The usual suspects got butt hurt over an American flag.

Via Fox News:

A local pizza shop in a small town in New York state came under fire for proposing an American flag mural on the side of its building, but it brought the community together in a special way.

When Maria Lisante, the owner of La Bella Pizza Bistro in New Paltz, proposed an American flag mural on a brick wall littered with graffiti, she didn’t expect any pushback. But some in the community were offended by the idea because the mural is across from a middle school and would force the kids to look at the American flag, which they call a symbol of hatred and oppression.

Lisante’s friend Joey Garcia, a New York state corrections officer and Army National Guard veteran, organized an “American flag appreciation walk” to rally the community together and show their support for the flag, military, law enforcement, and the country.

“To me the flag represents many things: freedom, compassion, strength, and pride to name a few. In my opinion, we live in the greatest country on earth,” Garcia told Fox News. “But lately our Flag seems like it’s under attack. People today speak out against our flag and country so much and want to only point out what they feel is wrong with it. I understand and respect their right to their opinions, but I feel like those of us who do not feel that way have a voice too and deserve to be heard.”

The patriotic demonstration grew out of an effort to raise money on GoFundMe to pay for the materials and an artist to paint a vintage-looking mural of the American flag on the brick side wall of the pizza shop. Lisante said she got approval from the mayor, who told her to do a GoFundMe page and make the mural a community event.

Close to 500 people showed up to the flag rally Sunday afternoon, while a handful of protestors, who identified as anti-fascists, held signs like “Yes, I’m anti-AmeriKKKan” and “Stop Pretending your Racism is Patriotism” and chanted: “No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!”[…]

“Before we headed out on our walk I had a United States Marine come up and we had several veterans that were there come up, and in honor of all of the military heroes who have fallen, we had a military benediction read and then taps was played,” Garcia said, adding that a low moment came when one of the protesters tried to spit on the U.S. Marine who was in uniform.

“We’ve been called racist, hateful, unpatriotic and worse,” he added. “It’s very sad, because it really was an amazing and positive day in the community that so many are thankful for and say they will never forget.”

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All the cool people were going to see Hamilton.

Via Tampa Bay Times:

Undercover FBI agents paid for Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum’s hotel room and his ticket to the Broadway musical Hamilton during a 2016 trip to New York City, according to a bombshell trove of records that raise new questions just two weeks before next month’s election.

The records include photos, a video and dozens of text messages between Gillum, former lobbyist Adam Corey and an undercover FBI agent, and they appear to refute what the mayor has said that trip and others.

His campaign has maintained — and continued to maintain Tuesday — that Gillum’s brother, Marcus, who lives in Chicago, handed him the ticket the night of the show.

The campaign has not said how Marcus Gillum came by such a difficult-to-obtain Broadway ticket, or whether Andrew Gillum asked his brother about it.

“These records vindicate and add more evidence that at every turn I was paying my own way or was with my family, for all trips, including picking up tickets from my brother, Marcus, who was with a group of his own friends,” Gillum said in a statement.

But the messages show that Gillum was told the tickets came from “Mike Miller,” who was an FBI agent posing as a developer looking into city corruption.

“Mike Miller and the crew have tickets for us for Hamilton tonight at 8 p.m.,” Corey texted Gillum on Aug. 10, 2016.

“Awesome news about Hamilton,” Gillum replied, according to the records.

Tuesday’s extraordinary release came from Chris Kise, an attorney representing Corey, who’s at the center of the FBI’s long-running probe into corruption in the state capital. No one has been charged, and Gillum has said that agents assured him he was neither a target nor a focus of the probe.

Kise said he gave the records to the Florida Commission on Ethics, which is investigating a complaint about Gillum’s trips to New York City and Costa Rica with Corey, on Tuesday. Then he gave copies to the campaigns of Gillum and his opponent in the governor’s race, Republican Ron DeSantis.

Gillum has repeatedly given vague answers to questions about who paid for what during the August 2016 trip to New York. And during Sunday’s debate, Gillum again avoided the question when DeSantis asked him about the tickets.

“Did you pay for the Hamilton tickets?” DeSantis asked.

