“This new range shows that China continues to focus on anti-carrier capabilities, with an emphasis on US Navy warships.”
— The United States Naval Institute, regarding satellite images from Maxar showing that China’s military has constructed mockups of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier and U.S. warships for target practice.
“We believe this is a fair and balanced approach to addressing racial disparity without compromising public safety.”
— A statement by the Philadelphia Police Department, on the decision to ban low-level traffic stops, including things such as driving with a single broken brake light, driving with a single headlight, driving without an inspection or emissions sticker, or having a registration plate that’s not clearly displayed, fastened, or visible. The law will go into effect in early 2022.
“It’s gross and it’s kind of unnerving.”
— Brittany Brown, whose table was visited by a rat as she was dining outdoors in Manhattan. Reports of rat sightings and evidence of rat activity in New York City have been on the rise during the pandemic.
“I think I know why Kamala’s (Harris) ratings are so low, besides sexism and racism.”
— Jimmy Kimmel.
“We know why: because [of] the seasonality to COVID. It’s not particularly difficult, after a couple of years, to understand. You see those trends in Europe. You see those trends extend in other parts of the globe. Unfortunately, that’s what’s happening here.”
— California Governor Gavin Newsom. In August, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the same thing and was widely denounced by the media for spreading “misinformation.” Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has not received any such criticism.
“It’s not sustainable for our party to continue to tank in small-town America. We’ve got a branding problem as Democrats in way too many parts of our country.”
— Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, who led the House Democratic campaign arm in 2020. Republicans ran up the margins in rural Virginia counties, the latest sign that Democrats, as one lawmaker put it, “continue to tank in small-town America.”
“If he thinks that they’re going to go back to the old ways of policing, then we are going to take to the streets again. There will be riots, there will be fire and there will be bloodshed because we believe in defending our people.”
— Hawk Newsome, co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, threatening bloodshed if Mayor-elect Eric Adams reverses the abolition of the NYPD’s controversial anti-crime units.
“I had no personal life outside of driving a truck. I finally had enough.”
— Michael Gary, a resident of Vancouver, Wash., who quit after being a truck driver since 2012. The job took him away from home for weeks at a time, and he could not prioritize his health. As The New York Times details, truck drivers have been in short supply for years, but a wave of retirements combined with those simply quitting for less stressful jobs (of course they don’t mention the vaccine mandate) is exacerbating the supply chain crisis in the United States, leading to empty store shelves, panicked holiday shoppers, and congestion at ports. Warehouses around the country are overflowing with products, and delivery times have stretched to months for many goods.
“My nonbinary 8-year-old was so mad and maybe so scared that they could barely look at me.”
— Alexis C. Madrigal, a contributing writer at The Atlantic in an article titled “Getting Back to Normal Is Only Possible Until You Test Positive: I was ultracareful for 18 months. Then I got COVID.”
First of all…WHY are you randomly specifying your 8-year-old’s gender identity in an essay about how much of a hyper-cautious spaz you are? And how could your 8-year-old possibly know whether he’s “non-binary” without you having subtly nudged him in that direction because it’s now considered fashionable to have a kid that identifies on the victim/oppressed hierarchy progressives use to determine who gets special treatment in society...?
The essay is just bizarre on multiple levels. The journalist tortuously ponders whether to finally throw caution to the wind and attend a wedding, ends up with a mild cold, none of his family gets sick, and it’s some kind of major, essay-worthy disaster. At what point are you going to return to living your life under some degree of normalcy? And why exactly do you think encouraging people to inflict unnecessary emotional distress on themselves is appropriate?
“Social media is the biggest self-snitch I’ve ever seen.”
— Michigan state Rep. and former Wayne County Sheriff’s lieutenant Tyrone Carter, commenting on the availability of information on social media platforms. The state police are using software programs that allow the agency to scan public social media posts for information, raising privacy concerns from civil liberties advocates.
“Uh, well, he said ‘[f***] you,’ and then he reached for the weapon.”
— Richie McGinnis, a Daily Caller videographer and key witness for prosecutors in the Kyle Rittenhouse case. McGinnis offered the response when a prosecutor tried to cast doubt on how McGinnis could know what the first person Rittenhouse shot was trying to do after chasing him and lunging for his weapon.
Let’s talk about this Rittenhouse case since the entire country seems to be consumed by the coverage as the case approaches its denouement. Back in August 2020 during the “peaceful” riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Rittenhouse killed two people, injured a third, and took shots at a fourth; prosecutors allege that none of this was justifiable.
