Three minute video: A black guy explains why he is not oppressed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZgn0o_6W7g
Radio host mocks Trump by claiming Seattle is peaceful, then rioters torched his apartment building
Radio host mocks Trump by claiming Seattle is peaceful, then rioters torched his apartment building
By Mia Cathell
July 26, 2020
Seattle radio host and Twitter-based criminal defense advocate Paul Gallant “dunked” on President Donald Trump last month by denying that the riots are violent, then the radio host was scored on by rioters who set fire to his apartment. Now he’s taking up arms.
https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1287284351776878592
“Walked through it last night out of curiosity and saw no burning, pillaging, or deaths,” Gallant responded in June to Trump’s tweet calling out the violent leftists who continue to terrorize Seattle. “Chill dawg,” Gallant added sarcastically.
Last night, Gallant had a sudden change of heart towards the “peaceful protestors” when he came home to his apartment complex vandalized. He found the Starbucks underneath torched with graffiti plastered on the storefront. Cops told residents to stay away in case of explosives inside.
https://twitter.com/GallantSays/status/1287167490183684097
He’s was defending criminals before but he’s “[r]eally angry right now.'”
He and his cat ventured out after he witnessed a fire roaring a few blocks away.
“I feel like I need to buy a firearm, because clearly this is going to keep happening. Enough is enough,” Gallant furiously typed.
Not In My Back Yard is a hard red pill to swallow.
Update #2: This is amazon’s ninth non-answer to my question of why have they suppressed the sale of my first anti-Obama e-book, after it had already sold more than 1,500 copies during the past four years. This time, they asked me what my name is!
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
July 26, 2020
This new post is my second update to a previous post that I made.
This is my original post: After selling more than 1,500 copies of my first Obama e-book over the past four years, amazon has withdrawn it from sale, and refuses to explain why
And this is the first update: Update: These are amazon’s eight different non-answers to my question of why have they suppressed the sale of my first anti-Obama e-book, after it had already sold more than 1,500 copies during the past four years
And now, on with my second update.
Once again, I asked amazon why they suppressed the sale of my book.
This is their ninth non-answer. The bolding is mine:
Sat 7/25/2020 2:48 PM
Hello,
In order to address your concerns, we will need some additional information. Please respond to this message and provide us with your book’s title, author’s name and ASIN. When we hear back, we will be glad to investigate this issue further.
Best regards,
Thanks for using Amazon KDP
Best regards,
Bobby T
First of all, as is always the case in all nine of their non-answers, they did not answer my question.
Secondly, as is also always the case in all nine of their non-answers, they promise to answer my question at some future time.
Third, as is also always the case in all nine of their non-answers, this non-answer was written by a different, unique person.
But fourth – and this is a brand new thing that never happened in any of their eight previous non-answers – they asked me for my name, as well as for the name of my book.
And I had thought their non-answers couldn’t get any dumber after the first eight. Boy was I wrong.
This is how I responded to their ninth non-answer:
I have already given this information to you at least nine different times.
Why are you asking for it again?
Title: 1,375 well sourced examples of Barack Obama’s lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc.
Author: Daniel Alman
ASIN: B01E4U36NE
Why has the sale of my book been suppressed?
Why are you the ninth different person to respond to me, without any of the nine people actually answering my question?
Why are you giving such horrible, terrible customer service?
Daniel Alman
Another company stands up to the cancel culture mob
Another company stands up to the cancel culture mob
By Andrea Widburg
July 25, 2020
For quite a while now, we’ve been treated to the demoralizing and unedifying spectacle of media outlets and corporations bowing down to the mob’s cancel culture demands. Authors have been banned, editors fired, Trader Joe’s products renamed, statues dragged down, and much more, merely because spoiled, entitled, college-educated snowflakes, secure in their victimhood, have said words or products hurt their feelings and made them feel “unsafe.”
Thankfully, after the first shock of this Maoist attack on American institutions, some are beginning to recover their backbones. First, Goya Foods stood up to the mob. Then Red Bull refused to back down. And now the Wall Street Journal has declined to allow its baby journalists to hold its editorial page hostage.
The back story to the Journal’s courageous stand is that 280 employees in the News department signed a letter to the publisher, Almar Latour, criticizing the paper’s opinion pages. The letter is a marvel of Orwellian writing. It opens by expressing support for the First Amendment and then spends three pages explaining why the paper’s opinion page needs to stifle itself because it publishes material with which the letter’s signatories disagree. Not coincidentally, they invariably disagree with conservative content.
The greatest offender, according to the letter, was Heather Mac Donald’s piece about a pair of academics’ cowardly decision to withdraw from publication a study showing the absence of systemic racism when it came to the police shooting blacks in America. The academics wanted to withdraw the piece because Mac Donald had relied on its findings. (N.B.: Mac Donald had not twisted the results; she had merely relied on them.)
Mac Donald wrote about this academic game in the Wall Street Journal’s opinion pages, something the letter-writers found unacceptable. Indeed, the MacDonald article caused psychic pain greater than any snowflake should have to bear:
Multiple employees of color publicly spoke out about the pain this Opinion piece caused them during company-held discussions surrounding diversity initiatives[.] … If the company is serious about better supporting its employees of color, at a bare minimum it should raise Opinion’s standards so that misinformation about racism isn’t published.
There’s more, all in the same vein. The complaining employees suggested several fixes, including the right to challenge the paper’s editorial page.
The editorial board was not impressed. It noted, first, that it had no relationship to the news side of the paper. Both sides report to the publisher, but the complete separation “allows us to pursue stories and inform readers with independent judgment.”
While the board conceded that it was inevitable that the cancel culture crowd would come for it, “as it has at nearly every other cultural, business, academic and journalistic institution,” it was unafraid. Or, as it said, “we are not the New York Times.” For that reason, the editorial board wrote a declaration of independence from the censorious cancel culture cabal in the newsroom:
As long as our proprietors allow us the privilege to do so, the opinion pages will continue to publish contributors who speak their minds within the tradition of vigorous, reasoned discourse. And these columns will continue to promote the principles of free people and free markets, which are more important than ever in what is a culture of growing progressive conformity and intolerance.
If enough people develop the kind of courage the editorial board just showed, the cancel culture temper tantrum that is wreaking havoc across a nation already damaged by Wuhan virus hysteria will quickly subside. It’s high time that we return to a culture defined by free speech, the marketplace of ideas, and an ability both to tolerate and politely argue against beliefs and values with which we disagree.
When they say “Black Lives Matter,” it is clear the left does not mean black lives like the one of Bernell Tremmell
Black Man Known for Standing Outside With ‘Vote Trump’ Signs Murdered in Broad Daylight
When they say “Black Lives Matter,” it is clear the left does not mean black lives like the one of Bernell Tremmell.
July 25, 2020
When they say “Black Lives Matter,” it is clear the left does not mean black lives like the one of Bernell Tremmell.
Tremmell was well-known in his Milwaukee community for being an outspoken advocate for President Donald Trump. He would spend his days out in the heat at City Hall or in his neighborhood with his homemade signs urging people to reelect the president in November.
On Thursday afternoon, the 60-year-old activist was fatally shot in broad daylight outside his business, Expression Publications. The storefront was covered in signs with bible versus, along with “Vote Donald Trump 2020,” and “Re-Elect Trump 2020.” The suspect reportedly drove up, shot him, and drove away.
Law enforcement sources told “The Dan O’Donnell Show” that they do not yet know the motive for the murder, since they have not yet made any arrests, but “detectives are investigating the possibility that Tremmell was killed over his political beliefs.”
Reggie Moore, Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention director, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he had “intervened in a dispute between Trammel and a young man” that he thought was “related to a Trump sign that Trammell was carrying.”
It is unclear if the altercation was a factor in his death.