“First of all, I am a grown man,” Gillum replied. “My wife and I take vacations and we pay for our own vacations … I don’t take free trips from anybody. I’m a hard-working person, I know that may not fit your description of what you think people like me do, but I’ve worked hard for everything that I’ve gotten in my life.”

But the records go beyond Broadway tickets.

They show that undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen were working for months to get an out-of-state meeting with Gillum, and that Gillum appeared willing to oblige them.

In June, Corey texted Miller, the undercover agent, telling him that he would discuss options with Gillum.

“I just want to make it a good trip and Sweets and B will be booked on something else if we don’t lock something down,” Miller replied.

“Mike Sweets” and “Brian Butler” were the two other undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen.

Corey then followed up proposing to meet in Las Vegas.

“AG thinks Vegas in August is an easier option for him,” Corey texted Miller. “He is double checking availability with his office now. Stand by.”

Instead of Las Vegas, they met in New York, while Gillum was attending a conference on behalf of the People for the American Way Foundation, which Gillum worked for.

The text messages show that Miller paid for the airfare and hotel room for Gillum’s brother, Marcus, who lives in New York City.

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Keep crashing the boards.

Via Daily Wire:

“Early voting” began this week in most states, allowing enthusiastic members of both parties to cast their ballots far ahead of election day. But the practice, which typically favors Democrats, seems this year to indicate excitement on behalf of the GOP, particularly in states that could make the difference between a Democrat-controlled Senate and a Republican-controlled one.

NBC News reports that Republican early voters are “outpacing” Democrats in key states like “Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, Tennessee and Texas,” and the difference is significant. In most states mentioned, at least 10% more Republicans have voted early than Democrats.

NBC’s data analytics center did not parse out whether the “early votes” were in-person or by absentee ballot. In-person early voting generally favors Democrats, largely because most “early voting” sites are located in major cities with large populations, where demand to vote is high and lines can get long on Election Day. Absentee ballots — particularly those from older Americans and military personnel stationed away from their home city — generally favor Republicans.

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Thus proving there is no limit to some people’s stupidity.

Via Daily Wire:

On Tuesday, a former senior policy analyst in the Reagan administration and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department in the Bush 41 White House essentially stated that Adolf Hitler was a better person than President Trump.

Bartlett even doubled down:

Anyone who really thinks a comparison between Trump and Hitler is absurd should watch "Triumph of the Will" and then watch one of Trump's MAGA rallies. His rallies are easy to find. Fox runs them uncut. https://t.co/SMhXzORrR1

— Bruce Bartlett (@BruceBartlett) October 23, 2018

Bartlett has made his contempt for President Trump quite plain before:

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Surveillance video shows Delaware state house candidate Monique Johns removing Republican incumbent Kevin Hensley's campaign literature from this front door. Johns said she issued an apology to her opponent and asked voters for forgiveness. https://t.co/OO4Nt3qG1R pic.twitter.com/9tNQK3yBH4

— ABC News (@ABC) October 23, 2018

Dumb, Dishonest and Democrat = Defeated.

DOVER — A state House candidate caught on camera taking an opponent’s mailer has apologized.

Monique Johns, the Democratic nominee for the 9th Representative District seat, was filmed by a security camera at a Middletown home lifting a handbill left at the door of the house by her opponent on Sunday.

“Today, I ask for the forgiveness of the residents of the 9th Representative District. I made a mistake,” Ms. Johns said in a statement Monday. “I removed the literature of my opponent’s campaign from the door of a voter. It was wrong and I should never have done it.

“This was a lapse of judgment that I humbly regret. Please forgive me. I won’t make any excuses for this action. I have apologized to my opponent, my supporters, and now I apologize to the voters of the 9th Representative District.

“I work hard to live up to the standards I set for myself and I am disappointed that I fell short in this instance. But I intend to move forward in running a positive campaign that’s focused on talking to voters about the real issues facing MOT and Delaware.”

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Meanwhile, the people who dared to detain him for being illegal were chastised for their actions. Twisted insanity. Update to this story.

Via Daily Caller:

The illegal immigrant who garnered national attention when he was detained while delivering a pizza was recently arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife.