But the trial has not gone well for the prosecution team. At all. And now they’re flailing.
To give you an idea of just how badly: On Wednesday the prosecutor asked Rittenhouse (a firehouse cadet) why he ran toward a fire with a fire extinguisher.
Rittenhouse replied, “[Because] It was a fire?”
And the prosecution’s own witnesses keep saying things that help the defense. For example: Gaige Grosskreutz, the armed man Rittenhouse shot in the biceps, admitted that Rittenhouse had not fired when he had his hands up, and only when Grosskreutz’s own gun was pointed at Rittenhouse. That is a huge admission in a case concerning whether or not it was a matter of self-defense.
If you watch the video below, near the end you’ll see one of the prosecutors actually facepalm after Grosskreutz confirmed the above because it so obviously undermines their argument.
And as for the coverage of the Rittenhouse trial...the media and its progressive handmaidens have reached a new low. Along with politicians and pundits, they’ve run endless stories and made countless comments about Rittenhouse’s intentions, claiming that he’s a murderous white supremacist who acted not out of self-defense, but from hate.
This has quite literally been a collective misinformation campaign built and carried along by each social media post and article that has made unverified claims about the shooter, his actions, and the riots themselves. From the very start, Rittenhouse was vilified without proof, the riots were called “fiery but mostly peaceful,” and those who spread these lies, from the current president, to sitting members of the U.S. Congress, to legacy media outlets, have faced no penalty from any of the fact checkers or “misinformation specialists” on Facebook and Twitter.
I could write for days about this case and how it’s been covered. It’s a textbook example of the MSM, along with Democrats and progressives, blatantly lying and framing reports in a manner that twists the truth. Yet another shamelessly coordinated narrative being used to gaslight the American people.
The same media outlets that upheld Rittenhouse as a white supremacist and domestic terrorist have now run headlines trying to spin Grosskreutz’s testimony into something other than a clear affirmation of Rittenhouse acting in self-defense. Even after Grosskreutz detailed how he advanced on Rittenhouse with his gun drawn prior to being shot, the Associated Press ran a story on that testimony focusing on Grosskreutz fearing for his life.
Since the lines have clearly been drawn, I think it’s fair for me to mention that Grosskreutz's criminal record is long. He was not there that night to “peacefully protest,” and he has a history of openly despising the police. In fact, just a couple days prior he was arrested for “lurking” in an area where police keep their private vehicles, videotaping them. Obviously he had good intentions, right?
The two individuals who were shot and killed by Rittenhouse also had backgrounds that should not go unmentioned. Among other crimes, Joseph Rosenbaum was charged by a grand jury with 11 counts of child molestation and inappropriate sexual activity with children, including anal rape. The victims were five boys ranging in age from nine to 11 years old. And Anthony Huber was a recidivist domestic abuser who pled guilty to a “strangulation and suffocation” felony.
Does the fact that these guys had extensive rap sheets justify their deaths? Absolutely not. But as noted here, their criminal histories should be considered if only because they had placed themselves in the midst of a scene of violent rioting that, for days, included lawless anarchy, and Rittenhouse is on video saying earlier that day that he was there to prevent damage to people and property. All three men were confronting Rittenhouse when shot, and two were trying to grab his gun; in the first case, Rittenhouse was running away, and in the second situation, he tried to but fell. That’s from the criminal complaint.
Nearly everything that occurred that night is on tape (such is the culture we live in), including Rittenhouse running away from angry protesters in the seconds leading up to each of the two separate shooting incidents. Now, while the available videos and testimony don’t perfectly capture everything that happened and how it got started, they certainly do show that he fired under duress, with people closing in on him and attacking. In addition to seeing a gun pointed at him and having someone lunge for his own gun, he was chased, pounced on by a skateboard-wielding assailant, and kicked.
To get Rittenhouse on the biggest charges, prosecutors need to disprove his self-defense claims beyond a reasonable doubt, and they need to show that he didn’t reasonably fear for life or limb when he fired, or that he’d provoked his attackers in a way that, under Wisconsin law, would eliminate his right to use lethal force in self-defense. I don’t see how they’ve done that with respect to any of the shootings.
The problem is that the coverage of the trial and everything leading up to it has been an absolute soup sandwich of a shit show, and I have no doubt whatsoever that when Rittenhouse is acquitted — and if you truly, honestly, objectively review the case in full, I genuinely believe you'll agree that he should be — there will be protests that quickly devolve into riots, and likely in other cities besides Kenosha.
