Not only ridiculous leftists, but historically ignorant.
DUNN, N.C. (WNCN) — The controversy surrounding Confederate monuments has resulted in the vandalism of statues across the South.
“Never even thought it would affect us in any way at all,” said Mark Johnson, Curator of the General William C. Lee Airborne Museum in Dunn.
Johnson thought for sure a statue of General William C. Lee would be safe from the chaos.
“This is a hometown grown boy here that turned out to be an international hero of World War II so to come and try to destroy his statue is just an insult to everybody,” said Johnson.
Police say someone doused the statue in some kind of a flammable liquid and set it on fire.
“I think it was a big mistake,” said Johnson. “Why would you do something like this? It really just irritates people.”
Johnson thinks the vandals wanted to make a statement about slavery and racism and he thinks the vandals could use a history lesson.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) in 1985 praised countries where people “line up for food,” calling breadlines a “good thing.”
The video of Sanders, then the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, resurfaced on Tuesday after the senator announced that he is running for president in 2020. In the interview from the mid-80s, Sanders was asked about breadlines in Nicaragua and his support for the socialist Sandinistas who ruled the country at the time.
“You know, it’s funny, sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food,” Sanders said. “That’s a good thing. In other countries people don’t line up for food. The rich get the food, and the poor starve to death.”
Sanders’s presidential campaign will be his second bid for the White House, after losing his Democratic primary bid to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Still, despite losing, Sanders said that his more progressive stances helped push the Democratic Party further to the left in the two years following his loss.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s new embrace of smoking marijuana didn’t go well back in Jamaica, where her father said her ancestors would be “turning in their grave” after hearing her stereotype the island’s people as “pot-smoking joy seekers.”
Harris cited her Jamaican heritage last week when she admitted to smoking marijuana. The California senator scoffed at claims that she opposes legalizing the drug by saying, “Half my family is from Jamaica, are you kidding me?” She said she supports legalization because smoking “gives a lot of people joy, and we need more joy.”
Her father Donald Harris, who came to the United States from Jamaica in pursuit of a graduate degree in economics, took issue with his daughter’s use of the drug stereotype as she runs for president.
“My dear departed grandmothers, as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics,” he said in a statement to Jamaica Global that gained attention in the United States over the weekend.
Nearly 100 graves at a Jewish cemetery in eastern France have been desecrated with swastikas.
The damage was discovered on Tuesday, ahead of nationwide marches against a rise in anti-Semitic attacks.
French President Emmanuel Macron visited the cemetery, in a village near Strasbourg, telling community leaders: “It’s important for me to be here with you today.”
France has the biggest Jewish community in Europe, about 550,000 people.
What happened?
The damage was discovered on Tuesday in Quatzenheim, a village in Alsace close to France’s border with Germany. Nazi symbols and anti-Semitic slogans were spray-painted on the graves.
One tombstone was defaced with the words “Elsässischen Schwarzen Wolfe” (“Black Alsatian Wolves”), the name of a militant far-right group active in the 1970s and 1980s.[…]
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has warned that anti-Semitism is “spreading like poison” in the country.
Statistics published last week showed a rise of 74% in the number of anti-Semitic attacks in France, from 311 in 2017 to 541 in 2018.
Several high-profile recent incidents have brought the issue of anti-Semitism into focus in France.
Post-boxes featuring a Holocaust survivor’s portrait were daubed with swastikas, while a Jewish bakery in central Paris had the German word for Jews (“Juden”) spray-painted on its window.
Last weekend, police also stepped in to protect the philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut, after he was reportedly bombarded with anti-Jewish taunts by a group of “yellow vest” protesters in Paris.
AUSTIN, Texas (KEYE) – A 7-year-old boy is facing backlash after some neighbors in his northwest Austin community took offense to a hot chocolate stand he started to raise money for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall.
The boy’s parents, Shane and Jennifer Stevens, say their son Benton decided he wanted to start the fundraiser after attending the inauguration and watching the State of the Union address earlier this month.
