Month: August 2023

Authored by Charles Lipson via RealClear Wire,

President Biden has declared he’s running for a second term, but it’s far from certain he actually will. His infirmity and low poll numbers raise serious doubts. His physical decline shows when he walks or climbs the stairs of Air Force One. His cognitive decline shows when he refuses to hold press conferences or answer even the simplest questions, like how he feels about the devastating fires in Maui. His decline in the public’s estimation shows when pollsters ask Americans how they’re doing. Four out of five answer, “Not good. Not good at all.”

Voters also say they don’t want another general election choice like the last one. So many votes in 2020 were negative ones “against the worse candidate,” not in favor of the better one. They don’t want another grudge match between two unpopular candidates.

Biden’s dismal poll numbers form a somber backdrop for his reelection campaign. That backdrop is even darker now that his health problems are so visible. These mounting problems may not prevent him from running, but they do lessen the chances. True, he keeps saying he is running. But, like all politicians, he may be deceiving the public or himself. The biggest “tell” is that Biden is avoiding the very things active candidates do. He’s not campaigning. He’s not attending a lot of small events with big donors. He’s not running ads. He’s not using the White House’s bully pulpit to address the nation on our challenges and his response to them.

Still, those signs are not definitive. Biden might be lying low because the Republicans are fighting among themselves. Why get in their way? Better to wait until late autumn to ramp up his campaign.

He might be unsure if he really is running, uncertain if he is up to the arduous task, physically and mentally.

Or he might have already decided, privately, that he will not run but is delaying the announcement since it would immediately turn him into a powerless lame duck.

At this point, it’s impossible to know what he has decided. He might not know himself. But it is well worth considering the implications if Biden limits himself to one term and waits until late fall or early spring to make the announcement.

The first implication is that a late withdrawal favors some Democratic candidates over others. It favors those with high name recognition, existing campaign operations, and the ability to fund expensive national efforts, either from outside donations or their own pockets. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has already established his campaign-in-waiting and can raise lots of money, especially from big donors in his home state. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is a billionaire who can fund his own run and has begun setting up a national team. Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, by contrast, would be several steps behind and would need to raise a lot of money quickly to become a viable candidate. So would Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, or others who might step into the wide-open race. One candidate who is already running, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., would stay in the race, trading on his family name rather than his conspiracy-fueled ideas.

Interestingly, no one in the Biden cabinet seems poised to make a run. That lackluster group is the faceless front of the administrative state. The only name even mentioned is Pete Buttigieg, and that very seldom. The one-time darling of the media has faded from consideration amid his troubled tenure at the Transportation Department. He’s the Beto O’Rourke of this round.

The second consequence of a Biden withdrawal would be a fight over the future of Kamala Harris. She is the least popular vice president in polling history, and for good reason. Voters think she’s incompetent, inauthentic, and inarticulate, an empty-calorie word salad without any policy achievements. She’s the living embodiment of the “Peter Principle,” where people keep getting promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. She has reached that lofty level, just as Dan Quayle did during George H.W. Bush’s presidency.

Kamala’s bleak showing in the polls is particularly striking because she took office with enthusiastic support from every legacy media outlet. They loved her, even though ordinary Democratic voters did not. In fact, those voters were so sour on Kamala that she withdrew before the first primary or caucus in 2020. She was polling near zero. She could raise money, at least initially, but she couldn’t raise enthusiasm or votes. She still can’t. With each failure, she tries to reintroduce herself to the public. It hasn’t worked.

Unfortunately for Democrats, Kamala’s presence as second-in-line poses a thorny problem, whether Biden runs or not. If he runs, she’s an albatross on the ticket because voters are worried Biden might not make it through a full second term. They really, really don’t want to see Harris step into the Oval Office by default.

If Biden decides not to run, Harris poses a different problem. She is the country’s highest-ranking African-American officeholder in a party built around identity politics and strong turnouts by blacks, especially black women. That dependence on black votes is why Biden picked her in the first place (remember, he promised to pick a black woman), and it’s why he cannot drop her from the ticket. If Biden doesn’t run and Harris sinks to the bottom in an open primary, the result could alienate a vital constituency and depress turnout in that crucial group.

