Category: United States

Groups the States

Thanksgiving in Georgia

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We spent Thursday on the road, down I-81 and then went through the Smoky Mountains on I-26 before heading south into north Georgia, near the site of America’s first gold rush, to spend the holiday weekend with all of our kids and grandchildren — that’s six kids, one son-in-law, three daughters-in-law, one girlfriend, and five grandchildren. That’s a total of 18 people, plus both of my brothers, a good-sized crowd of McCains.

While I was out on the road, the news kept happening:

Violent death, sexual perversion, pandemic disease — the apocalypse keeps rolling along. And I’m in Georgia, enjoying a Thanksgiving feast.

We should be more grateful than we are for the blessings of a normal life, even if we are paying $1.20 more for a gallon of gas (#LetsGoBrandon).

It’s easier to complain about our misfortunes and disappointments — the Raiders beat the Cowboys and the Bills beat the Saints — than to be grateful that our lives are basically OK, in an age where it seems it’s becoming more difficult to be basically OK. My daughters just popped into the motel dining room where I’m working, then quickly departed to go do their Black Friday shopping. And I’m grateful they’re basically OK.

Our youngest daughter (Reagan) and youngest son (Emerson) are in college, while the next-youngest (Jefferson) is getting ready for law school next year (awaiting his LSAT scores). Emerson’s already married, as are our three oldest, all of whom are homeowners with kids of their own. All in all, our Victory Through Breeding™ agenda — the McCain Plan for Global Domination — seems to be working out.

Why aim for anything less that Global Domination? Sure, it could take a few generations before my descendants control the world — trust me, I’ve done the arithmetic — but as long as we keep this long-term goal in mind, our tasks in the short term become easier to understand.

The reason I bring this up, of course, is that the source of disappointment is the distance between expectation and reality. Even if our circumstances are objectively good — hey, we’re living the American Dream — we may feel disappointed because results fall short of our expectations, our hopes, our ambitions. The higher our expectations, the more likely we will be disappointed by the reality of our lives. It’s important to keep this in mind, attempting to view our lives objectively, no matter how high our ambitions may be. Considering that my ultimate goal is Global Domination — because why not? — it would be easy to get discouraged by short-term disappointments. For example, we haven’t had a new grandchild since Luca was born two years ago, which represents a lag in the Grandchild Production Quota. When you’re aiming at Global Domination, you tend to think of grandchildren with a statistical graph in mind, charting the output-per-unit calculations and so forth.

Objectively, you see, most people would think five grandkids to be a fine number, but the McCain Plan for Global Domination requires a perspective that evaluates this metric differently than “most people” (who, after all, are destined to be subjugated, according to the Plan).

All sarcasm aside, however, the point is that we have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving that any complaints would seem silly. Here I am, enjoying free coffee and free breakfast at the motel — with free Wifi even! — and certainly it would be churlish for me to complain.

“The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow and our desires so impatient; the work of progress so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope.”
— Robert E. Lee

When one considers the hardships and misfortunes that our ancestors endured, how easy and fortunate our lives seem by comparison. We ought never to let discouragement prevent us from working toward a better future — and, of course, by “better,” I mean Global Domination.

Did I mention that everything is “free” at this motel because three nights cost us $500? As always, I would be grateful for readers who remember that the Five Most Important Words in the English Language are:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!

Thanks in advance. This Global Domination stuff ain’t cheap.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!




 

Killadelphia Update

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Last year, the per-capita homicide rate in Philadelphia was worse than Chicago. It takes a lot of effort to be worse than Chicago, but Philadelphia — a/k/a “Killadelphia” — is up to the challenge, and is now on pace to break the city’s all-time annual murder total of 500, a record set in 1990 at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic. Basically, you could put police crime-scene tape around the entire city; every sidewalk in Philadelphia is covered in chalk outlines of slain victims.