Pablo Villavicencio Calderon was arrested and charged with criminal mischief Monday for allegedly slapping his wife and pushing her against a wall in Long Island, New York.

Villavicencio was detained in June while delivering a pizza to an Army base. The case received significant media coverage and outlets noted that Villavicencio left Ecuador after facing threats for being an LGBTQ activist.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand both spoke out against Villavicencio being detained, and the issue even came up in the N.Y. gubernatorial race.

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Other customers weren’t having any of it and told crazy loon where to go.

Via Fox News:

In an op-ed published Tuesday in the Courier Journal of Louisville, Kentucky, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defiantly wrote that a protester who harassed him while he dined at a local restaurant last week had neither intimidated him nor ruined his meal.

Footage from the episode showed other restaurant patrons immediately stepping in to defend McConnell, R-Ky., on Friday evening as he ate with his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, at the Cuban restaurant Havana Rumba.

“I enjoyed my meal in Louisville on Friday night, and I will continue to eat with my friends and family at my favorite Kentucky restaurants,” McConnell wrote. “I appreciate those who spoke up against the shameful behavior. We hope other customers weren’t too inconvenienced by the extremist left-wing tantrums.”

McConnell, who offered some new details about the episode, also condemned what he characterized as leftist “antics and incivility.” which he said has been encouraged by top Democrats.

“I’m not sure exactly what in my career suggests I would be easily swayed by such a spectacle,” McConnell wrote. “The reality is simple: I will not be intimidated. But this issue is not really about me, or about any individual elected official. It’s about something larger: The mob mentality that is being systematically fed and encouraged by the far left all across our nation.”

He continued: “The threats and intimidation are even being cheered on by prominent, leading Democrats. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there should be no civility until her party was back in power. Eric Holder, President Obama’s Attorney General, recently told a group that “when they go low, we kick ‘em. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.”

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His comments went over her head. Update to this story.

Via Daily Wire:

U.S. Ambassador To Germany Richard Grenell slammed Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday after she compared Nazi Germany to global warming in a recent speech.

Grenell’s comments on Fox News’ “FOX & Friends” came after Ocasio-Cortez said at a campaign event on Friday that the blueprint the United States used to defeat Nazi Germany is the same blueprint that needs to be used to defeat global warming.

“It’s never okay, it’s never acceptable to minimize the Holocaust and the murder of six million Jews,” Grenell said. “Just note to anyone who is speaking publicly — never compare it to anything because nothing can be as horrific as 11 million people, six million Jews murdered.”

Grenell has a strong record of fighting against Nazism as he played a key role in the Trump administration’s deportation of “95-year-old Jakiw Palij — the last known Nazi collaborator living in the United States — at his home in Queens, New York,” over the summer.[…]

The 28-year-old socialist, who is the Democratic nominee for New York’s 14th Congressional District, made national headlines in July after she referred to Israel as the “occupiers” of Palestine in an embarrassing PBS interview that went viral; she later admitted: “I am not the expert on geo-politics on this issue”

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Back when she was getting ‘magical slivers of plastic’.

Via Daily Mail:

The Democrat candidate for Georgia governor once helped burn the state flag as part of a protest, it has emerged.

Stacey Abrams, who is aiming to become the first black female governor in America, torched the flag at the Georgia Capitol as part of a student demonstration in 1992.

Ms Abrams, who is running against Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, was taking part in an ultimately successful effort to have the Confederate battle flag removed from the state flag.

An image of Ms Abrams at the flag burning was printed by the Atlanta Journal Constitution at the time, and reprinted by the New York Times on Monday.

The picture shows three students from Spelman College setting light to the flag, with Ms Abrams watching in the background.

Polls show Ms Abrams and Mr Kemp currently tied in the gubernatorial race, with the first debate due to take place today.[…]

Ms Abrams’ campaign against Confederate symbols did not stop in her student days. Last year, she called for the removal of a Confederate carving in Stone Mountain.

She called the carving, which shows President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson on horseback, ‘a symbol of white supremacy’.

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Turned down paying customers.

Via Washington Times:

The owner of a downtown Waterloo brewery and restaurant has refused to reserve space for a Republican election night party, saying it’s not “the right fit.”