The third implication concerns Hunter’s legal troubles, which touch on other family members and the patriarch himself. The president could solve the legal peril instantly by pardoning family members who face criminal exposure. Biden’s press secretary rejected the possibility. Asked if Hunter might receive a presidential pardon, Karine Jean-Pierre replied with a single word: “No.”

The White House knows the uproar – and political damage – a pardon would cause. It would imply guilt, impede a full disclosure of all criminal acts, gut the very notion of unbiased justice, and appear nakedly self-serving.

The Bidens’ political and legal problems are not merely that family members made a lot of money, but that they made it while Joe Biden was vice president and made it without any visible business skills. Equally important, the money came from foreign businesses in the very countries where he directed U.S. foreign policy, at President Obama’s behest. The family leveraged Biden’s official position for some $20-40 million, funneled through an opaque web of LLCs. They were selling political connections and access, not business expertise. The LLCs were formed when Joe Biden was vice president and had no legitimate business purpose.They were designed to hide to sources and distribution of income.

The president’s direct involvement in these schemes is still murky. Proving he knew, or worse, aided them, is the goal of Republican House investigations and a possible impeachment inquiry.

Whether or not any felonies can be proven, such as money laundering or Hunter’s failure to register as a foreign agent, is an open question. Not that the Department of Justice has pursued them vigorously. Quite the contrary. Their lax treatment of the president’s family and suppression of the IRS investigation is a scandal in its own right.

If President Biden does eventually pardon his family, the ensuing uproar would end his administration’s political life and lead inexorably to an impeachment vote. That’s why the president would be well advised to wait beyond the November election before giving his family a “get out of jail free” card. Even then, it would trash his legacy.

What about Republicans? What would Biden’s withdrawal mean for them? At this stage, it’s impossible to know. It’s too early to tell if it would hurt or help Trump, either in the primaries or the general election. One possibility is that a new face on the Democratic side would encourage Republicans to pick a new face themselves. But there are still too many unknowns to have any confidence in a prediction.

One thing we do know is that Biden’s promise to run for a second term does not guarantee he will stay in the race. He could still decide he’s too old, too infirm, or too unpopular to make the arduous uphill climb. And we know one more thing: If Joe Biden does pull out, his decision will send shockwaves across the American political landscape.

Charles Lipson is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he founded the Program on International Politics, Economics, and Security. He can be reached at charles.lipson@gmail.com.

The White House is again accusing Moscow of importing North Korean weapons for use in its military operation in Ukraine, at a moment tensions with Pyongyang are mounting, which has led to tit-for-tat exchanges of nuclear rhetoric.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Wednesday stopped short of saying there’s smoking gun evidence for arms transfers already accomplished, instead strongly suggesting potential sales in the near future. “We urge the DPRK to cease its arms negotiations with Russia and abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia,” Kirby said.

Presidents Putin and Kim Jong Un recently exchanged cordial letters expressing a desire for closer cooperation on multiple fronts, also after North Korea has blasted NATO ‘imperialism’ for causing the Ukraine conflict to erupt. Russia sent a delegation to the north last month, headed by the foreign minister.

Kirby referenced new intelligence which he said shows both pariah leaders (in the West’s eyes) are “actively advancing” high-level talks for more weapons.

He further claimed that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu while in Pyongyang late last month was there “to try to convince Pyongyang to sell artillery ammunition to Russia.” 

“Following these negotiations, high-level discussions may continue in coming months,” Kirby said, alleging the two sides are negotiating over “significant quantities and multiple types” of weapons to use in Ukraine.

Washington has over the course of the Ukraine conflict at various points accused North Korea of supplying the Russian military with additional artillery ammo. US intelligence has in the recent past alleged that train shipments between the two countries included covert ammo supplies, but something which has not been proven.