OK, maybe I got a little carried away there, but it’s difficult to exaggerate how deadly conditions are in Philadelphia now:

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said on Monday that whoever was responsible for killing a pregnant woman and her unborn child as she was unloading gifts from her baby shower will face two counts of murder.
The victim, identified as Jessica Covington, 32, was shot 11 times in the head and belly on Saturday night in what police believe was a targeted shooting.
Deputy Police Commissioner Christine Coulter demanded that progressive DA Krasner take action amid a massive surge of gun violence.
‘Children are getting shot, unborn children getting shot, what is the city doing about this?’ she asked.
Police were said to be questioning a suspect in connection with Covington’s killing on Monday, but no arrests or charges have been announced as of late afternoon.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Krasner said Covington’s killing made him ‘sick.’ He said the person or persons who took the pregnant woman’s life and that of her unborn baby will ‘very likely’ face two counts of murder.
He praised police for ‘working nonstop and doing an amazing job with this case.’
Krasner has cut the number of prosecutions for gun crime and cops are blaming him for a huge spike in shootings a homicides.
Police in Philadelphia have made a record number of arrests for illegal gun possession this year – but the suspects’ chances of getting convicted dropped to 49 per cent from 63 per cent in 2017, analysis by the found.
There have been 491 homicide victims in 2021 – a 14 per cent increase from last year’s number of 436, and 283 in 2019.
Krasner boasts on his website that he has cut incarceration rates by 24,800 years, cut supervision by 102,400 years, never used the death penalty and helped exonerate 23 people.
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has said that Philadelphia’s criminal justice system has become a ‘revolving door’ for repeat gun offenders since Krasner was sworn into office in January 2018.

This is the problem with Democrats talking tough on gun control. You hear them talk about “getting guns off our streets,” but they don’t want to prosecute the people who are actually committing crimes with those guns — because all the criminals are Democrats.

Dana Pico at First Street Journal has been following the grisly “Killadelphia” death toll, and Ed Driscoll at Instapundit calls attention to the role of “progressive reforms” in the nationwide crime wave:

[Milwaukee County DA John] Chisholm, who was elected in 2007, supports deferrals for some misdemeanors and “low-level” felonies in order to cut down on incarcerations. And he’s taken credit for inspiring a new wave of prosecutors in cities like San Francisco, St. Louis, and Philadelphia who have enacted similar reforms. Chisholm congratulated San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin following his election in 2019, and the pair spoke at a forum earlier this year on the status of the progressive prosecutor movement.
Chisholm and other progressives support reforms to the cash-bail system, which they say criminalizes poverty. He has acknowledged that his reform-minded approach could put murderers back on the streets of Milwaukee.
“Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into [a] treatment program, who’s going to go out and kill somebody?” he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2007. “You bet. Guaranteed. It’s guaranteed to happen. It does not invalidate the overall approach.”
The Milwaukee DA said his office recommended $1,000 bail for [Waukesha massacre suspect Darrell] Brooks following his arrest on Nov. 5 on charges that he punched his girlfriend in the face and hit her with his vehicle in a gas station parking lot. The woman is identified only by her initials in court papers, which indicate they have a child together. Brooks was also charged with eluding police officers when they arrived to take him into custody.

What Democrats don’t want to admit is that crime is a people problem. It is easy to focus on guns, but the inanimate object does not kill people. Democrats have trained their media allies to mindlessly repeat the phrase “gun violence,” but my guns are not involved in violence. My podcast partner John Hoge has a rather substantial arsenal of firearms, none of which has ever been involved in “gun violence.”

Rhetoric that demonizes law-abiding gun owners is necessary to the Democratic Party agenda of absolving themselves and their constituents of responsibility. Nothing that goes wrong in Philadelphia — or Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, etc. — is the fault of the people directly involved, because those people vote Democrat. The voters who elect Democrats must be held blameless for their problems, and the blame must be transferred to scapegoats — which is why phrases like “white privilege” and “systemic racism” have entered the political lexicon.

The kind of “reforms” implemented by Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner are aimed at ending the “racial injustice” of putting criminals in prison, as if there were something deliberately unfair about the demographic profile of the prison population, as if law enforcement and the court system were letting white criminals go unpunished. Well, where are all these white murderers in Philadelphia? What has Larry Krasner done to end the “white privilege” that lets these perpetrators get off scot-free?

These are rhetorical questions, obviously. The population of Philadelphia County is 44% black and 34% non-Hispanic white. Fifteen percent of the county population is Hispanic and 8% are Asian. But these other demographic groups are not implicated in the “gun violence” epidemic that has Philadelphia on pace to set a new homicide record.

In 2020, Joe Biden officially won Pennsylvania by a margin of 80,555 votes. He got 603,790 votes in Philadelphia County.