“I had an interaction with him last Saturday across the street from Walmart on Capitol Drive,” one woman who did not wish to be identified told the radio show. “It was the second time I had seen him with his Trump sign and I pulled my car over to chat with him. What a nice, friendly man! We chatted for several minutes, and I told him I was proud of him and he’s very brave to put himself out there so visibly as a Trump supporter!”
When they say “Black Lives Matter,” it is clear the left does not mean black lives like the one of Bernell Tremmell.
Tremmell was well-known in his Milwaukee community for being an outspoken advocate for President Donald Trump. He would spend his days out in the heat at City Hall or in his neighborhood with his homemade signs urging people to reelect the president in November.
On Thursday afternoon, the 60-year-old activist was fatally shot in broad daylight outside his business, Expression Publications. The storefront was covered in signs with bible versus, along with “Vote Donald Trump 2020,” and “Re-Elect Trump 2020.” The suspect reportedly drove up, shot him, and drove away.
Law enforcement sources told “The Dan O’Donnell Show” that they do not yet know the motive for the murder, since they have not yet made any arrests, but “detectives are investigating the possibility that Tremmell was killed over his political beliefs.”
Reggie Moore, Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention director, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he had “intervened in a dispute between Trammel and a young man” that he thought was “related to a Trump sign that Trammell was carrying.”
It is unclear if the altercation was a factor in his death.
“I had an interaction with him last Saturday across the street from Walmart on Capitol Drive,” one woman who did not wish to be identified told the radio show. “It was the second time I had seen him with his Trump sign and I pulled my car over to chat with him. What a nice, friendly man! We chatted for several minutes, and I told him I was proud of him and he’s very brave to put himself out there so visibly as a Trump supporter!”
Heavy.com reports that a man named Kevan Penvose wrote on Facebook that Trammell “was a man with whom I hardly ever agreed about anything he wrote on his signs, but also, as a Rasta street preacher, he was one of the people that make my neighborhood so uniquely wonderful. Around 12:30 this afternoon I heard gunshots nearby as I was working at my dining room table. Soon after, I was reading reports on social media of a shooting around the block, at the location of this one-of-a-kind storefront that I’ve walked by a million times… Peace and light, Ras Bernell.”
Anyone with information on the murder of Tremmell is being urged to contact the Milwaukee Police Department.
Update: These are amazon’s eight different non-answers to my question of why have they suppressed the sale of my first anti-Obama e-book, after it had already sold more than 1,500 copies during the past four years
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
July 25, 2020
This is an update to a previous post that I made, which you can read here: After selling more than 1,500 copies of my first Obama e-book over the past four years, amazon has withdrawn it from sale, and refuses to explain why
After I asked amazon why they withdrew the sale of my e-book, they responded with a non-answer. So I asked them again, and they responded with another non-answer.
This cycle has gone on eight different times now, and they have given me a total of eight different non-answers.
And each of these eight different non-answers was written by a different, unique person.
This is their first-non-answer. The bolding is mine:
Wed 7/22/2020 3:18 PM
Good afternoon Daniel,
I hope you are doing well! Thank you for contacting Kindle Direct Publishing.
First of all, thank you for calling attention to this fact! I’m happy to help with your inquiry.
In this case, I can see you published the book again today, so, let me inform you your book is with the status “Updates publishing “, that means it can take up to 72 hours for the changes to display or become functional on the site. Meanwhile, the previous version of your title is live and available for purchase in the Kindle Store.
If the books is not available after the 72 hrs, please let us know so we can ask our technical team for advice.
In advance, I really appreciate your comprehension, I remain in the best disposition for any additional requests you may have.
Thanks for being part of Amazon KDP
Regards,
Roberth H
Kindle Direct Publishing
First of all, that bolded part is a lie. The e-book was not available for sale at that time.
Secondly, they did not answer my question about why the sale of my book was suppressed.
So I asked them again. This is their second non-answer. As always, the bolding is mine:
Wed 7/22/2020 11:49 PM
Hello Daniel,
Warm greetings from Kindle Direct Publishing!
Thank you for your prompt reply and for providing us those details.
Upon of checking our system, it seems that you title is not available for purchase since our Quality Team is reviewing some issues on your files.
In this case in order to get further information about the status of your eBook “1,375 well sourced examples of Barack Obama’s lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc” (ASIN: B01E4U36NE), I will kindly recommend you to communicate directly with our Quality Team through your account by using the “Ask a Question” feature in your Quality Issues Dashboard. Our Quality team will review your question and respond within one to two business days.
In advance, I really appreciate all your patience, help and understanding on this matter. We remain in the best disposition for any additional requests you may have.
Thanks for being part of Amazon KDP
Regards,
Mary H.
Kindle Direct Publishing
First of all, I had already used their “ask a question” feature that this person recommended, but I did not get an answer “within one to two business days.”
Secondly, the person did not answer my question.
Third, the person who wrote this response is different than the person who wrote the first response.
So I asked them again. This is their third non-answer:
Thu 7/23/2020 7:11 AM
Hello,
I understand your concern with regards to the unavailability of your book, “1,375 well sourced examples of Barack Obama’s lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc.” on Amazon.
I’ve reached out to our Technical team and requested them investigate about the unavailability of your book on Amazon and we’ll need some time to look into this. I apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause.
I’ll contact you with more information by the end of the day on “Monday, July 27”.
Thanks for your patience.
Regards,
Nid
Kindle Direct Publishing
First of all, just like with the other two non-answers, there is a promise for an answer in the future, but no answer in the actual letter.
And secondly, this response is from a completely different person than the other two.
So I again asked them why the sale of my e-book was suppressed. This is their fourth non-answer. This one is my favorite of all eight so far, because the writer desperately tries to hide their non-answer behind what is basically nothing but a bunch of gibberish and doublespeak:
Thu 7/23/2020 3:18 PM
Hello,
I’m sorry for any delay this has caused.
I have checked the progress on the issue raised and it looks like it is being investigated.
I’ve escalated and also emphasized the urgency of this matter and verified this issue is prioritized to be resolved as quickly as possible.
Thanks for your understanding and continued support. We will remain at your disposition for further assistance.
Regards,
Singh
Kindle Direct Publishing
First of all, look at all the big words they used to try to hide the fact that they weren’t actually answering my question.
Secondly, this is now four different people who have each given me a different non-answer. They sure are putting a lot of effort into not answering my simple question.
I asked them again. This is their fifth non-answer. In this case, I have redacted the name of the book, because the book that this person cited is not my book. Instead, it is someone else’s book, and I don’t want to draw attention to that other person:
Thu 7/23/2020 7:25 PM
Hello,
I apologize for the inconvenience you had regarding the availability of your book (name of book redacted)
I checked and see that one of my colleague working with our technical team regarding this issue. I’ve forwarded your concern to him.
He’ll get back to you with more information as soon as possible.
I appreciate your patience in this regard.
Regards,
Aravind
Kindle Direct Publishing
First of all, like I said, the book that this person cites is not my book.
Secondly, as with the other cases, they do not answer my question, but they do promise that my question will be answered in the future.
And third, this is the fifth different person out of five different non-answers.
This time I contacted them and told them that this was not my book. This is their response. And again, I have redacted the name of the book that is not mine:
Thu 7/23/2020 11:45 PM
Hello Daniel,
I hope this email finds you well.
I understand that you’re concerned about the mistake my colleague Aravind made as you’ve never written a book called (name of book redacted)
I’m sorry for the mistake my colleague made, I did notice that one of our agents, Nid, is currently handling the case for your book “1,375 well sourced examples of Barack Obama’s lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc.” I’ve went ahead and let my colleague know you’ve contacted once again.
I hope this information was helpful.
Thanks again for your interest in Amazon KDP. I remain in the best of dispositions for any additional inquires you may have.
Regards,
Elliot A.
Kindle Direct Publishing
First of all, they still don’t answer my question.
Secondly, they give me another bogus promise that they will answer my question in the future.
And third, this is the sixth different person out of six different non-responses.
