc40
— Southlake DPS (@SouthlakeDPS) July 1, 2019
Angels statement on the passing of Tyler Skaggs. pic.twitter.com/6XA2Vu1uWV
— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) July 1, 2019
— Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) June 29, 2019
— Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) June 12, 2019
— Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) May 20, 2019
Today was a great day! pic.twitter.com/2uPbLh3IkU
— Madison Gesiotto (@madisongesiotto) June 21, 2019
Never mind what haters say, ignore them til’ they fade away 💤 pic.twitter.com/9Y0acu0L3h
— Madison Gesiotto (@madisongesiotto) June 29, 2019
Do you approve of the President’s unconventional foreign policy strategy with North Korea, China and others? pic.twitter.com/n8qGlQcGvm
— Madison Gesiotto (@madisongesiotto) July 1, 2019
Kamala Harris, Berkeley and busing >>> "Even in a city that had become a worldwide symbol of 1960s counterculture revolt, systemic racial prejudice in education and housing remained deeply entrenched." https://t.co/3sBXbF6yHe Excellent @LATSeema @melmason @finneganLAT— Shelby Grad (@shelbygrad) July 1, 2019
.@KamalaHarris: “I support busing. Listen, the schools of America are as segregated, if not more segregated, today than when I was in [school]...need to put every effort, including busing, into play to de-segregate the schools...fed govt has a role & a responsibility to step up." pic.twitter.com/a7ujueP0Bu— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) June 30, 2019
The school bus ride was less than three miles from one side of Berkeley to the other, but from 1969 to 1973 it transported Carole Porter to an entirely different world.
Like her neighbor and friend Kamala Harris, Porter was one of thousands of black children bused into predominantly white neighborhoods to learn. It was part of Berkeley’s bold experiment in desegregation.
But even in a city that had become a worldwide symbol of 1960s counterculture revolt, systemic racial prejudice in education and housing remained deeply entrenched.
“That’s a really hard thing to reconcile,” said Porter, 55. “Berkeley was an oxymoron. It was a contradiction in many ways.”
Harris’ three years of busing from her family’s mainly black working-class neighborhood to a prosperous white enclave in the hills overlooking San Francisco Bay was at once universal and uniquely Berkeley.
As in many American cities, the discriminatory housing policy known as redlining kept blacks from moving into white neighborhoods in Berkeley and busing fueled some white flight to the suburbs.
But unlike other sizable cities, Berkeley undertook its busing program voluntarily and required both white and black families to travel into unfamiliar neighborhoods. Rapid demographic and political changes shielded the community from the most extreme pushback, including violence, that hobbled busing efforts nationwide.
More than 50 years after Berkeley launched its busing program, Harris, one of its most famous participants, thrust it back into the spotlight in last week’s Democratic presidential debate.
As California’s first black senator chastised her rival Joe Biden for his fight against forced busing in the ’70s, she leaned on her personal history in Berkeley, portraying herself as a beneficiary of the charged battle for educational equality.
“There was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day,” Harris said. “And that little girl was me.”
Contrary to its enduring reputation as a progressive mecca, the Berkeley of Harris’ childhood was more politically muddled. The conservative John Birch Society operated two bookstores in the area. It wasn’t until the early 1960s that Democrats cracked a Republican stronghold on the city council. Black residents were restricted to living to the southern and western flats, while whites resided in the northern hills.
Thelette A. Bennett, 71, a retired vice principal of Berkeley High School, grew up in the same neighborhood as Harris.
Bennett’s father, a black World War II Navy veteran, was an airplane mechanic at a local naval air station in 1945, when redlining blocked him and his wife from buying a house in a white neighborhood. Even in the black neighborhood where they settled, she said, they needed to get a white real estate agent to buy a home and transfer it to them.
“There were only certain areas where they could buy a home,” Bennett said. “We lived where they allowed us to live.”
But a large influx of African Americans during and after World War II and whites affiliated with UC Berkeley were pulling the local politics to the left, paving the way for desegregation. Black leaders raised concerns about segregation in the city starting in the late 1950s.
In response, the school board studied the matter, concluding that all but three of the district’s 17 elementary schools and two of the three junior high schools were segregated. (Berkeley High, the city’s only high school, was integrated by default.) In 1964, the school board voted to desegregate its junior high schools.