So the dishonest blame game will continue, and the bodies of homicide victims will keep piling up in “Killadelphia,” because Democrats like Larry Krasner don’t want to arrest the criminals whose votes elect them.




 

Waukesha Massacre: Killer SUV Driver Is Rapper, Career Criminal Out on Bond

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Police took their time before naming the “person of interest” who killed five people and injured dozens more when he plowed a red Ford SUV through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, but the identity and criminal record of Darrell Brooks are extensively documented:

The man who was taken into custody in connection with the Waukesha Christmas parade tragedy told police that his name was Darrell Brooks Jr. when he was detained, and they found a Ford key on him, according to scanner audio obtained by Heavy.
Police squads were at a Milwaukee address used by Darrell Brooks Jr. after his name was mentioned on the scanner in connection with the Waukesha parade incident in which at least 40 people, including many children, were injured when a red Ford Escape plowed through the crowd. He complained of shoulder pain when taken into custody.
Heavy confirmed that two Milwaukee police squads were outside the home listed to Brooks on N. 19th St. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Heavy also obtained audio from the scanner indicating Waukesha police obtained an ID in the name Darrell Brooks Jr. inside the red Ford Escape they recovered in connection with the Waukesha parade investigation. He also goes by the name Darrell E. Brooks Jr., and Darrell Edward Brooks, Jr. He is 39-years-old. He had prolific social media accounts, but some have already been deleted.
The City of Waukesha now says that five people are deceased and over 40 are injured. “However, these numbers may change as we collect additional information. Many people have self-transported to area hospitals. The Police Department has the person of interest in custody,” they wrote, without naming that person. . . .
Darrell Brooks Jr. raps under the name MathBoi Fly. He had a YouTube channel with rap music videos, but it’s been deleted. A red SUV could be seen behind him in one of the videos . . .
Brooks has an extremely long criminal history including open cases.
Darrell E. Brooks Jr. of 19th Street has open charges filed November 5, 2021, in Milwaukee courts for resisting an officer (misdemeanor), felony bail jumping, second degree recklessly endangering safety (felony) with domestic abuse assessments, disorderly conduct and battery (both misdemeanors, also with domestic abuse assessments.)
He posted $1,000 cash bail on November 19, 2021.
That’s despite the fact he has another open felony case in Milwaukee County, from 2020.
That case is for second-degree recklessly endangering safety – felony with use of a dangerous weapon (two counts) and possessing firearm convicted of a felony (felony charge.) The case was filed in July 2020, but it remains pending. Milwaukee County courts is dealing with a major backlog in cases.

Just to interrupt here: Felon in possession of a firearm is a very serious crime, and the fact that he was turned loose on bail in such a case speaks volumes about the leniency — and disregard for public safety — in the criminal justice system. To continue:

In the above case, hearings were repeatedly adjourned. He requested a speedy trial, but the court tolled the time limits for that (this has occurred recently because of a two-year backlog, the chief judge has said, which she has attributed to COVID. The backlog also persists with jury trials, she said.)
In February 2021, with Judge David Feiss presiding, the court lowered his bail to $500, noting, “Due to reasons stated on the record, the court is unable to honor the speedy trial demand in this case. Defense bail motion argued and GRANTED by the Court. The Court lowered cash bail to $500.00.”
In June 2021, the court notes say, “Matter scheduled for Jury Trial. Parties are ready to proceed. Due to court congestion, Court is unable to hear jury trial at this time.”
The case continued, with some plea negotiations. “JusticePoint PreTrial Services Supervision/VIOLATION Report dated November 10, 2021; received and filed,” says a recent entry. There was a “further proceedings” on November 11, the last date.
He has these prior convictions:
Bail jumping (misdemeanor) and marijuana possession (misdemeanor).
Marijuana possession second plus offense (felony). 2011.
Obstruct an officer (misdemeanor). 2005 and 2003.
Marijuana possession (felony). 2002.
Substantial battery (felony). 1999.

Those are just his convictions in Wisconsin, however:

Darrell Edward Brooks, 39, who is accused of plowing into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, was convicted of statutory sexual seduction in November of 2006.
Brooks was convicted of this crime in Sparks, Nevada.
He is a tier 2 offender, the second most serious class of sex offenders in the Nevada Sex Offender Registry.
Tier 2 offenders are registered for 25 years and have to personally check in with police once every 180 days.