So again, I asked them why the sale of my e-book has been suppressed. This is their seventh non-answer:
Fri 7/24/2020 9:52 AM
Hello Daniel,
Thanks for letting us know you have updated a revised version of your eBook:”1,375 well sourced examples of Barack Obama’s lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc”.
I see there’s a coworker working with our Quality team to get this resolved. I’ve shared your question so you’ll receive an update on that as soon as possible.
In case you want to communicate directly with our Quality team, use the “Ask a Question” feature in your Quality Issues Dashboard. Our Quality team will review your question and respond within one to two business days.
Thanks for your patience.
Regards,
Gabriel
Kindle Direct Publishing
First of all, as always, they don’t answer my question.
Second of all, as always, they promise that my question will be answered at some point in the future.
Third, they tell me to use their “ask a question” feature in the dashboard, and that they will answer “within one to two business days.” But I have already used the “ask a question” dashboard feature several times, but they have never answered my question.
And fourth, this is the seventh different person out of the seven non-answers that they have given me. They sure are putting a huge amount of effort into trying to hide the fact that they are not actually answering my question.
I asked them again, and this is their eighth non-answer:
Fri 7/24/2020 3:44 PM
Hello Daniel,
I’ve your previous correspondences and I’m sorry for the delay it is taking in resolving your eBook’s availability issue due to quality suppression.
I’m seeing that my colleague, Nid, is still in touch with our technidal team to confirm this issue for you. I’ve notified him to provide you a status update and he will get back with more information at the earliest.
Thanks for your understanding in this regard.
Regards,
Siyam
Kindle Direct Publishing
First of all, once again, they do not answer my question.
Second of all, once again, they promise that my question will be answered in the future.
And third, they have now had eight different people for their eight different non-answers.
19 more reasons the lockdown is a scam
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
July 24, 2020
My complete list can be read at Here are 194 reasons why I’m against the COVID-19 lockdowns
Here are the 19 new items:
176) A Florida health official admitted that a man in his 20s who died in a motorcycle accident was listed as a coronavirus death, raising questions about the validity of the state’s COVID-19 fatality count
177) American Academy of Pediatrics: Get students back to school in the fall
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is pushing government officials and school administrators to allow students to return to class in the fall despite the coronavirus.
The AAP said in a Monday statement that the cost to children of keeping them separated from school and their classmates may be worse than the disease and lead to abuse, drug use, and even suicide.
178) Sky News’ Rowland Manthorpe: “… if I tested positive for COVID-19 today and then I got hit by a bus tomorrow, then COVID-19 would be listed as my cause of death”
179) “… you could have been tested positive in February, recovered, then hit by a bus in July and you’d be recorded as a covid death”
180) Columnist calls out Chris Cuomo’s wife for lack of social distancing, promoting shoes, magazine during Instagram yoga session
New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz blasted Cristina Cuomo, the wife of CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, for doing yoga inside a high-end shoe store, arguing that people like the Cuomos enjoyed a separate set of rules during the coronavirus pandemic.
Markowicz pointed to an Instagram post in which Cristina Cuomo and her yoga instructor engaged in an hour-long session at a brand-new Jimmy Choo store. A gym owner had purportedly commented on the video and complained that neither Cristina Cuomo, nor her instructor, were social distancing or wearing masks.
“Cristina Cuomo is selling her products while working out indoors at the Hamptons @jimmychoo store with her trainer; No social distancing, no masks. Why is it the Cuomo family can make a living but I can’t open my gym to support my team and family?” the post read.
https://twitter.com/karol/status/1284306473636573184
Post from a gym owner. Every fawning media feature lets this family get away with this behavior. Rules don’t apply. pic.twitter.com/4yQJuBlcAj
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) July 18, 2020
https://www.foxnews.com/media/cristina-cuomo-yoga-coronavirus-jimmy-choo-instagram
181) People are more likely to contract COVID-19 at home, study finds
https://www.yahoo.com/news/people-more-likely-contract-covid-122611396.html
182) CDC study: Coronavirus infection numbers may be up to 24 times higher than reported
183) No known case of teacher catching coronavirus from pupils, says scientist. There has been no recorded case of a teacher catching the coronavirus from a pupil anywhere in the world, according to one of the government’s leading scientific advisers. Mark Woolhouse, a leading epidemiologist and member of the government’s Sage committee, told The Times that it may have been a mistake to close schools in March given the limited role children play in spreading the virus.
184) Health professionals advocate for school reopening despite coronavirus pandemic
https://dailycaller.com/2020/07/16/health-professionals-school-reopening-pandemic/
185) Dr. Vladimir Zelenko’s claimed treatment for COVID-19 with a triple combination of hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and azithromycin: Have conservatives fallen for a bogus conspiracy theory? Or, have liberals ignored a real world, successful treatment for COVID-19?
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
July 7, 2020
At least since March, and perhaps even earlier, Dr. Vladimir Zelenko from New York has been claiming to have successfully treated COVID-19 patients with a triple combination of hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and azithromycin.
In March, Snopes rated Dr.Zelenko’s claim as “unproven.”
On May 8, medrxiv.org reported:
Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin plus zinc vs hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin alone: outcomes in hospitalized COVID-19 patients
In univariate analyses, zinc sulfate increased the frequency of patients being discharged home, and decreased the need for ventilation, admission to the ICU, and mortality or transfer to hospice for patients who were never admitted to the ICU.
On May 12, Spectrum News channel 1 from New York reported:
Researchers at NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine found patients given the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine along with zinc sulphate and the antibiotic azithromycin were 44 percent less likely to die from the coronavirus.
The study looked at the records of 932 COVID-19 patients treated at local hospitals with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.
More than 400 of them were also given 100 milligrams of zinc daily.
Researchers said the patients given zinc were one and a half times more likely to recover, decreasing their need for intensive care.
And I think this next one is the most important one so far.
On July 3, preprints.org reported:
COVID-19 Outpatients – Early Risk-Stratified Treatment with Zinc Plus Low Dose Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin: A Retrospective Case Series Study
Of 335 positively PCR-tested COVID-19 patients, 127 were treated with the triple therapy. 104 of 127 met the defined risk stratification criteria and were included in the analysis. In addition, 37 treated and eligible patients who were confirmed by IgG tests were included in the treatment group (total N=141). 208 of the 335 patients did not meet the risk stratification criteria and were not treated. After 4 days (median, IQR 3-6, available for N=66/141) of onset of symptoms, 141 patients (median age 58 years, IQR 40-60; 73% male) got a prescription for the triple therapy for 5 days. Independent public reference data from 377 confirmed COVID-19 patients of the same community were used as untreated control. 4 of 141 treated patients (2.8%) were hospitalized, which was significantly less (p<0.001) compared with 58 of 377 untreated patients (15.4%) (odds ratio 0.16, 95% CI 0.06-0.5). Therefore, the odds of hospitalization of treated patients were 84% less than in the untreated group. One patient (0.7%) died in the treatment group versus 13 patients (3.5%) in the untreated group (odds ratio 0.2, 95% CI 0.03-1.5; p=0.16). There were no cardiac side effects. Conclusions: Risk stratification-based treatment of COVID-19 outpatients as early as possible after symptom onset with the used triple therapy, including the combination of zinc with low dose hydroxychloroquine, was associated with significantly less hospitalizations and 5 times less all-cause deaths.
That one is the best news so far.
If this is really true, then imagine how many lives could have been saved if more people had paid attention to Dr. Zelenko back in March.
And imagine how much of the lockdown, unemployment, educational disruptions, and other stresses could have been avoided.
I have also noticed that, for some weird reason, there is a huge political divide over this. Back in March and April, every single source that I found that supported Dr. Zelenko was right wing.
So, either conservatives have fallen for a bogus conspiracy theory, or, liberals have ignored a real world, successful treatment for COVID-19.
So which is is?
Have conservatives fallen for a bogus conspiracy theory?
