Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Trump In Kenosha
President Trump went to Kenosha, Wisconsin, today. The community endured several days of violent rioting after the shooting of Jacob Blake. As is often the case, initial reports did not tell the whole story.
Joined by Attorney General William Barr and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, the president toured areas of the city devastated by rioting and participated in a roundtable event on community safety.
The roundtable event was attended by local leaders and several business owners whose companies were destroyed by the riots. The president praised the National Guard and local law enforcement, and promised to provide financial support to the affected businesses and their employees. Trump said:
"Kenosha has been ravaged by anti-police and anti-American riots. Violent mobs damaged at least 25 businesses. . . These are not acts of peaceful protests but domestic terror. . .
"To stop the political violence, we must confront the radical ideology that supports it. . . We must give far greater support to our law enforcement. . . We can't be threatening them. . .
"We cherish our law enforcement. . . We have to condemn dangerous anti-police rhetoric. It's very unfair. . . The vast and overwhelming majority of police officers are honorable, courageous and devoted public servants. . . When allegations of police wrongdoing are reported, they must be fully and fairly investigated. And that's what we're doing."
The president also denounced efforts to defund the police and coddle criminals, and he promised to help Kenosha rebuild with direct federal support to small businesses, law enforcement and aid to crime victims.
Whose Violence?
Yesterday we told you that the left was attempting to change the narrative about the rioting that has taken place in the past three months. The left claims that "It's all Trump's fault" and "It's happening in Trump's America."
As absurd as this new narrative is, the left is going all out to convince you not to believe your own eyes. MSNBC's Joy Reid suggested that the real threat came from conservative Second Amendment supporters. While conservatives have guns, "Black Lives Matter kids have skateboards and a bull horn," she insisted.
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) suggested that the rioting was being done by white supremacists. Just because many of the rioters are white, liberal politicians assume they must be right-wing extremists.
The idea that conservatives are responsible for the rioting in the progressive cities of Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle and Washington, D.C., is sheer lunacy. Conservatives are not trying to burn down federal courthouses or private businesses. They are not blockading ICE offices or setting up "autonomous zones."
It is also very revealing that various Oregon state law enforcement agencies (here and here) are refusing to go into Portland because of weak liberal leadership.
And it's the left – not the right – that is defending looting because it "attacks some of the core beliefs and structures of cisheteropatriarchal racial capitalist society" and "rejects the legitimacy of ownership rights and property."
Targeting Antifa
The Justice Department appears to be taking the threat of Antifa much more seriously. Conservatives have been urging action against this radical group for years.
Last night, Tucker Carlson asked Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf what was being done to hold the leaders of Antifa responsible. Wolf said:
"This is something I have talked to [Attorney General Barr] personally about, and I know [the Justice Department is] working on it. . . The Department of Justice is also targeting and investigating the head of these organizations, [and] the individuals that are paying for these individuals to move across the country."
I am glad to hear it. It can't happen fast enough.
Educating Patriots
For many years now, I have been warning against the "anti-American history" our children are learning in our public schools. More recently, we have sounded the alarm on the 1619 Project from the New York Times. In yesterday's report, we specifically called out the radical "ethnic studies" program that California bureaucrats are pushing in the Golden State.
I am pleased to report that President Trump raised the issue of American education yesterday during his White House press briefing, echoing many of our concerns. He said:
"What we're witnessing today is a result of left-wing indoctrination in our nation's schools and universities. Many young Americans have been fed lies about America being a wicked nation plagued by racism. . .
"The left's war on police, faith, history, and American values is tearing our country apart. . . The only path to unity is to rebuild a shared national identity focused on common American values and virtues, of which we have plenty. This includes restoring patriotic education in our nation's schools. . ."
The War On Faith
The left continues exploiting the coronavirus to wage war on men and women of faith. Here are the latest skirmishes.
In Minnesota, state bureaucrats are refusing to provide regular services to Christian and other private schools as long as the public schools remain shut down. That means busing services, counselors, special education teachers and even school nurses will be provided virtually if at all.
Under state law, private schools can qualify for the "same" level of service as public school students. Thanks to the pandemic, that level of service isn't very much at all these days. So the private schools get virtually nothing either, even though they are trying to provide full service to their students.
In California, state bureaucrats are ratcheting up the pressure on Pastor John MacArthur. Los Angeles County is now canceling Grace Community Church's lease on a parking lot it has used since 1975.
Why is the county doing this? Is Grace Community Church regularly staging massive protests against California officials? Well, in its own way, it is. They are defying absurd rules against holding in-person worship services.
I suppose instead of calling their services "worship," they should call them "protests." Maybe then the left-wing bureaucrats would back off.