In a video posted to social media, Brooks denied being a pedophile, saying that the incident involved the mother of one of his children. Brooks said he was “pimping on the bitch” in Nevada, but he “didn’t know the bitch was 16.” Can you imagine the cultural standards of a “community” in which this is considered an acceptable explanation? But what about a community that turns such criminal loose?

The shamefaced Milwaukee District Attorney’s Office admitted on Monday it was ‘inappropriate’ for convicted felon Darrell Brooks to be allowed out of jail on a $1,000 bond three weeks ago after trying to run over his ex-girlfriend, as he was charged with five counts of murder for the lives he took at the Waukesha Christmas Parade on Sunday night. . . .
On Sunday he was fleeing the scene of a domestic dispute when he crashed into the crowds after smashing through safety barriers and breezing past cops. One officer tried to stop him by shooting at his car but he stopped because there were too many people around for him to safely fire his weapon.
Police had just arrived at the home that Brooks had fled when he plowed into the parade crowds, killing five adults. . . . The Waukesha Police Department have now arrested Brooks on five murder charges.
On November 2, he was arrested on domestic violence charges after trying to ‘run over’ his ex, the mother of his child, at a gas station. His bond was set at $1,000 and he posted it on November 11th.
On Monday morning, the Milwaukee County DA’s Office released a statement admitting it was ‘inappropriately low’ given his criminal history. They said they’d launched an internal review as to why he was able to get out on bond to commit more crimes. . . .
‘The bail recommendation in this case is not consistent with the approach of the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office toward matters involving violent crime, nor was it consistent with the risk assessment of the defendant prior to setting of bail.
‘This office is currently conducting an internal review of the decision to make the recent bail recommendation in this matter in order to determine the appropriate next steps,’ the statement said.

This is CYA bullshit. The district attorney in Milwaukee is a Soros-funded radical who bragged about eliminated cash bail. This is now the official policy of the Democratic Party — because cash bail allegedly has a “disparate impact” on the black community, criminals are turned loose and this policy is celebrated as “social justice.” Until one of the criminals runs over four or five dozen people, and then the DA’s official will issue a statement announcing an “internal review.”

And if you don’t like it, that makes you a white supremacist, and next thing you know, the FBI will be knocking on your door. This is Joe Biden’s America. This is what happens when you elect Democrats.

How many of the people who got run over by Darrell Brooks voted for Joe Biden? Do you think the survivors might regret their votes?




 

Rittenhouse Verdict Reactions Show What ‘White Supremacy’ Means to the Left

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Vandalism, looting and arson were minimal Friday night, as the November weather was too cold for anarchists in most cities:

Protesters took to the streets of Brooklyn, Chicago, Oakland, and other cities following the not guilty verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.
After the verdict, hundreds of people took to the streets of Brooklyn, New York, to voice their frustration with the jury’s verdict.
The crowd gathered at Barclays Center in Brooklyn and reportedly chanted, “Say his name, George Floyd.”

(What? Kyle Rittenhouse had nothing to do with that.)

Progressive activists have tried incessantly to make the Rittenhouse trial about race, even though Rittenhouse and the three men he shot were all white.
In Chicago, dozens of protesters went to Federal Plaza to protest the verdict. They were reportedly carrying signs reading, “Kyle Will Kill Again,” “Workers United to Smash Fascism,” and “Reject Racist Vigilante Terror.”

(Literally “dozens.”)

The Chicago protesters blocked traffic on busy streets during rush hour to show their discontent with the trial’s outcome.
Protesters reportedly looted a Neiman Marcus luxury store and multiple other stores as the protests were happening. . . .
Protesters in Denver reportedly shouted, “fuck Kyle Rittenhouse” while marching down streets.
On the west coast, protesters gathered at a federal building in Oakland to protest the jury verdict. Signs in Oakland read, “Cops and fascists given license to kill in the USA.”

Got that? The cops shoot* a knife-wielding domestic abuser (Jacob Blake), then public authorities fail to prevent “mostly peaceful protests” from turning into riots and, when armed citizens defend themselves from violent riots, this makes the citizens “fascists,” “terrorists,” etc.

The Left’s rhetoric about “white supremacy,” “systemic racism,” etc., reflects a fundamental hostility to civilization, per se.