Or, have liberals ignored a real world, successful treatment for COVID-19?
186) D.C. mask mandate exempts lawmakers and government employees
187) Coronavirus lockdown ‘made no difference to number of deaths’, study claims
July 23, 2020
Countries across the world ordered its citizens to stay home and shut up shop in a bid to stop the virulent coronavirus spreading.
But now a study has sensationally claimed the drastic measures did not help reduce the global death toll which is currently more than 625,000.
Experts from the University of Toronto and the University of Texas compared mortality rates and cases in 50 different countries worst hit by the pandemic up until May 1.
They found while imposing lockdown did stop hospitals from being overwhelmed, this did not necessarily prevent high death tolls.
Instead, the researchers concluded, the number of Covid-19 related deaths depended on the health and age of each nation before the pandemic.
https://www.the-sun.com/news/1190721/coronavirus-lockdown-no-difference/
188) California’s ban on ‘in-home bible studies’ sparks lawsuit by Church
189) Stop stealing our children’s youth in the name of their grandparents. Every person I know in his 70s says kids should go back to school. Behind ensuring Americans have food, ensuring our children are well educated is a very close second in societal priorities.
By Steve Welch
July 17, 2020
For those who don’t get the outrage, let me try to put it in simple terms.
Yes, COVID-19 is dangerous, especially to our elderly population and those who are high-risk. Yes, there will be some young, healthy people who die from COVID, as is true with the 38,000 people who die from car accidents each year, or the 2,000 children who died last year from cancer.
As of June 17, 26 American children under the age of 15 have died from COVID. That is not a misprint: 26 children under the age of 15. By comparison, in the first six months of this year, an estimated 122 children under the age of 15 died from the flu, 536 children died in car accidents, and another 349 died in pool drownings. I don’t hear anyone saying we should stop putting kids in cars or letting them swim in pools.
We are stealing our children’s youth and ultimately will be stealing their adulthood, because they will lack the education and social skills to succeed, and we are saddling them with a greater and greater amount of debt as we destroy our economy. Disrupting schooling also forces parents to try to homeschool their children and work their job at the same time.
The effects will be more pronounced in poor communities that lack the technical infrastructure to allow children to access and be successful in distance learning. For the social justice warriors who have understandably been working for equal opportunity in society, this is the sword to die on.
Every person I know in his 70s—every single one—says kids should go back to school. I cannot imagine a single grandparent in this country who would not sacrifice isolating himself for the next six months so his grandchildren can have the joy of playing tag with their friends on the playground or dissecting a frog with their lab partners.
Yes, teachers are at greater risk than students. Doctors and nurses, many of whom are also high risk, continue to go to work every day treating actual COVID patients because that is their job. Individuals working in meat plants are keeping America fed, often under dangerous working circumstances.
Workers put themselves at risk by stocking the shelves at the supermarkets to ensure Americans survive. I cannot imagine teachers not willing to make the same sacrifices. Behind ensuring Americans have food, ensuring our children are well educated is a very close second in top priorities as a society.
You are an American, and you have the following choice every single day: if you are not comfortable with the progression of COVID, you should isolate yourself. Everyone else, put on your mask and practice good social distancing, but it is time to get back to work and life.
Teachers who are high risk can use Zoom to connect with students who will be in the school, and where possible with a young teaching assistant. Students who are high risk should attend schools that have been doing distance learning for a decade. I assure you, they are better at it than what I saw in public schools in the spring.
States should add resources to these online schools or potentially create a state-run online school. But it is time to stop stealing our children’s youth in the name of their grandparents.
Often in life, we need to choose the least bad choice. The absolute worst choice we can make as a society is to cheat our children of their youth and not properly educate them. This is not only selfish, but will damage our country for decades to come. Taiwan, Norway, and Sweden recognized this early and kept their schools open in the spring, and countries like Germany and Japan have already reopened their schools.
We are cheating our children of life by not allowing them to be kids. Besides school, we are cancelling their sports and clubs and theater classes. I am confident America’s senior and at-risk population—who should be isolated anyway!—are willing to stay isolated a little longer to ensure our kids have a childhood and are prepared for the future.
190) Citing educational risks, scientific panel urges that schools reopen
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/health/coronavirus-schools-reopening.html
191) Liberty University announced that it has sued The New York Times for defamation, accusing the newspaper of being factually incorrect in reporting regarding students on campus testing positive for COVID-19 in late March during the early stages of the pandemic.
192) Stanford doctor Scott Atlas says the science shows kids should go back to school
193) Philly mayor’s ban on large events ‘does not apply’ to protests or ‘demonstrations’
194) German study finds no evidence coronavirus spreads in schools
After selling more than 1,500 copies of my first Obama e-book over the past four years, amazon has withdrawn it from sale, and refuses to explain why
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
July 23, 2020
Note from Daniel Alman: I have written an update to this post, which you can read at Update: These are amazon’s eight different non-answers to my question of why have they suppressed the sale of my first anti-Obama e-book, after it had already sold more than 1,500 copies during the past four years
Note from Daniel Alman: I have written a second update to this post, which you can read at Update #2: This is amazon’s ninth non-answer to my question of why have they suppressed the sale of my first anti-Obama e-book, after it had already sold more than 1,500 copies during the past four years. This time, they asked me what my name is!
Note from Daniel Alman: I have written a third update to this post, which you can read at Amazon update #3: This is amazon’s 10th non-answer to my question of why have they suppressed the sale of my first anti-Obama e-book, after it had already sold more than 1,500 copies during the past four years. This time, I busted the myth that you get better customer service if you contact them at Jeff@amazon.com
Note from Daniel Alman: I have written a fourth update to this post, which you can read at Amazon update #4: I have published a new version of my first Obama e-book, because amazon suppressed the sale of the original, and would not tell me why
Note from Daniel Alman: I have written a fifth update to this post, which you can read at Amazon update #5: Amazon is now saying the reason they banned my anti-Obama book is because I don’t own the rights to the public domain photograph of Obama that I used on the book’s cover
Note from Daniel Alman: I have written a sixth update to this post, which you can read at Amazon update #6: The Liberty Daily mentioned my situation. They titled it, “Amazon Bans Anti-Obama Book, Gives Bogus Reason.”
Note from Daniel Alman: I have written a seventh update to this post, which you can read at Amazon update #7: Amazon is now saying the reason they banned my anti-Obama book is because I don’t own the copyright to my book which I wrote
Note from Daniel Alman: I have written an eighth update to this post, which you can read at Amazon update #8: The Liberty Daily mentioned my situation for the second time. This time, they titled it, “Amazon Claims They Banned Anti-Obama Book Because Author Who Wrote it Somehow Doesn’t Own Copyright to Book He Wrote.”
More than four years ago, I self-published my first e-book at amazon, and since then, it has sold more than 1,500 copies.
The e-book is called, “1,375 well sourced examples of Barack Obama’s lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc.”
This is the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E4U36NE
Recently, amazon removed the e-book from sale, and told me it was because a few links in my text had gone dead, there were a few typos, and an image inside the e-book did not meet their standards.
In response to this, I replaced the dead links with links that worked, I fixed the typos, and I uploaded the new version.
I also told amazon that there were no images inside the e-book, so their claim about an image inside the e-book not meeting their standards was not a legitimate claim. (There is a cover image, but that was approved years ago.)
On July 19, 2020, they sent me an email which said the new version of my e-book was approved, and was currently available for sale.
But it was not available for sale. It was still suppressed.
So I re-uploaded the new version again a few days later.
And again, on July 22, 2020, they sent me an email which said it was approved, and was currently available for sale.
But again, it is still not available. It is still suppressed.
Here’s a screenshot from the e-books’s product page, which says:
And here’s a screenshot from the e-book’s product page, which says the e-book is:
“under review”
Here’s a link to the internet archive, which proves that those two screenshots are real, and that the sale of my e-book was suppressed as of July 23, 2020:
So I contacted amazon again, and they said there were a few current issues that I needed to fix, and that I could see these issues at my quality dashboard.