Black Hawk County GOP treasurer LeaAnn Saul told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier that she tried to book space for 75 people the night of Nov. 6 at SingleSpeed.

“It was my first choice,” Saul said. “It’s a great location, a great venue. Republicans love to go there just like anyone else.”

But SingleSpeed owner Dave Morgan refused.

“As our core beliefs rest a bit left of what we feel would be appropriate for such an event, we feel it would be best to guide you in a different direction,” Morgan wrote in an email to Saul last week

She wrote back that she was disappointed “that people may not be welcome at your brewery if they are leaning to the right.”

In his reply the next day, Morgan said, “hosting an official election celebration for a party that currently stands and fights against many of our beliefs, does not ring true to me.”

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Back to the Obama years, transgenders and illegal aliens will be allowed to serve.

Via Stars and Stripes:

The fate of an ongoing military buildup, war oversight and decisions on who can enlist will rest in the hands of voters come November.

With hundreds of congressional seats contested in the midterm elections, control of the House — and maybe the Senate — could switch from Republicans to Democrats in January.

Democratic lawmakers poised to gain leadership roles in such a scenario say while some things will remain the same, new initiatives could gain priority.

“Two things: Donald Trump is still going to be president, and defense policy has always been a reasonably bipartisan issue,” said Washington Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat for the House Armed Services Committee, who could lead the committee if his party flips the lower chamber. “I think the biggest difference will probably be more oversight. … We’re not clear exactly where this administration is going with the military.”

Under Trump’s administration, Democrats have raised concerns about runaway federal spending fueling spikes in the U.S. deficit, the military’s role in the civil wars in Yemen and Syria, efforts to build up so-called “low-yield” nukes and the president’s extensive – and some contend outdated – war powers.

Democrats have also objected to a Trump campaign to install new restrictions on who can serve, from efforts to ban transgender troops to new obstacles for immigrant recruits.

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Shockingly, Sinema has blown a double-digit lead over her GOP opponent and now trails by 6 points.

He is running on his veteran status. Resigned his JAG officer commission to get commissioned as an Infantry officer.

Via BPR:

A company owned and run by South Carolina’s Democratic candidate for governor was blacklisted as a contractor for the Department of Veterans Affairs following allegations that he was selling his veteran status to corporations so they could tap into federal contracting dollars intended to help disabled vets.

James Smith works as a state legislator and lawyer, and also runs the Congaree Group, which has received millions of dollars in federal government contracts. The company operates out of Smith’s law firm suite, and he once told the VA he was its only employee.

On paper, the company has done everything from manufacturing pharmaceuticals to mopping floors and from parking cars to conducting advanced mathematical analysis.

On May 17, VA officials arrived for a surprise inspection, VA Deputy Assistant Secretary James Hutton told The Daily Caller News Foundation. The purpose was to find out if Smith was running a middleman company used to win lucrative federal contracts earmarked for disabled veterans, then passing all the work off to non-veteran companies in exchange for a cut for himself. Such so-called rent-a-vet scams are forbidden.

Smith’s company declined to cooperate with the VA and failed to provide evidence that the business was legitimate, Hutton said. On May 31, the VA’s Center for Verification and Evaluation issued a “Notice of Proposed Cancellation,” which would lead to the Congaree Group being stripped of its preferred, disabled-veteran contractor status if not resolved, according to Hutton. The Congaree Group still “did not provide the requested documents” explaining itself, he said.

On July 11, one month after Smith won the primary election, the VA banned the company from its preferential status, according to Hutton. The Congaree Group no longer appears on the VA’s list of approved veteran-owned businesses.

A 2013 VA audit concluded that “it appears that [Smith] uses his [disabled veteran] status to secure VA set-aside contracts and pass the performance of such contracts to various non-Veteran entities. Such conduct is prohibited.”

Smith “does not have the specialty skills required to perform on several of the contracts he has secured,” the audit said, noting that the Congaree Group holds contracts across a variety of industries worth over $1 million. “It is reasonable to conclude that the Congaree Group functions as a middleman to enable various non-Veteran entities like BDI Pharma to secure the actual contract” in violation of rules.

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Confused.