Consider the way this was framed from the very start by the League of Extraordinary Leftist Bullshitters (LELB)—the media, the punditocracy, the commentariat, the Twitterati, and Democrats. Even then-presidential candidate Joe Biden remarked that Rittenhouse’s actions were “white supremacist” in nature, despite the fact that there was no evidence to suggest that Rittenhouse, whose goal had been to protect Kenosha from rioters, looters, and arsonists, was behaving in a racist manner. But that was of no concern to the LELB; the false narrative supported their agenda. And when you control the narrative, you control everything.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) also condemned Rittenhouse without the benefit of any facts. Bowman called Rittenhouse a domestic terrorist “looking to incite a race war,” and claimed that the act of “‘Protecting public property’” is cover for their agenda.” (FYI: The family-owned car dealership that Rittenhouse was “guarding” was not only burned down, but 137 cars were completely destroyed as well—$2.5 million in damages, and their insurance has refused to pay a dime. But don’t worry, the media made sure to “fact check” the rumor that one of the owners committed suicide afterward and determined it wasn’t true.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) also claimed that Rittenhouse is a “domestic terrorist” who “executed two people,” and said that Fox News’ Tucker Carlson showing video from that night, in which Rittenhouse could be seen being pursued by a mob and defending himself, was the equivalent of a “murderous rant” that has “inspired many mass shooters.”
Massachusetts’ Ayanna Pressley made similar unfounded claims, saying that “A 17 year old white supremacist domestic terrorist drove across state lines, armed with an AR 15. He shot and killed 2 people who had assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives.”
“Fix your damn headlines,” she told media outlets.
President Biden’s post claiming that Rittenhouse is a white supremacist is still up, as are Reps. Bowman, Omar, and Pressley’s. There are no warning or misinformation labels slapped over their tweets, there are no Politifact, Washington Post, or Snopes fact checks, no campaigns to shut down MSNBC, CNN, or The New York Times as sites that spread disinformation. Instead, these outlets and politicians are allowed to reshape reality as they see fit, which is what’s been happening since Trump ascended to the White House. Since then, the LELB has rationalized its subversion of democracy and often immoral, unethical conduct into something more palatable by contending that such conduct is warranted since Republicans are all a bunch of dangerous white supremacist insurrectionists who must be stopped at all costs and the spectre of Trump is so terrifying.
25%: Percentage of American academics in the social sciences or humanities who endorse ousting a colleague for having a wrong opinion on hot-button issues such as immigration or gender differences.
91%: Share of pro-Trump academics who self-censor their opinions within their departments due to fear of reprisal.
80%: American PhD students who say they are willing to discriminate against right-leaning scholars.
73%: Percentage of conservative-leaning students who are proud to be an American.
38%: Percentage of left-leaning students who are proud to be an American.
10: Years in prison that a metallurgist in Washington state faces after pleading guilty to faking the results of strength tests on steel that was being used to make U.S. Navy submarines. From 1985 through 2017, Elaine Marie Thomas falsified the results of strength and toughness tests for at least 240 productions of steel—about half the steel the foundry produced for the Navy, according to her plea agreement, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. The tests were intended to show that the steel would not fail in a collision or in certain “wartime scenarios,” the Justice Department said.
259,250: Average viewers of Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Trevor Noah from November 1 to November 7.
438,250: Average viewers of CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight from November 1 to November 7.
2,053,000: Average viewers of Fox News’ Gutfeld! from November 1 to November 7, the highest of all late night TV programs. The show has consistently beaten Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert among others. I’ve personally never watched Gutfeld! but that’s pretty impressive.
897: Kids 17 and younger who have died from COVID-19 during the entire pandemic as of 11/10/21, according to the CDC.
1,663: Children and teens who die from gun violence every year.
864: Children and teens who are murdered every year.
662: Children and teens who die from gun suicide every year.
2026: The year in which new vehicles will be required to have monitoring systems that prevent drunk people from driving, under the new infrastructure package that awaits President Biden’s signature. In total, approximately $17 billion is allotted to road safety programs.
$12,000: The amount that the Spokane County, Wash., Sheriff’s Office spent on two days of billboard advertising in New York City’s Times Square to recruit deputies. Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich wanted to buy the ad space in cities in which elected officials had talked negatively about police officers.
7: Number of countries in the Western world that are making kids wear masks at school, including the United States.