But when I looked at my quality dashboard, it said there were zero current issues.
Here’s a screenshot from my quality dashboard, which says:
“Under review by Amazon 0 issues in 0 books”
So amazon lied to me when they said the text of my e-book had an image which did not meet their standards.
And they lied to me when they said my e-book was currently available for sale.
And they lied to me when they again said my e-book was currently available for sale.
And they lied to me when they said there were current issues which I could see in my quality dashboard.
I have to wonder why amazon has suppressed my e-book, and why they keep lying to me about it.
Patricia McCloskey’s gun didn’t work so a prosecutor ordered it reassembled and then declared it lethal
Patricia McCloskey’s gun didn’t work so a prosecutor ordered it reassembled and then declared it lethal
By John Sexton
July 22, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8VfLbjkC1k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuhM20-HtSo
As you’ve probably heard by now, Mark and Patricia McCloskey are each being charged with a felony count of unlawful use of a weapon for stepping outside of their home with guns as protesters marched down a private street on their way to the Mayor’s house. Yesterday a new wrinkle was added this story. In order to bring the unlawful use charges against the McCloskeys, police have to verify that the guns actually posed a threat. The McCloskey’s guns were seized but when police tested Patricia McCloskeys silver handgun they found that it would not fire. So an assistant Circuit Attorney ordered the police crime lab to dissemble the gun and then reassembled it so that it could be fired.
The gun Patricia McCloskey waved at protesters was inoperable when it arrived at the St. Louis police crime lab, but a member of Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s staff ordered crime lab experts to disassemble and reassemble it and wrote that it was “readily capable of lethal use” in charging documents filed Monday, 5 On Your Side has learned.
In Missouri, police and prosecutors must prove that a weapon is “readily” capable of lethal use when it is used in the type of crime with which the McCloskeys have been charged.
Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Hinckley ordered crime lab staff members to field strip the handgun and found it had been assembled incorrectly. Specifically, the firing pin spring was put in front of the firing pin, which was backward, and made the gun incapable of firing, according to documents obtained by 5 On Your Side.
According to the McCloskeys, the incorrect assembly of the gun wasn’t an accident. The same gun had been used as a “prop” in a previous lawsuit and the McCloskeys had rendered it inoperable so that it could be brought into a courtroom. In short, the McCloskeys claim they knew the gun was non-functioning when Patricia McCloskey took it outside that day.
Mark McCloskey appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show earlier this week and was asked about his guns being seized. He mentioned the requirement that police show the gun was capable of lethal use and said, “there will be some revelations that come out about that.” He didn’t say at the time what those revelations would be but in retrospect it’s clear he was alluding to the fact that Mrs. McCloskey’s gun was non-functional.
The McCloskeys’ attorney said of prosecutor’s decision to reassemble the gun and then declare it lethal, “It’s disheartening to learn that a law enforcement agency altered evidence in order to prosecute an innocent member of the community.” The charges brought by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner probably won’t matter in the end anyway since Missouri Gov. Mike Parson told a radio station this week that he would likely pardon the McCloskey’s if they were convicted.
Two videos to close with. First, NBC 5’s report on the police lab’s reassembly of the gun. Below that is an earlier clip in which a law professor from St. Louis University explains that because the street on which protesters were marching was private property, the McCloskeys were probably within their rights under the state’s castle doctrine to come outside with their guns and demand protesters leave.
Black Portland police officer shocked at racist things BLM protestors scream at him
Black Portland Police Officer Shocked At Racist Things BLM Protestors Scream At Him
Officer Jakhary Jackson has experienced the vitriol of Portland’s white woke protesters, who engage in white saviorism and destroy minority communities while claiming to champion racial equality.
By Glenn T. Stanton
July 22, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha-7SETmJD4
In one black Portland police officer’s frontline experience, the Black Lives Matter protests in his city are not about helping black people attain better lives. What this officer sees is privileged white kids infiltrating communities that don’t belong to them to burn stuff, break things, cause trouble, incite violence, and tell black people what they should do.
This officer, Jakhary Jackson, is a nine-year veteran of the Portland Bureau of Police. After working for Nike for 10 years, Jackson joined law enforcement to “make the most out of my life by helping others.” Both sides of his family have long Portlandian roots. Jackson works where he grew up, and his love for the people of his community is evident.
A Different Kind of Racism
During a Portland press availability, Lt. Tina Jones interviewed Jackson, simply asking him to share his experience working these protests every evening for the last few months.
I’ll say this. I got to see folks that really do want change like the rest of us, that have been impacted by racism. And then I got to see those people get faded out by people who have no idea what racism is all about, that have never experienced racism, that don’t even know that the tactics they are using are the same tactics that were used against my people.
Jackson tells of a young black woman asking him one evening, while he held the line with protesters, why he wouldn’t talk with her and her friends, why he wouldn’t engage them. He explains that young black people often ask him what he thinks of all the unrest. They want to know what he thinks about the injustice, about George Floyd’s death, about the pain resulting from killings of black men.
It isn’t Jackson’s superiors who demand he not speak, it’s the young white protestors — nearly every night. Jackson explains that when “a brother or sister” approaches him, wanting his perspective on things, white protesters jump in like clockwork to tell the inquirer, “F-ck the police. Don’t talk to him.”
“That was the most bizarre thing,” Jackson says, wincing as he tells the story. “Honestly, every time I try to have a conversation with someone that looks like me, someone white comes up and blocks them and tells them not to talk.” Jackson says the very moment he was explaining this to a young black female, “this white girl pops right in front of her” and told her not to speak.
“He just said that was gonna happen!” the black girl said, stunned, is if Jackson were a fortune teller. She looked at the white girl and said, “Why did you do you that?”
Jackson continues, relaying his conversation with the girl, who interrupted: “Then I said, straight up, ‘I’ve been called the N-word. She’s been called the N-word. Why are you talking to me this way? Why do you feel she can’t speak for herself? Why do you feel you need to speak for her when we’re having a conversation?’”
“She couldn’t answer my question,” Jackson says. “All she said was, ‘Someone told me to do it.’”
A Profile of Portland Protesters
When asked about what he and fellow black officers have been subjected to by protesters who are supposedly fighting for racial justice, Jackson tells of protesters regularly threatening his life. He’s taken multiple incoming explosives thrown by rioters, some very powerful with marbles and rocks taped to them, intended to inflict maximum and sustained damage. He saved a female officer from being hit in the head with a massive projectile that he said would certainly have killed her had he not been present.
But to Jackson and his black peers, the most painful thing is white protesters’ words. “It says something when you are at a Black Lives Matter protest, and you have more minorities on the police side than you have in a violent crowd,” Jackson says. “And you have white people screaming at black officers, ‘You have the biggest nose I’ve ever seen.’”
Jackson says he is totally “cool” with people wanting to join efforts to achieve social change. What he’s seen at the Black Lives Matter events, however, “has been very strange to watch” precisely because, as he explains, so-called anti-racism tactics have come full circle: White protesters are telling black people what is best for them. Worse, these white kids are destroying black neighborhoods while they do it.
The first images Jackson saw from the protests were white people, who Jackson says are “not even from here,” burning and looting black businesses. “They don’t even know what they’re doing,” he adds. “So that to me was very angering.”
“The community is not happy with it,” he says. “They asked for the violence to stop.” Jackson tells of his cousin who had attended a Black Lives Matter event but soon left dismayed at the violence perpetrated by white rioters, saying, “This has turned into something else. This is weird.”
Jackson tells another story of a pair of young brothers he met while they were cleaning up the street after the protesters had cleared out. Jackson and a few of his fellow offers went over to shake the boys’ hands, impressed at their efforts to restore the city. “You know,” the boys told the officers, according to Jackson, “We’re from here. This is our city. I don’t understand why people are coming here and destroying it. We want to clean it up.”