HT: Free Beacon

Thugs are violating the rules of the hood.

Via Chicago Tribune:

At least six people were shot after a funeral service in the Burnside neighborhood on the South Side Monday afternoon, authorities said.

The shooting happened around 12:20 p.m. in the 9200 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a tweet.

One male was critically injured when he was shot in the head, Chicago Police Sgt. Rocco Alioto said. Five other adults wounded in the shooting were stabilized at area hospitals.

“Early reports indicate the shooting allegedly occurred . . .as the services ended and people were getting in their cars,” he said.

Police arrived to a “chaotic scene” with shell casings spanning two blocks, Alioto said. No one was in custody in connection with the shooting.

Four people were treated at the University of Chicago Medical Center, including the male who was in critical condition. His age was unknown. Also treated there were a 25-year-old man was shot in the arm, a 27-year-old woman shot in the leg and lower body and a 23-year-old man shot in the leg.

A 23-year-old man was stabilized at Advocate Trinity Hospital, and an 18-year-old man was stabilized at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

The shooting appears to have happened outside of Bethlehem Star Missionary Baptist Church.

Bernie Jordan, 60, was on his way home from visiting his sister Monday morning. He got off the bus between Cottage Grove Avenue and 92 Street when he said he saw a man jump out of a black car with a large gun with a “long, tall straight clip” attached. Two “boys with big ass guns started shooting,” he said.

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How dumb is this?

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams: “I am sick and tired of hearing about the free market being the solution…” pic.twitter.com/5XrE2noBV5

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 23, 2018

25% have no idea what real PTSD is.

Via Daily Mail:

A quarter of students found the 2016 so traumatic they now report symptoms of PTSD, according to a new study.

Researchers surveyed Arizona State University students around the time of President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017, and some had stress scores on par with that of school shooting witnesses’ seven-month follow-ups.

Twenty-five percent of the 769 students, who were an even mix of genders and races and socioeconomic backgrounds, reported ‘clinically significant’ levels of stress.

The most severe cases were seen among women, black, and non-white Hispanic students, who were 45 percent more likely to feel distressed by the 2016 run between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Lead researcher Melissa Hagan, an assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University, believes the ‘divisive tone’ about race, identity, and what makes a valuable American ‘really heightened stress for a lot of people’.

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And he’s the projected Democratic front-runner.

Via Free Beacon:

Former Vice President Joe Biden appeared confused on Monday as to what Florida city he was in during a campaign rally for Sen. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.) and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum.

Biden was speaking at the University of South Florida in Tampa when he misspoke about being in Miami, according to a video flagged by by the NTK Network. Miami is 280 miles away from Tampa.

“It’s great to be with you all. You know Bill, we have a rule back in Delaware that you all don’t have here in Miami, in Florida, that is,” the 75-year-old Biden said. “If you keep an audience standing more than 15 minutes, you lose them.”

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Grifter implodes.

Via Washington Examiner:

Porn star lawyer Michael Avenatti suffered two court losses on Monday, including one that saw a judge order him to pay $4.85 million to a former lawyer who argued he was underpaid.

Shortly after that ruling from a California judge, another judge ruled that Avenatti and his staff must be evicted from their suite office at Fashion Island mall after they missed four months worth of rent payments.

In the first case, Superior Court Judge Dennis Landin said Avenatti had to personally pay the $4.85 million because he guaranteed a settlement with former employee, Jason Frank, the Associated Press reported.

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Between Farrakhan and domestic abuse, Ellison is now behind in a race Democrats have always taken for decades.

Via Daily Caller:

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison is sitting behind his Republican opponent Doug Wardlow for attorney general by a 7-point margin, just less than two weeks before the Nov. 6 midterm elections.

Ellison, who also serves as deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, sits at 36 percent compared to Wardlow’s 43 percent, according to a Star Tribune/Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) poll released Tuesday. This comes as Ellison led Wardlow by around six points as of Sept. 19, according to an earlier Star Tribune/MPR poll, meaning there was a 12-point shift in just over a month.

The shift in polling comes as Ellison faced sexual abuse allegations from his ex-girlfriend Karen Monahan. Monahan claims Ellison physically and emotionally abused her.

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