Both Shane and Jennifer are members of the Republican National Convention and call themselves conservatives. They say that the news coverage they watch and the conversation at the dinner table have obviously rubbed off on Benton.
“I think it’s important that (our children) know what’s going on in the world, where we stand, what we believe in,” said Jennifer.
They say he begged them to set up a hot chocolate stand to raise the money for the wall, and over this past weekend, he set up shop at a Steiner Ranch strip mall.
“Every day he would get off the bus and say, mom can we go do my stand,” said Jennifer.
Benton says he has been ridiculed for his political beliefs in the past, including at President Trump’s inauguration, which he attended with his family. He says three women in pink hats made fun of his “Make America Great Again” hat.
People driving through downtown Sarasota were greeted with a shocking sight by a familiar statue – graffiti.
Overnight, someone spray painted “#MeToo” on the Unconditional Surrender statue alone U.S. 41 near Marina Jacks. Police say they were called to the scene at North Gulfstream Avenue and Bayfront Drive shortly before 1am and discovered the graffiti, which they estimate caused $1,000 in damage. Police say they was no available surveillance video of the area and no known witnesses.
Genevieve Judge, spokesman for Sarasota Police, said, “We’re not sure what they had in mind. It’s just heartbreaking they’d take matters to this iconic statue that’s a piece of art we have here in the city, and so, it’s under investigation, we’re trying to figure out exactly who did this.”
Gorilla Kleen, the company that regularly cleans the statue for the arts committee, saw our news alerts Tuesday morning around 8:30am about the statue being vandalized. They immediately went to the statue, even though they weren’t contracted to clean it and aren’t being paid, to begin the process of removing the graffiti from the statue.
In around 45 minutes, the company had completely restored the statue, removing all of the graffiti using a special chemical and hot water and plenty of elbow grease.
John Cloud, owner of Gorilla Kleen, said, “It’s just sad to see anyone in this day and age to choose to purposely do damage to something that brings great pride to the community. It’s one of our most iconic pieces here.”
The graffiti came after news on Monday of the passing of 95-year-old George Mendonsa. He is the sailor captured in a photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt kissing Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform, on Aug. 14, 1945 in Times Square. Known as V-J Day, it was the day Japan surrendered to the United States.
Authorities in Arkansas released surveillance video Monday they say shows three suspects inside an Ace Hardware shop swiping 79 guns—mostly pistols—within two minutes after breaking into the store.
The incident occurred at about 3 a.m. on Friday and the burglary did not trigger an alarm, The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported. The suspects, apparently emboldened, returned to the store in Prairie Grove about two hours later to steal a few more weapons, but set off the alarm during the reentry.
They were in the store the second time and joined by a fourth person for four seconds. The suspects were not identified. A total of 79 guns were taken, including pistols, revolvers and rifles. They reportedly broke a glass case inside the store to remove the weapons.
CONCORD, N.H. – The Granite State may have been Bernie Sanders country in the 2016 Democratic primary, but Sen. Kamala Harris says she won’t follow in the independent senator from Vermont’s footsteps.
Asked by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy if she would have to run as a democratic socialist – which is how Sanders often describes himself, the Democrat from California quickly and bluntly answered that “I am not a democratic socialist.”
Harris spoke on Monday as she took questions from reporters during her in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire for the first time since launching her presidential campaign four weeks ago.
Four good Samaritans pulled a woman from a burning car after a suspected drunk driver crashed into the rear of her vehicle in Garyville Monday morning (Feb. 18), State Police said.
The woman, 41, from Prairieville, was taken to a local hospital to be treated for her injuries, said Trooper Melissa Matey, spokeswoman for the State Police. At least one of the woman’s rescuers suffered burns, according to authorities.
The crash occurred about 6:45 a.m. on southbound Airline Highway at the intersection with Louisiana Highway 54. The woman was sitting in traffic at a red light when a driver identified as Richard Preston II, 22, slammed into the back of her car, Matey said.