An Officer’s Reality
Jackson explains how strange it is for angry white youths to come to his community, claiming they want to help, but telling him to quit his job without knowing anything about him.
Once again, you have a privileged white person telling someone of color what to do with their life. And you don’t even know what I’ve dealt with, what these white officers you’re screaming at have dealt with. You don’t know them. You don’t know anything about them.
Jackson tells how he watches his fellow officers serve the community year after year, risking their lives each day. They do whatever it takes to care for those who have been shot, not afraid to get blood on them. He knows these officers do what they do because they care deeply about all the lives in their community, regardless of skin color.
“You see [the officers], and they are truly trying to help save someone’s life, and then are called racist by people who have never seen anything like that, who have never had to put themselves out there like that. It’s really—” Jackson takes a long pause. “It’s disgusting.”
This new video from Chicago shows a large group of “peaceful protestors” injuring 49 police officers by throwing bricks, rocks, full metal cans, frozen water bottles, explosive fireworks, and other items at them
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
July 22, 2020
This new video from Chicago is six minutes long.
Beginning at approximately 3:33, we see a large number of “peaceful protestors” throwing a large number of objects at police officers.
redstate.com reported that these objects included
“bricks, rocks, full metal cans and frozen water bottles, even explosive fireworks, among other items”
The same source also reported that 49 police officers were injured as a result of this.
Here’s the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIqlMtmpKq8
The totalitarian government of Minneapolis actually passed a law which forces convenience stores to sell certain foods
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
July 22, 2020
John Stossel’s newest column, which is about Minneapolis, states:
“They even tell supermarkets what cereal they must sell”
This was new information to me. I was curious, so I googled, and found out that in 2008, Minneapolis passed a law that forces convenience stores to sell a certain minimum amount of certain healthy foods. However, Stossel was mistaken in his claim that the law affected larger stores such as supermarkets.
In 2018, 10 years after the law passed, an article on it stated:
“… despite the increased availability of healthy foods, shopper surveys and home-food analyses showed no significant increase in people purchasing healthy foods in Minneapolis under the ordinance…”
In other words, the totalitarians who control the government of Minneapolis are forcing convenience stores to sell increased amounts of healthy foods that the stores’ actual customers do not want to buy.
In Walled Lake, Michigan, a high school social studies teacher named Justin Kucera was fired because he truthfully said, “Trump is our president”
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
July 21, 2020
Until very recently, Justin Kucera was a social studies teacher and baseball coach at Walled Lake Western High School in Walled Lake, Michigan.
Kucera recently made the following tweet: (original, archive)
The text of Kucera’s tweet states:
I’m done being silent.
@realDonaldTrump is our president
Don’t @ me
For this, Kucera was fired.
Timcast: Liberals DEFECT To Join Trump MAGA Train, Leftists REFUSE To Believe It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcADgDe7MmY
Chicago police release video showing ‘ambush’ by Antifa/BLM rioters who attacked them, injuring 49 cops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIqlMtmpKq8
Chicago Police Release Video Showing ‘Ambush’ by Antifa/BLM Rioters Who Attacked Them, Injuring 49 Cops
By Nick Arama
July 20, 2020
As we previously reported, BLM protesters and Antifa attacked police in a full-on assault on Friday, surrounding them and pelting them with bricks, rocks, full metal cans and frozen water bottles, even explosive fireworks, among other items as police stood in a circle around a statue of Christopher Columbus to prevent it from being torn down.
On Monday, Chicago’s Police Superintendent David Brown released a video of the attack, explaining how they had been “ambushed” by “organized actions to provoke violent response from our officers,” according to Fox News.
The video shows protesters hiding behind umbrellas and banners to quickly change into Antifa black bloc attire prior to moving in on the cops and attacking them. It also show them distributing items for protesters to throw at the police.
The protester/rioters also used umbrellas to shield themselves and as weapons against the police, as they pelted the police with projectiles. Others used sharpened PVC pipe to try to stab the police officers.
Forty nine police officers were injured, including one with a broken eye socket and another who had a broken kneecap.
The police were overwhelmed and the radicals damaged the statue and began putting ropes on it to pull it down.
Reinforcements came on the run and beat the violent rioters back. Twelve people were arrested for mob action, damage to property and attacking police officers.
“We cannot be a city that thinks mob action of a crowd is acceptable behavior,” Brown said, noting that when chaotic protests occur, the department is forced to divert manpower from policing high-crime areas.
The city reported 63 people shot and 12 killed over another violent weekend.
In response to Friday’s events, Brown said he’s ordered all officers to wear “any and all protective gear” when policing demonstrations.
“We cannot assume that protests are going to be peaceful, based on these actions and others,” he said.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said “vigilantes” attended Friday’s protest with intentions of violently engaging with authorities.
“That’s not peaceful protest. That’s anarchy,” she said during a Monday groundbreaking of a restaurant. “We can’t have a circumstance where a small subset of that try to take over and hijack the peaceful protest and then turn it into a fight with the police.”
It’s not “hijacking” when the protesters are clearly involved and in fact are the rioters. And it happens at virtually every “protest.” It’s the “protests” that are the cover for the riots.
Everyone involved in the organizing of the event needs to be under investigation.
Rand Paul: ‘No place’ for feds ’rounding people up at will’ in Portland
Rand Paul: ‘No place’ for feds ’rounding people up at will’ in Portland
By Zack Budryk
July 20, 2020
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Monday spoke out against federal officers “rounding people up at will” in Portland, Ore., saying the handling of unrest there should be left to local law enforcement.
“We cannot give up liberty for security. Local law enforcement can and should be handling these situations in our cities but there is no place for federal troops or unidentified federal agents rounding people up at will,” Paul tweeted Monday.
The senator linked to a post on the conservative blog HotAir about reports of protesters in Portland being detained by officers in unmarked vans. The link criticizes the federal officers’ presence as attempting to convey “to vandals, protesters, whoever, that there’ll be no accountability for anything these guys end up doing to them.”
https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1285270380127629315
The Department of Homeland Security has deployed the forces to the city over the objections of local and state officials, with both President Trump and acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli saying they could take similar steps in other U.S. cities in coming weeks.
Three House Democratic chairs on Sunday wrote to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz and Homeland Security Department Inspector General Joseph Cuffari calling for an investigation into the deployment.
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appear to have increasingly abused emergency authorities to justify the use of force against Americans exercising their right to peaceful assembly,” wrote House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
I grew up in a communist system. Here’s what Americans don’t understand about freedom.
I Grew Up in a Communist System. Here’s What Americans Don’t Understand About Freedom.
Only in a free-market system can we truly achieve individual liberty and human flourishing.
By Carmen Alexe
March 9, 2018
Individual freedom can only exist in the context of free-market capitalism. Personal freedom thrives in capitalism, declines in government-regulated economies, and vanishes in communism. Aside from better economic and legislative policies, what America needs is a more intense appreciation for individual freedom and capitalism.
I was born and raised in communist Romania during the Cold War, a country in which the government owned all the resources and means of production. The state controlled almost every aspect of our lives: our education, our job placement, the time of day we could have hot water, and what we were allowed to say.
Like the rest of the Eastern European countries, Romania was often referred to as a communist country. In school, we were taught it was a socialist country. Its name prior to the 1989 Revolution to overthrow the Ceausescu regime was the Socialist Republic of Romania.
From an economic standpoint, a petty fraction of property was still privately owned. In a communist system, all property is owned by the state. So if it wasn’t a true communist economy, its heavy central planning and the application of a totalitarian control over the Romanian citizenry made this nation rightfully gain its title of a communist country.
Socialism Creates Shortages
Despite the fact that Romania was a country rich in resources, there were shortages everywhere. Food, electricity, water, and just about every one of life’s necessities were in short supply. The apartment building in which we lived provided hot water for showers two hours in the morning and two hours at night. We had to be quick and on time so we didn’t miss the opportunity.