Residents’ reactions were not as extreme as the segregation battles elsewhere in the country, such as the South, but “it wasn’t as far from that as you might assume,” said Natalie Orenstein, a reporter for local news site Berkeleyside. “There were definitely really angry parents and hours-long school meetings.”
Desegregation opponents launched recall campaigns of multiple school board members over the junior high busing program, but lost by a wide margin.
Questions to ask yourself this Monday: Do I have fewer in-person interactions because of social media? Am I using social media to pass the time? Has Twitter displaced any of my productive work? If my answer is yes to any of these, it’s time for a reset. https://t.co/7lpSKfZPYE
— Arthur Brooks (@arthurbrooks) June 17, 2019
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) June 29, 2019
Attacked by antifa. Bleeding. They stole my camera equipment. No police until after. waiting for ambulance . If you have evidence Of attack please help— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) June 29, 2019
On way to hospital. Was beat on face and head multiple times in downtown in middle of street with fists and weapons. Suspects at large.— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) June 29, 2019
In the ER. pic.twitter.com/spe5N4nzVl— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) June 29, 2019
BREAKING: New Angle Shows Antifa Thugs Who Battered Reporter Andy Ngo Were PREPARED FOR BATTLE -- WORE ASSAULT GLOVES during Beating @MichelleMalkin @MrAndyNgo @Jimryan015 @pnjaban— Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) June 30, 2019
https://t.co/n1Olm5D4wd via @gatewaypundit
SICK. CAIR Portland Leader Attacks Michelle Malkin and Mocks Andy Ngo after he is Beaten and Robbed by Violent Antifa Thugs @MichelleMalkin @MrAndyNgo https://t.co/65lp01Uphl via @gatewaypundit— Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) June 30, 2019
Help #PROTECTANDYNGO - Donate here ======> https://t.co/Cw5IwMY04U— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 29, 2019
Reporters and activists pile on to either mock or attempt to explain away the Antifa attack on journalist @MrAndyNgo in Portland. https://t.co/pWTsmOBpOB— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) July 1, 2019
Where were y’all? https://t.co/KU2QG284ZI— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) June 30, 2019
Thanks to all for the outpouring of support for our @Quillette colleague @MrAndyNgo. What happened was horrible, but at least it's caused a moment of reckoning for the journalists who've acted as pro-Antifa mouthpieces till now. Here's our @Quillette editorial about Andy's ordeal https://t.co/xCn2lqd2ZC— Jonathan Kay (@jonkay) June 30, 2019
Selena Gomez Soaking Wet in a Red Bathing Suit - https://t.co/oLu1XgvUDt - pic.twitter.com/AMqhWUGUSc
— Taxi Driver (@TaxiDriverMovie) July 1, 2019
"Every single Democratic candidate supports amnesty for every non-criminal undocumented alien, while actually seeking to decriminalize crossing the border. This is political suicide." https://t.co/JpNrrEaXeO
— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) June 28, 2019
The Democratic Party opened its 2020 presidential debates with a remarkably policy-focused exchange that illustrated how consistently to the left they have moved. For the night, at least, this was Elizabeth Warren’s party.
The Democratic senator from Massachusetts, who entered the debate with momentum behind her campaign, set the tone and dominated the early part of the debate, which focused on economic policy.
“When you've got a government, when you've got an economy that does great for those with money and isn't doing great for everyone else, that is corruption, pure and simple,” she said. “We need to make structural change in our government, in our economy and in our country.”
Even those of her rivals who don’t fully share that assessment declined chances to put themselves at odds with Warren. Instead, they sang from the same hymnal of left-wing economic populism declaring the need for broad reforms of the political and economic system.
“It is time we have an economy that works for everybody,” said Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, after minimizing his differences with Warren’s plan to break up big tech companies.
The shift in the party goes beyond economics. As the debate made clear, it includes gun control, abortion, climate change and immigration, among other issues. On each of those, candidates took positions to the left of those embraced by either of the last two Democratic presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who was barely mentioned by any of the candidates.
Rather than Clinton’s call for abortion to be “safe, legal and rare,” for example, the debate featured candidates stressing that the universal healthcare plans they backed would include public funds to pay for abortions for poor women.