People who claimed to be traumatized by President Trump’s mean tweets had no such aversion to acts of violent destruction — far more harmful than anything Trump said — when this wanton vandalism could be justified, in their minds, as “racial justice” protests. But when a criminal suspect is shot by police, the justice of the officer’s action is ultimately determined by a jury, or by a duly-elected district attorney who decides whether or not to seek an indictment. The fact that a relative handful of highly publicized cases are controversial, involving circumstances that might seriously be considered unjust, does not mean what the Left says it means. It was not “systemic racism” that resulted in the death of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor; the actual details of both of those cases contradict the narrative promoted by BLM activists.

The facts of the shooting of Jacob Blake, which led to the riots in which Rittenhouse shot three people, likewise contradict the BLM narrative. Blake was violating a restraining order, menacing a woman whom he was accused of sexually assaulting, at a child’s birthday party. Blake was armed with a knife, and when police attempted to arrest him, he violently resisted arrest and was apparently attempting to steal a vehicle with three young children inside when the police officer shot him. No doubt a police training expert, viewing video of the incident frame-by-frame, would have some recommendations for how this outcome could have been avoided, but in the split-second life-or-death crisis in which the officer found himself involved, the shooting was legally justified, and a federal Justice Department review found no civil rights violation.

When the cop says, “You’re under arrest,” cooperate.

When the cop says, “Drop the knife,” drop the knife.

This is not complicated. You don’t need any Critical Race Theory seminars to teach you that resisting arrest is potentially dangerous.

A police officer never knows when a domestic disturbance call or even a simple traffic stop is going to turn into a life-or-death crisis. Given the many thousands of interactions between police and criminal suspects every week, only a tiny fraction of a single percent of those interactions get the kind of national media attention that Jacob Blake shooting got. In other words, the vast majority of police activity does not fit the narrative of “systemic racism” that the Left promotes. Unless . . .

Unless, that is, what the Left is really against is law enforcement, per se.

That’s what all this talk about “white supremacy” comes down to. What BLM would like us to believe, apparently, is that it is wrong to expect black people to follow the same laws that apply to other Americans.

“Equality,” in the Left’s view, requires a racial double-standard whereby cops are not allowed to arrest a suspect, if the suspect is black.

Steve Sailer’s sarcastic quip, in reference to the Jacob Blake case, gets to the heart of a lot of what BLM (and Democrats, and the media) are trying to argue in such cases. If your Heroic Martyr Victim got shot while resisting arrest, then isn’t your celebration of this criminal act really an argument in favor of resisting arrest? But if resisting arrest becomes routine in the black community, isn’t it likely that more black suspects will be shot by police? Oh, wait a minute . . .

By encouraging criminal activity — resisting arrest is a crime — what BLM is really trying to do is provoke more police shootings, which will lead to more riots, and thus more fundraising for BLM, etc.

This cynical “social justice” racket isn’t going to do a damned thing to improve the quality of life for black Americans, except for making millionaires of a few clever grifters like Patrice Cullors. And by obstructing law enforcement, BLM enables more widespread criminal activity in the black community, with the result that thousands of black people are killed in places like Chicago, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

The negative impact of BLM’s irresponsible rhetoric (amplified and endorsed by Democrats and the media) will not be limited to the black community, however. This brings up something that was called to my attention yesterday — immediately after the Rittenhouse verdict, CNN kept repeating the phrase “all-white jury,” as if this was somehow significant in a case where a white guy shot three other white guys.

Kenosha County, Wisconsin, is 87% white, 7% black — it’s not as if having an “all-white jury” is something unusual there, but CNN had to find some way to play the “race card,” because what other purpose would be served by their wildly distorted coverage? CNN never misses an opportunity to incite race riots, which are good for ratings, I guess.

The news media thrive on conflict, and when they produce coverage that functions to create conflict — CNN spent the summer of 2020 as a cheerleading squad for rioting mobs — responsible citizens have a duty to call out their media for their “fake news.”

* — This was changed. I first wrote that the cop “killed” Jacob Blake when, in fact, he survived the shooting.




 

KYLE RITTENHOUSE ACQUITTED ON ALL COUNTS IN KENOSHA

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BREAKING NOW! Kenosha jury finds Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty.