Wrigley’s chewing gum and Swiss chocolate were a rare delight for us. I remember how happy I was when I’d have a pack of foreign bubblegum or a bar of delicious milk chocolate. I’d usually save them for special occasions.
Fruity lip gloss, French perfume, and jeans were but a few of the popular items available only on the black market and with the right connections. God bless our black-market entrepreneurs! They made our lives better. They gave us the opportunity to buy things we very much desired, things we couldn’t get from the government-owned retail stores which were either half-empty or full of products that were ugly and of poor quality.
The grocery stores were not any better. I get it, maybe we didn’t need to be fashionable. But we needed to eat. So, the old Romanian adage “Conscience goes through the stomach” made a lot of sense.
During the late 1970s, life in Romania started to deteriorate even more. Meat was hardly a consumer staple for the average Romanian. Instead, our parents learned to become good at preparing the liver, the brain, the tongue, and other giblets that most people in the West would not even consider trying.
When milk, butter, eggs, and yogurt were temporarily available, my mom—like so many others of our neighbors—would wake up at 2:00 a.m. to go stand in line so she’d have the chance to get us these goodies. The store would open at 6:00 a.m., so if she wasn’t early enough in line she’d miss the opportunity.
In 1982, the state sent their disciples to people’s homes to do the census. Along with that, food rationing was implemented. For a family of four like us, our rationed quota was 1 kilogram of flour and 1 kilogram of sugar per month. That is, if they were available and if we were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when they were being distributed.
(more…)
New York’s mail-vote disaster: Almost a month after the election, nobody knows who won.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-yorks-mail-vote-disaster-11595286912
New York’s Mail-Vote Disaster
Almost a month after the election, nobody knows who won.
July 20, 2020
After primary night in New York, June 23, Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney held a 648 vote lead over progressive challenger Suraj Patel. Almost a month later the winner in the 12th District, which covers eastern Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn and Queens, remains unknown. It’s a dark omen for November.
The preliminary count included about 40,000 votes, but not 65,000 absentee ballots. If mail votes were postmarked by Election Day, they could arrive June 30 and still be considered valid. Counting was put on hold until that deadline passed, but it didn’t begin until July 8 due to an “unprecedented volume” of mail, as a city official put it.
Meantime, Mr. Patel went on MSNBC and charged that “voter suppression is a real thing,” even inside the Democratic Party. Ms. Maloney called this attack “a cynical abuse of voter confidence” that “comes straight out of Donald Trump’s playbook.” Mr. Patel is party to a federal lawsuit filed Friday that argues “an election law snafu” might “disenfranchise a massive number of voters.”
Usually New York’s absentee ballots need a stamp, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an order in May requiring that for the June election voters “be provided with a postage paid return envelope.” That’s a problem, the lawsuit says, because the U.S. Postal Service “does not traditionally postmark prepaid envelopes.” Despite reported USPS assurances that it would handle election mail correctly, the suit claims thousands of ballots arrived in time to be counted yet lack the necessary postmark.
Unofficial early data suggest that ballot rejection rates for the 12th District could hit 19% in Queens and Manhattan and 28% in Brooklyn. The lawsuit asks that ballots be considered valid if they arrived by June 30, postmark or no. Inevitably, though, this would create the opposite error: Counting truly invalid ballots that were mailed after Election Day.
On Sunday President Trump again refused to say if he’ll accept the result of the November presidential election. He’s wrong to say that, but Democrats ought to be working to make sure no one has an excuse to challenge the outcome.
They should examine New York’s voting mess and then take action. Mail-vote deadlines should be moved earlier, not later. Absentee ballots should be counted only if they arrive by Election Day, so an initial tally is available that night. Otherwise Americans might spend Christmas wondering which self-claimed President-elect will prevail in court.
I remember this old TV commercial for Sunkist soda, back when it didn’t have caffeine
I prefer soda without caffeine. I remember this old TV commercial. I think I heard this before I ever heard the original Beach Boys song on which it is based:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0yao1c8gA
We immigrants know the America-bashers are ridiculously wrong
https://nypost.com/2020/07/19/we-immigrants-know-the-america-bashers-are-ridiculously-wrong/
We immigrants know the America-bashers are ridiculously wrong
By Karol Markowicz
July 19, 2020
It’s my America-versary, the day my mother and I arrived in the United States. I was just 1 year old, and America was deep in her 1970s blues.
Every July 20, we celebrate. It’s up there with birthdays and anniversaries for our family.
It’s the day we became free.
My father had been granted permission to leave the Soviet Union first and had arrived in Brooklyn the previous summer. Nineteen seventy-seven was a particularly tough time for New York and the nation. It would be two more years before President Jimmy Carter would deliver his infamous “malaise” speech, but the crisis was in full view when my father landed at JFK Airport.
A few days after his arrival, the 1977 blackout happened. The lights went out in New York and, with them, the sense of basic security. Riots raged; fires and looting were widespread. It wouldn’t have been crazy for a new immigrant to wonder if he had made a mistake.
When my mother and I arrived (a year later), the country was in disarray. The overwhelming feeling was that America’s best days were behind her.
Then things began to turn around. It wasn’t easy, but America achieved a remarkable upward climb. President Ronald Reagan was elected on a message of hope. He created favorable conditions at the federal level, and the American people did the rest.
It would be 13 more years before Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor. Thanks to his policies, Gotham became the safest big city in the country and an urban model for the rest of the world.
Perhaps these astonishing successes lulled many into believing that no work was required to maintain our security and prosperity. We are just beginning to pay the price for such complacency.
Believing in America, and that the core of our country is good and sound, shouldn’t be tied to any president or political party. Yet the hard left continually pushes the line that America is hopeless and terrible. The Democratic Party too often follows along. It isn’t good for any of us when half the country’s population thinks we suck.
In January 2012, I attended an event held by WNYC New York Public Radio. It was very likely that I was the only conservative in the room. The WNYC host, Brian Lehrer, asked a room full of New York liberals — people who should have been thrilled by President Barack Obama’s first term — who was optimistic about the future of America.
I was one of only two people to raise their hands.
Last year, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested that America offered most citizens little more than “garbage,” owing to inequality and other social ills. Normally, when someone insults America, I bristle, my nostrils flair, and I’m ready to defend my country. But this time, I smiled. It was funny.
Here was a member of Congress, supremely privileged and supremely unaware of how lucky she was to have been born American. Her rage and fury, her provincial mindset, are products of her ignorance. She doesn’t know what people around the world live through. She doesn’t know garbage.
Bless her heart!
Yet America-hating has real consequences. There is a movement now to erase America’s imperfect history. Every day brings a new online hot take about how we should get rid of our National Anthem or remove Thomas Jefferson’s statue from New York’s City Hall.
We should resist this movement. Our collective history matters, and it shouldn’t be discarded.
There’s irony in the fact that the party which considers itself “pro-immigrant” is also the one that wants to destroy our country’s rich and complicated heritage. If Democrats believe immigrants come to America to be anything but American, they are kidding themselves. My family and millions of others came here longing to be free, to say what we want, to worship how we want and to raise American children who will know nothing but freedom.
On the day my mother and I became citizens and said the Pledge of Allegiance in a room full of new Americans, there were few dry eyes in the house. Don’t end our patriotic displays because an influential fringe has decided they are somehow evil.
We are in a difficult moment in our nation’s history. But if an immigrant family — arriving in a new country in the tumultuous late 1970s — could believe in the goodness of America and have hope for a better day, so could we all. America’s best days are ahead, if we remember what made us great in the first place.
If America sucks so bad, you’re free to leave
If America Sucks So Bad, You’re Free to Leave
By Derek Hunter
July 19, 2020
Dear leftists, mutants, rioters, perma-protestors, and all those funding or cheering on these violent goons destroying once-great cities of every color and possible human configuration (I realize that’s a long way to address a letter, but I wanted to make sure to be “inclusive,” lest someone feel offended or left out).