The two countries actually share a small border. More recently, there have been accusations that Wagner Group, which is now on the outs with Moscow in the wake of the mutiny in June, purchased large quantities of arms and equipment from the Kim Jong-Un government.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

More than 100 former clerks for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas signed an open letter defending his independence and integrity amid media reports that suggest he received improper gifts from a Texas billionaire.

“As his law clerks, we offer this response. Different paths led us to our year with Justice Thomas, and we have followed different paths since. But along the way, we all saw with our own eyes the same thing: His integrity is unimpeachable,” their letter said (pdf).

The 112 individuals who signed the letter include three circuit court judges, including Judge David Stras of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Judge James Ho of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and Judge Allison Rushing of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

“And these stories are malicious, perpetuating the ugly assumption that the Justice cannot think for himself. They are part of a larger attack on the Court and its legitimacy as an institution,” the letter also stated. “The picture they paint of the Court and the man for whom we worked bears no resemblance to reality.”

“His independence is unshakable, deeply rooted seven decades ago as that young child who walked through the door of his grandparents’ house for a life forever changed,” they continued.

The former clerks then described Justice Thomas’ upbringing in Alabama and how he was destined to become a priest before the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s, which made him decide to pursue law instead.

“He is a man of unwavering principle. He welcomes the lone dissent. He is also a man of great humor and warmth and generosity. Walk the halls, and you’ll hear his laugh. Call, and he answers,” the letter continued. “His grandfather’s sayings become our sayings. His chambers become our chambers—a place fueled by unstoppable curiosity and unreturned library books, all to get every case just right.”

The letter went on to make reference to Justice Thomas’s upbringing and education, how he was changed by life in the segregated South, and how he had been destined for the priesthood before the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. led him to the law instead.

Reports from ProPublica, a left-leaning media outlet, have claimed that the Supreme Court justice accepted at least 38 vacations, 26 private jet flights, 12 VIP passes to sporting events, and two resort trips during his time as a justice.

“While some of the hospitality, such as stays in personal homes, may not have required disclosure, Thomas appears to have violated the law by failing to disclose flights, yacht cruises and expensive sports tickets, according to ethics experts,” the report in August said.

But the letter, in addressing those reports, asserted that they’re part of a broader series of attacks on the Supreme Court itself.

“Lately, the stories have questioned his integrity and his ethics for the friends he keeps. They bury the lede. These friends are not parties before him as a Justice of the Court. And these stories are malicious, perpetuating the ugly assumption that the Justice cannot think for himself,” the letter said, according to Fox News, which obtained the document. “They are part of a larger attack on the Court and its legitimacy as an institution. The picture they paint of the Court and the man for whom we worked bears no resemblance to reality.”

Congressional Democrats have said the reports call into question whether Justice Thomas followed the high court’s ethics rules and have vowed to make changes to the Supreme Court. They have also called on the associate justice, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush, to recuse himself from certain cases.

“Justice Thomas has brought shame upon himself and the United States Supreme Court with his acceptance of massive, repeated and undisclosed gifts,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in mid-August. “No government official, elected or unelected, could ethically or legally accept gifts of that scale. He should resign immediately.”

Other than Mr. Lieu, four other House Democrats have said Justice Thomas should resign from the bench. They include Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Bill Pascrell (D-N.J), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.).

In response to the reports, Justice Thomas has said he “endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines,” adding that the “guidelines are now being changed, as the committee of the Judicial Conference responsible for financial disclosure for the entire federal judiciary just this past month announced new guidance.”

“And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future,” he added in a statement.

Meanwhile, Harlan Crow, whose friendship with Justice Thomas was the subject of the ProPublica reports, issued a comment to The Atlantic earlier this year saying that it “would be absurd to me to talk to Justice Thomas about Supreme Court cases, because that’s not my world.”

There’s been a rare armed uprising in a region of Syria currently occupied by American forces, which has resulted in dead and wounded. Regional reports have tallied at least 13 to as many as 25 people, both militants and civilians, have been killed.