UPDATE: My prediction had been for a hung jury, as I expected there would be two or three holdouts who would insist that Rittenhouse must be found guilty of something. It is therefore a pleasant surprise that the evidence — which clearly showed that Rittenhouse only fired his AR-15 in self-defense when attacked by rioters — was sufficient to overwhelm any such prejudice against the defendant. The acquittal is not necessarily a vindication of the idea that teenagers should be going to riots while armed with rifles, but it is is a triumph of the rule of law, and the constitutional right of trial by jury. Thank God.

UPDATE: Reactions elsewhere:

The important thing here is what was demonstrated, in terms of our constitutional rights as Americans. The Second Amendment exists for a reason, after all — the armed citizen deters aggression. In a situation such as the Kenosha riots, where violent chaos had overwhelmed the ability of police to keep the peace, Rittenhouse was part of a spontaneously organized group of men who showed up to protect life and property. Rittenhouse was attacked by the deranged criminal JoJo Rosenbaum, and shot Rosenbaum in self-defense. Each subsequent shooting was part of a rapid and confusing situation that developed amid the riot. Public authorities in Wisconsin, who failed to maintain order, are the real villains in this story; the attempt by prosecutors to make Rittenhouse a scapegoat was thwarted by a jury of 12. God bless America!




 

PREVIOUSLY:

Kenosha: Verdict Today? Or Never?

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My prediction of a hung jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse case is looking better after the jury failed to reach a verdict in their second day of deliberations. The jury asked the judge Wednesday to review surveillance drone video of the shooting incident, a request that might be interpreted several different ways. My theory, however, is that a majority of the jurors want to acquit Rittenhouse, but are deadlocked — probably 10-2 or 9-3 — because a few jurors are adamant that Rittenhouse can’t be allowed to get off scot-free. He must be found guilty of something, these holdouts believe, because how is it that a 17-year-old can just walk around with an AR-15 and shoot anybody who causes him trouble?

That’s my theory, anyway, and if I’m right, the reason they wanted to review the drone video was because, according to the prosecution, this video shows that Rittenhouse “provoked” the attacks against him by pointing his rifle at people. The defense denies this, and has moved for a mistrial because the prosecution gave them a low-quality “compressed” version of the video file, rather than the high-resolution version the prosecution showed the jury. While I doubt the judge will declare a mistrial over this issue, the defense is establishing the basis of an appeal, in case the jury returns a guilty verdict — which I think they won’t.

It’s either going to be an acquittal or a hung jury, as I see it, because the evidence so clearly shows Rittenhouse fired in self-defense in each of the three cases — killing the deranged criminal JoJo Rosenbaum, killing skateboard punk Anthony Huber, and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz, who was pointing a Glock pistol at Rittenhouse. By the way, they have identified “Jump Kick Man,” the mystery figure who attacked Rittenhouse right before Huber got shot. “Jump Kick Man” is a convicted felon with a lengthy rap sheet. Rittenhouse fired two shots at him but unfortunately missed, and it was this incident that may have encouraged Huber’s subsequent attack on Rittenhouse. “Jump Kick Man” is reportedly behind bars now, because of a probation violation, but his involvement in the case indicates what I’ve said all along — these rioting mobs weren’t composed of “social justice” idealists, but rather criminal scum looking to engage in mayhem. Democrats, in other words.

So now everybody’s waiting for a verdict, and there may never be a verdict, because some holdout jurors are insisting that Rittenhouse be found guilty of something — anything — rather than be acquitted, and never mind the clear evidence of self-defense.

Dana Loesch spanked David French for his idiotic attack on “open carry” of firearms. I try to ignore French — it’s painful even to acknowledge his existence — but somebody had to school him, so thanks to Dana for doing this job. However, I will cede French’s point that most of Rittenhouse’s defenders would never do what Rittenhouse did, or want their kids to do it. Like, if one of my sons ever called me to ask, “Should I take my AR-15 to the riot?” I’d be like, “Hell, no! Have you lost your mind?”

But whether an activity is advisable is a different question than whether it’s legal, and there are a lot of things that are legal to do which I avoid and would also advise my children to avoid. So while I try to stay away from riots, and have never brandished a carbine at anyone, that doesn’t mean it should be illegal to brandish a carbine during a riot. And when we consider the result of Rittenhouse’s (arguably foolish) decision, it’s not as if it were entirely bad. At the very least, we should all be grateful that convicted child rapist JoJo Rosenbaum is dead.