I write to you today on behalf of everyone else – not just the people who roll their eyes in disgust at the sight of you, but the people you don’t see – the people going to work every day, people with families or without, those stuck at home, those trying to get an actual education, and anyone else who loves this country, people of every race and ethnicity. In other words: normal Americans.
You really seem to hate it here. So, we have a question: why are you still here?
Honestly, if the country is such a cesspool of racism, sexism, homophobia, oppression, brutality, and is fundamentally rigged against everyone not born with a silver spoon in their mouth, why the hell have you stayed?
It’s not like you’re in prison here, no matter how much you whine that it is like one. You’re out in the streets seemingly every other week “fighting oppression” over just about every way you can dream up to claim someone is oppressed, crying about the fascism of this or that without it sinking in that you’re still free to whine about imagined fascism and if we really were a fascist country you’d be in jail or dead, why not get out?
You don’t seem to have a coherent message beyond you hate it here, so leave.
You’re spending an awful lot of time trying to impose a system of government you claim to be fighting, which is a testament to how you were failed by the education system, your parents, or both. Whatever the case, we don’t care. We aren’t interested in what you’re selling. Our Second Amendment makes it really difficult for you to force it on us, so your fight is likely an unwinnable one.
Yes, you have the Democratic Party on your side now, but even a win in November won’t bring about the complete “transformation” you’re seeking. But there are countries out that that have what you want – North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba – or others that have lighter versions of the same. There’s a country for whatever level of stupid you happen to suffer from, or simply other places that aren’t “colonizing, imperialist, capitalistic” pits of despair, and you can get to any of them in a matter of hours. Go.
Why spend your whole lives fighting for something you may never get when what you want is readily available elsewhere? What walls we do have on our borders aren’t meant to keep you in, you’re free to leave.
Now, you may find that other countries, “more fair” countries, might not want you. Most of the rest of the world only takes in people who bring something to the table and, let’s face it, you’re not bringing much. But you could probably convince them to take you, if only for the propaganda victory against the U.S. It’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make.
I get that moving to a new country is tough, but if I were born into what I thought of as a prison with no hope for a better future, I’d find a way. In fact, I did. I was born and raised in Detroit, but I got out. It wasn’t easy. When I moved out I had about $500 to my name, one month’s rent, but I did it because there was nothing for me professionally there. What’s your excuse?
Here’s a deal I propose to help with that, actually. Since the government is just printing money like crazy right now (for a long time, really), how about a one-time payment of, say, $20,000 to help you start your new life in an existing Utopia? You pick it, we’ll move you there and give you some money to help you get started.
It can be anywhere in the world, totally up to you. All you have to do is get them to accept you, and we’ll take care of the rest. We’ll move your record collection, vintage video games, ferret or snake (no judgement), your books (from Communist Manifesto and Mao’s little red one to comic or White Fragility), and any clothes you have beyond the all black outfit you always wear to the country of your choice.
There’s just one little catch, because there always is: you can’t come back. Part of this deal is when you sign for your check you are renouncing your US citizenship. Seems like a fair trade to me – why would you ever want to return to this disgusting place, right?
A free move, free cash, and freedom from the United States of America to wherever you can find. Imagine being able to live in a country without a single statue of Columbus, Washington, Jefferson, or anyone else you couldn’t hold a candle to if you lived to be 1,000. Wouldn’t that be great?
One more caveat: you’ve got to take most, if not all, of your fellow travelers with you. Since you can’t come back, not even to visit (Skype with your parents or they can go visit you, if they still talk to you), think of it as a chance to see the world with your likeminded, gender non-conforming, flag burning, cop-hating, brick-throwing extended family. In other words, it’s a package deal.
It shouldn’t be difficult to convince most of them, your old college professors and unshowered drum circle comrades likely don’t enjoy it here anymore than you do. Sure, it would damage the chances of Democrats winning in the fall, but that wouldn’t really matter anyway since 99 percent of the ones in Congress already would be going with you.
What do you say? Do we have a deal?
Sincerely,
Everyone else
Police arrest alleged brake line cutter caught on camera under NYPD van
Police Arrest Alleged Brake Line Cutter Caught on Camera Under NYPD Van
24-year-old Jeremy Trapp has been charged with reckless endangerment and criminal mischief
By Jonathan Dienst
July 19, 2020
The NYPD arrested a man they say cut the brake line to at least one police van parked on a street in Brooklyn.
Video of the man sabotaging the vehicle shows the suspect underneath the van in Sunset Park along 4th Avenue and 42nd Street. Police spotted the man before they got into the van.
A senior police officials say a mechanic confirmed the brake line damage that would have prevented the van from coming to a stop.
Officers arrested 24-year-old Jeremy Trapp. He has been charged with reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.
Officials say Trapp was seen at times coming and going from the Occupy City hall protests in recent weeks.
The alleged crime comes amid what NYPD officials are calling deeply troubling anti-police environment – they point to previous cases of police vehicles firebombed, officers attacked and vehicles sabotaged in others way – lug nuts loosened on their cars for example.
Trapp was arrested by police on July 17 after he was allegedly seen emerging from under the NYPD van. Attempts to find him for comment were unsuccessful and the public defender’s office could not be reached for comment.
Portland Antifa and BLM launch explosives at federal building while barricading agents inside
Portland Antifa and BLM Launch Explosives at Federal Building While Barricading Agents Inside
By Cassandra Fairbanks
July 18, 2020
Portland Antifa and Black Lives Matter launched explosives at the Federal Courthouse and Justice Center while attempting to barricade agents inside on the 50th night of riots in the ultra liberal city.
There was also severe violence against random citizens that they disagree with politically during Friday night’s chaos.
https://twitter.com/selfdeclaredref/status/1284391255359787008
https://twitter.com/selfdeclaredref/status/1284391255359787008
https://twitter.com/selfdeclaredref/status/1284394501365215232
https://twitter.com/selfdeclaredref/status/1284394501365215232
The Portland Police tweeted “Officers have observed people in the area of the Federal Courthouse and Justice Center on SW 3rd Ave place fencing and sandbags in front of doors. This is criminal behavior. Participants not involved in criminal behavior are encouraged to leave the area immediately.”
https://twitter.com/CassandraRules/status/1284400638114365445
https://twitter.com/CassandraRules/status/1284400638114365445
https://twitter.com/selfdeclaredref/status/1284387572152782849
https://twitter.com/selfdeclaredref/status/1284387572152782849
A street preacher was violently assaulted and carried away by a mob. A witness at the scene said that a gun had been pulled on him. The witness also said that another man was tied to a fence, beat, and then had the fence pushed over on top of him.
https://twitter.com/selfdeclaredref/status/1284394065958703106
https://twitter.com/selfdeclaredref/status/1284394065958703106
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1284337804286337024
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1284341359969816576
The rioters also deployed smoke bombs and lasers, which they use to impede the vision of police officers.
https://twitter.com/selfdeclaredref/status/1284394065958703106
https://twitter.com/selfdeclaredref/status/1284394065958703106
Around 1:30 a.m. local time, the Portland Police Department tweeted that “participants have 5 minutes to remove all barricades around the facility. Failure to follow this direction may subject you to arrest, citation, or use of force including crowd control munitions. Leave the area to the west. SW Columbia to SW Taylor from SW 1st to 6th is closed.”
https://twitter.com/PortlandPolice/status/1284405547077218304
Shortly after the 5 minutes were up, law enforcement began shooting massive amounts of tear gas into the crowd to disperse them, according to a livestreamer on the scene. They also tore down the barricades set up by the rioters.
https://twitter.com/selfdeclaredref/status/1284417707186761728
https://twitter.com/selfdeclaredref/status/1284417707186761728
A Twitter user who goes by the name Maria Viti has been diligently archiving important footage from various riot livestreams across the country for months. You can follow the account here for more footage of the shocking violence tearing apart our cities.
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 