On healthcare, only two candidates — Warren and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio — raised their hands when asked who would favor fully abolishing private health insurance plans in favor of instituting “Medicare for all.” But even those who favored a more moderate approach, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, for example, said they preferred a new government health insurance option for all — an idea that was considered too radical to pass when Congress enacted the Affordable Care Act less than a decade ago.
On immigration, former Obama Cabinet official Julián Castro pressed for decriminalizing illegal border crossings, making that a civil rather than a criminal offense. While Castro was correct in saying that the Trump administration had used the criminal law in a far more aggressive way than its predecessors, the law that makes unauthorized border crossings a criminal offense has been on the books for decades. Eliminating it is a move popular with some activists.
At least three of the candidates — Warren, Booker and Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio — share Castro’s view. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke disagreed, and the clash between the two Texans over decriminalizing the border made for one of the night’s most intense moments, but it was notable that the disagreement came on a proposal that went far beyond anything that the Obama administration, in which Castro served, ever talked about.
And there was broad party consensus on gun control, an issue that Democrats for years shied from. Booker’s proposal to require gun licensing goes significantly further than what gun-safety advocates have dreamed of proposing.
The leftward tilt of the party did give some candidates pause.
“We have a perception problem with the Democratic Party that we are not connecting to the working class,” said Ryan, who represents the Youngstown, Ohio, area. “We have to change the center of gravity from being coastal elites and Ivy League.”
Klobuchar took a veiled swipe at Warren’s promises to enact broad changes in the political and economic system.
“I don’t make all the promises others up here make,” Klobuchar said. “I’m going to govern.”
But others argued for going further left, notably De Blasio, struggling for a breakout moment and calling the primary a “battle for the heart and soul of our party.”
“This Democratic Party has to be strong and bold and progressive,” he said.
Joe Biden’s Democratic rivals delivered blow after blow on Friday morning, seeking to further diminish the presidential front-runner’s prospects after he delivered a shaky performance on Thursday night’s debate stage.
“I think that we have to have a nominee that’s up to this challenge, and I think that we’re going to see whether or not Joe Biden is,” Cory Booker warned Friday morning in an interview on CNN’s “New Day.”
“And I don't think you can fault folks like me for calling him out if he fails to live up to the standard our next nominee should have and speak to the real pain and real hurt that I think Kamala spoke to last night,” the New Jersey senator said.
In the most vivid scene from Thursday’s forum of 10 Democratic presidential candidates, Kamala Harris launched a raw onslaught against Biden, the primary field’s leader, for his opposition to federally mandated school busing in the 1970s.
The California senator revealed during the confrontation that she was bused during her childhood as part of the second class to integrate public schools in Berkeley, Calif., and also described as “hurtful” comments Biden made earlier this month about working with segregationist Mississippi Sen. James Eastland during his time in the Senate.
Asked Friday whether the comments and Biden’s busing record disqualify him as a candidate, Harris said that was “a decision for the voters to make.” She also brushed off accusations that raising those controversies Thursday amounted to a “low blow” against Biden.
“It was about just speaking truth,” Harris said on “CBS This Morning.”
“As I’ve said many times, I have a great deal of respect for Joe Biden. He has served our country over many years in a very noble way, but he and I disagree on that,” she said. “And it is a debate, this is a campaign where we should be discussing issues, and there will be contrast. And on this issue … there is a contrast of opinion on the significance of people who have served in the United States Senate and what they have done in terms of their policies.”
Speaking Friday at the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition convention in Chicago, Biden asserted that he “never, ever opposed voluntary busing” and instead supported “federal action to address root causes of segregation in our schools and our communities” — insisting that he has “always been in favor of using federal authority to overcome state initiated segregation.”
Joe Biden defends his civil rights record after debate: “I heard and I listened to and I respect Sen. Harris. But, you know, we all know that 30 seconds to 60 seconds on a campaign debate exchange can’t do justice to a lifetime committed to civil rights" https://t.co/aGy3S7MpAG pic.twitter.com/sOgPdJf1vt
— CNN (@CNN) June 28, 2019
I am still thinking about six minutes ago. Harris directly confronting Biden on busing/segregationists was historic, powerful, and unimaginable on a presidential stage until very recently, which is itself symptomatic of a world Biden is struggling to defend.
— Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) June 28, 2019
"Sympathy for the Devil "
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