Investigators said they believe Preston was impaired and speeding when he hit the woman’s car. The impact caused the vehicles burst into flames, Matey said.
Motorist Anita Haley was driving in the opposite direction on Airline when she came upon the crash. She was recording with her cell phone as four men ran up to driver’s side window of the woman’s car, the rear of which was engulfed by billowing flames and smoke.
The men pulled the woman out through the window and carried her to safety. At least one of the men suffered facial burns during the rescue, Matey said.
New reports continue to trickle in, and the story keeps growing ever-grimmer for embattled “Empire” star Jussie Smollett. The latest news out of Chicago reported by ABC is that the two Nigerian-American brothers, who have been “fully cooperating” with police after being detained last week, say that not only did Smollett pay them to stage the “racist and homophobic” attack, Smollett sent the infamous threatening letter to himself a couple of weeks earlier. To make matters worse, multiple outlets have confirmed that Smollett was found guilty of providing false information to police involving a DUI back in 2007.
So, if these widely reported claims about Smollett turn out to be true, how serious are the potential charges he would face? Some legal experts have begun to weigh in on the issue.
Speaking with Variety, Chicago-based criminal defense lawyer Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor, suggested that Smollett’s “significant exposure” could end up coming back to haunt him if authorities press charges. “It’s a very, very, very serious situation,” he said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced Monday that Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib will be speaking at CAIR-Michigan’s annual banquet only days after the Hamas-linked organization revealed that fellow Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota will be speaking at CAIR-LA’s annual banquet.
CAIR is a notable pro-Palestinian organization with ties to Islamic terror groups. The U.S. Department of Justice listed CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in funding millions of dollars to the terrorist organization Hamas. Additionally, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) named CAIR a terrorist organization along with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in 2014.
Tlaib will be the guest speaker at CAIR-Michigan’s 19th annual “Faith-Led, Justice Driven” banquet on March 17, according to the organization’s invitation. Single tickets start at $50 per person and a table can cost upwards of $500. Tickets for Omar’s March 23 event start at a similar price point.
Omar and Tlaib became America’s first Muslim congresswomen when sworn into office in January. Their time in office has been embroiled in allegations of anti-Semitism.
Yesterday, masked protestors “occupied & reclaimed” (whatever that means) the #BorderPatrol museum (non-profit entity run by volunteers) & defaced our fallen agent memorial (a very sacred monument).
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about the hypocrisy of their actions…🙄 pic.twitter.com/VUmMmwAIqO
“Dozens” of protesters stormed and occupied the National Border Patrol Museum in Texas over the weekend, vandalizing the building’s displays, including a wall honoring fallen Customs and Border Protection Officers.
Around 50 protesters, “donning masks to conceal their identity,” overtook the El Paso, Texas, facility on Saturday, leaving destruction in their wake, Fox News reports.
The director of the museum described the incident as an “invasion.”
LOS ANGELES—Powerful Democratic donor Ed Buck solicited Timothy Dean for months prior to Dean’s suspicious death in Buck’s home, according to close friends, speaking out for the first time.
Dean was found dead on Jan. 7, the second black gay man to die at Buck’s West Hollywood Home in less than two years. Charges have not been filed against Buck in either death. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to press charges in the 2017 death of 26-year-old Gemmel Moore from a methamphetamine overdose at Buck’s apartment. They reopened an investigation into Moore’s death since Dean died.
Five friends told The Daily Beast that Dean characterized Buck as predatory.
In November, Dean asked DeMarco Majors, his friends of 20 years, to make him a promise. Sitting at Gym Sportsbar in West Hollywood, Dean looked Majors right in the eye.
“Ed Buck hits me up all the time, and I don’t answer none of his text messages,” he said, according to Majors. “Don’t you take your ass over there.”
For years, Buck had been plagued by accusations that he drugged young black men in his home on Laurel Avenue and eluded arrest by filling the coffers of California’s most powerful politicians. That July, the district attorney’s office announced it wouldn’t press charges against Buck in the death of Moore.