 

Killer Lesbians: Pennsylvania Couple Investigated in Homicide of Two Girls

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Don’t expect feminists to notice this case:

COGAN STATION, Pa. — The discovery of the bodies of two girls missing for years and buried in the backyard of a Pennsylvania home has led to the arrest of two women.
Authorities identified the bodies of 6-year-old Nicole Snyder and 4-year-old Jasmine Snyder on Monday. Authorities say the older girl was buried in 2016, and the younger one was buried in 2017.
The girls’ mother, 32-year-old Marie Snyder, and her partner Echo Butler, 26, have been charged with child endangerment and obstruction in Lycoming County, and authorities have opened a homicide investigation, the Williamsport Sun-Gazette reported.
The girls’ bodies were transported Monday to Erie for examination by a forensic anthropologist, officials said. Chief Chris Kriner of the Old Lycoming Township police department said an investigation continues “into the manner of death, motive and the timeline of events.”
The Children and Youth Services department earlier took custody of a son for care. In early September, the agency began investigating after reports of concerns about “educational issues” involving the 7-year-old son, Kriner said. Officials then learned that Marie Snyder had two other children who were unaccounted for and last month sought help from police, he said.
Authorities said the father of the girls reported last having seen them in 2015, the same year as their last contact with medical, court or other personnel. Robert Mausteller of the township police department said officials were allegedly told in September the girls were staying with a friend, but they never got a name.
Marie Snyder was arrested at her Clinton County workplace Nov. 4 and refused to provide information about the whereabouts of the missing girls, Kriner said. The property was searched several times over the next few days, and the remains were found over the weekend.
Kriner said he and the county district attorney consider it “a terrible, horrific situation” and vowed that their investigation will not conclude until “justice is brought on behalf of these two young girls.” He said other agencies including state police and the FBI assisted in the search.
Both women were ordered held without bail pending a Nov. 17 preliminary hearing.

They have not yet been charged with murder, but when you bury two bodies in your backyard, that’s pretty heavy circumstantial evidence. I mean, one body, you could perhaps come up with some plausible explanation, but two bodies? No, you’re not going to explain that away.

The father of the children, Joshua Snyder, 31, was prohibited from seeing them under a “Protection from Abuse” (PFA) order issued in 2015, after he was evicted from the mobile home where Snyder, Butler and Butler’s mother lived. Exactly what he knew about his ex-wife’s domestic situation is unclear, but this is definitely a strange case. You might suppose that, in such a case, there would have been some sort of follow-up to check on the well-being of the children, but it appears that in this quiet part of Pennsylvania (about 5 miles north of Williamsport) nobody paid much attention. Once you legally prevent the father from being involved, children are at the mercy of their mother — and, in this case, their mother’s lesbian girlfriend and the girlfriend’s mother.

You’re not allowed to voice concerns about such an arrangement. It’s practically a hate crime even to use the words “lesbian” and “homicide” in the same headline, unless of course a lesbian is the victim of homicide. These are the unwritten rules of modern journalism, which is all about “social justice” and “diversity,” so don’t expect CNN to notice that two lesbians are suspects in the homicide of two little girls. This is not a crime deserving of national attention, but strictly local news.




 

Kenosha: Media-Induced Mistrial?

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This disturbing report from Jack Posobiec (via Legal Insurrection, tipped from a commenter in today’s earlier post) shows exactly what can be expected when the media engages in deliberate misrepresentation of criminal cases. We live in an era of neo-Stalinism, where The Party organizes show trials preceded by propaganda that demonizes the accused as an “enemy of the people” (vrag naroda).

People can be taught to hate a person they never met if, as in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, they are fed a controlled diet of lies and distortions, intended to portray someone in the worst possible light. There are people on the Left, cocooned inside the media echo chamber of hate propaganda, who sincerely believe that Rittenhouse is a sort of right-wing assassin, who went to Kenosha to kill “racial justice” protesters. This is the narrative of the Rittenhouse case created by CNN and MNSBC, and amplified by every propaganda organ of The Party.

Did I mention that actual Communists are in Kenosha?

In a sane world, killing Communists would not only be legal, it would be encouraged as a patriotic duty. Pray for America.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!