Wednesday, August 26, 2020
More Riots In Wisconsin
For the third day in a row, rioting erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin. This time theviolence turned deadly. Three people were shot and two were killed.
It must be noted that Wisconsin's liberal governor has been hesitant to deploy sufficient National Guard troops and he rejected an offer of federal assistance from the White House. Business owners and city residents have been left to fend for themselves.
Some of the demonstrators yesterday were chanting "Death to America!" and "Kill the police!" Clearly, these people are not marching for social justice or even law enforcement reform.
In a country as big as ours, there will never be a year when there is never one questionable interaction between law enforcement and criminal suspects. But these radicals intend to exploit every example to bring down the United States.
Why would we not believe them when they are shouting their goals?
Meanwhile, Julia Jackson, Jacob Blake's mother, was interviewed on CNN last night. Jackson called for calm, saying:
"My family and I are very hurt and quite frankly disgusted [by the violence] . . . Please don't burn up property and cause havoc and tear your own homes down in my son's name. . . It's not helping Jacob or any of the other men or women who have suffered in these areas."
Host Don Lemon asked her, "Do you have anything to say, Ms. Jackson, to the politicians . . . to the president or the candidates, Trump or Biden, or anything like that?" I don't think Lemon got the response he was expecting. Jackson replied:
"For our President Trump, first I want to say a family member, and I don't know if it was heard or not, said something that was not kind. She is hurting and I do apologize for that. . . And also for President Trump, I'm sorry I missed your call. . . I'm not mad at you at all. I have the utmost respect for you as the leader of our country."
Confronting Communist China
As we have recently noted, the Trump Administration is cracking down on China's massive espionage efforts. Now we are learning more about what prompted the Trump Administration last month to shut down the Chinese consulate in Houston.
It turns out that China's diplomats have been acting as "minders" for dozens of military spies posing as Chinese research students.
One top Justice Department official told the Wall Street Journal, "The consulates were directing [People's Liberation Army] associates on how to avoid detection and what materials to erase on their phone." From that activity, they concluded that there was "a much bigger effort than maybe we were even aware of."
FBI Director Christopher Wray has stated that half of the Bureau's counterintelligence investigations involve China. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe recently said, "China poses a greater national security threat to the U.S. than any other nation."
And the administration continues rooting out Chinese spies. Just this week, the Justice Department charged a Texas A&M professor, who led a NASA research team, for being associated with China's Thousand Talents program.
Abby Educates America
Former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson delivered one of the most effective speeches so far at the Republican National Convention. I believe it was a speech we will be talking about for years to come.
Johnson described something that I bet millions of people tuning in last night did not know: That an unborn baby in utero will fight to escape an abortionist's implements, just like any living thing will fight to save its life.
If you raise a hand to a dog, it will cower and try to escape the blow. If you are seen raising a hand to your dog, you're likely going to be in legal trouble.
But if you put a scalpel in a mother's womb or inject a saline solution into the womb, there is no legal jeopardy as the baby struggles to avoid having her life snuffed out.
Johnson also described the "Products of Conception room . . . where infant corpses are pieced back together to ensure nothing remains in the mother’s womb."
She added that she knows what abortion "smells like." I hadn't really thought about that. But as we know, death has an odor and abortion takes an innocent life.
Sandmann Still Standing
Nick Sandmann, the soft-spoken young man who found himself the focus of the left's fury last year, had a big moment last night before a national audience. Sandmann said the left tried to "cancel" him. With all due respect, Nick, that's not exactly what they were trying to do.
He didn't have a radio or TV show. He wasn't a social media influencer. He didn't have a successful business. There was nothing to "cancel." Nick Sandmann was a powerless teenage Christian, who was simply trying to exercise his First Amendment rights.
He and his classmates were mercilessly harassed by a radical black group, and then a professional protestor walked up to him banging a drum in his face. When Nick did not move, they didn't try to "cancel" him. They tried to destroy him.
It is not an exaggeration to say that many leftists hoped he would die. They used a level of bullying on a national scale that in our schools all too often results in suicide.
One well-known liberal commentator tweeted, "Have you ever seen a more punchable face than this kid's?" And they're still smearing him, even after video evidence proved he did nothing wrong.
Radical leftists told him he would never go to college or get a job because they would follow him the rest of his life, telling everyone what an evil person he was. His school had to close because of threats. His family received death threats. They wanted him to put a gun to his head.
G-d bless Nick Sandman. G-d bless his courage that day for not yielding to the mob. Thankfully, he is getting some satisfaction in the courts.
But Nick's fight is not over. Our fight is not over. The left's assault on free speech and our cherished values is far from over. We must steel ourselves for the battles ahead. We must keep fighting for faith, family and freedom. And we will need all the courage we can muster.