Majors didn’t know Buck, he told Dean. Still, Dean insisted that Majors steer clear of Buck. Majors said Dean pulled out his phone and opened his texts. He scrolled upward with a flick of his thumb.
(Reuters) – A high school student from Covington, Kentucky, at the center of a videotaped incident at the Lincoln Memorial involving a Native American activist sued the Washington Post for defamation on Tuesday, claiming the newspaper “vilified” him because he is white.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Kentucky by Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann, 16, seeks $250 million in damages – saying that was the amount Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com and the world’s richest person, paid for the Post in 2013.
“The Post wrongfully targeted and bullied Nicholas because he was the white, Catholic student wearing a red ‘Make America Great Again’ souvenir cap on a school field trip to the Jan. 18 March for Life in Washington, D.C.,” the lawsuit claims.
Sandmann “was unexpectedly and suddenly confronted by Nathan Phillips … a known Native American activist, who beat a drum and sang loudly within inches of his face,” the suit said.
Representatives for the Washington Post did not immediately respond to a request by Reuters for comment.
The two brothers questioned by police in the Jussie Smollett investigation, and their lawyer Gloria Schmidt have just left the grand jury room. They gave no comment.
Just saw the two brothers’ attorney Gloria Schmidt walk out of this door moments ago at the Cook County Courthouse at 26th and California. She said she is not able to comment at this time. #JussieSmollettpic.twitter.com/RuXA0ms1Gk
And he had a past history of providing false information:
LA City attorney confirms to @fox32news#JussieSmollett in Aug ‘07 entered no contest to 3 misdeameanor counts driving w/ blood alcohol of .08 or above, no valid drivers license and providing false information to law enforcement. He was sentenced to 2 years probation. #Smollett
The feds are also looking into whether he was behind the threatening letter that was sent to him. That would be considered separately in a federal proceeding.
Multiple charges if this is true, both state and federal for false reporting and possible obstruction of justice.
After President Trump sent a tweet criticizing Alec Baldwin’s most recent impersonation of him on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” the star has responded by questioning whether the president is directly threatening he and his family’s personal safety.
Trump sent a tweet directly calling out “SNL” for being biased against his administration and Republicans in general.
“Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion” he tweeted Sunday.
Baldwin, a frequent Trump critic, took to Twitter shortly afterward to respond to the president’s tweet and wonder as to whether or not his comments counted as a threat against him and his family.
“I wonder if a sitting President exhorting his followers that my role in a TV comedy qualifies me as an enemy of the people constitutes a threat to my safety and that of my family?”
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren proposed a universal child care plan that would limit American families’ expenses to 7 percent of income regardless of how many children they have in care — paid for by a tax on the ultra-wealthy.
The Massachusetts senator’s plan, unveiled Tuesday on Medium.com, would make child care free for families with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level, or less than $51,500 for a family of four. Other families would pay up to 7 percent of income, depending on how much they earn.
The proposal marks the latest policy entry into a 2020 contest that features scores of progressive Democrats competing over how best to mitigate income inequality and expand the economic safety net for working families. Americans pay nearly as much for child care as they do for rent, with the average cost of child care in the U.S. approaching $1,400 a month, according to a 2018 HotPads analysis of a Care.com state and metro area pricing index.
Warren’s economic populist vision, paired with fierce attacks on corporations and wealthy Americans who she says are rigging the system for self-interest, is at the heart of her campaign, which has already drawn attacks from President Donald Trump.
Warren’s plan would cost taxpayers $70 billion per year, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics economists Mark Zandi and Sophia Koropeckyj. It would be paid for with some of the revenue from an annual wealth tax Warren has proposed on assets above $50 million, the person said.
The proposal would “substantially increase the number of children able to receive formal child care” from 6.8 million (or one-third of those under 5 years old) to 12 million (or 60 percent of children under 5), the economists said. It would cut formal care costs for families with young children by about 17 percent.