It happened Wednesday in Deir Ezzor province, which for years has had some 1,000 or more US soldiers occupying what is Syria’s only oil and gas rich province. The US has trained and supported Kurkish-led “Syrian Democratic Forces” while also cutting off Damascus and most of the Syrian population from its own resources. 

Al Jazeera reports of the Wednesday violence, “Clashes in eastern Syria between Arab tribal fighters and US-backed Kurdish-led fighters have left several people, including civilians, dead and others wounded, opposition activists and pro-government media have said.”

It’s being called the worst violence there since 2015, when there were still fierce counter-terror operations against ISIS. 

According to more details: 

The clashes first broke out on Monday, a day after the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) detained the commander and several members of the Deir Az Zor Military Council, a group that had been allied with the SDF, at a meeting they invited them to in the northeastern city of Hassakeh.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that 10 Arab tribesmen and three SDF fighters were killed in clashes in the villages of Hrejieh and Breeha.

Additionally there were reports of at least eight civilians, including a child, killed in the village of Hrejieh. 

Much of the Arab component of the US-backed forces in the region has long been in tension with the area’s Kurdish leadership. The Syrian Kurds dominate the SDF, while the Arabs tend to be made up of remnant “Free Syrian Army” factions. While Washington has long sought to present the SDF as a broad coalition of anti-Assad “opposition” fighters, the reality is that the Kurds and their interests totally dominate.

🇸🇾 #Syria – #Rojava: Clashes have allegedly broken out between the SDF and tribal groups in Deir ez-Zor after the SDF arrested Deir ez-Zor Military Council (DeZMC) leader Abu Khawla.

Tribes affiliated with Abu Khawla have since given the SDF a 12-hour ultimatum to release the… pic.twitter.com/3GHbIqHtM2

— POPULAR FRONT (@PopularFront_) August 29, 2023

This has led to fears among the tribes near the Iraq border that the SDF and US will in the end “erase” the eastern region’s “Arab identity.”

There’s also the possibility that pro-Assad forces are covertly encouraging the Arab tribes to rise up and throw off the American occupation. For years, the Pentagon’s chief enemy in the region has been ‘pro-Iran’ and Shia aligned forces, but if there’s a broader push to overthrow the US occupation from the Arab tribes, Washington’s days occupying Syria are numbered.

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

International scientists have jointly signed a declaration dismissing the existence of a climate crisis and insisting that carbon dioxide is beneficial to Earth, contrary to the popular alarmist narrative.

“There is no climate emergency,” the Global Climate Intelligence Group (CLINTEL) said in its World Climate Declaration (pdf), made public in August. “Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific. Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.”

A total of 1,609 scientists and professionals from around the world have signed the declaration, including 321 from the United States.

The coalition pointed out that Earth’s climate has varied as long as it has existed, with the planet experiencing several cold and warm phases. The Little Ice Age only ended as recently as 1850, they said.

“Therefore, it is no surprise that we now are experiencing a period of warming,” the declaration said.

Warming is happening “far slower” than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as policy tools,” the coalition said, adding that these models “exaggerate the effect of greenhouse gases” and “ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.” For instance, even though climate alarmists characterize CO2 as environmentally-damaging, the coalition pointed out that the gas is “not a pollutant.”

Carbon dioxide is “essential” to all life on earth and is “favorable” for nature. Extra CO2 results in the growth of global plant biomass while also boosting the yields of crops worldwide.

CLINTEL also dismissed the narrative of global warming being linked to increased natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, and droughts, stressing that there is “no statistical evidence” to support these claims.

“There is no climate emergency. Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm. We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050. Go for adaptation instead of mitigation; adaptation works whatever the causes are,” it said.

“To believe the outcome of a climate model is to believe what the model makers have put in. This is precisely the problem of today’s climate discussion to which climate models are central. Climate science has degenerated into a discussion based on beliefs, not on sound self-critical science. Should not we free ourselves from the naive belief in immature climate models?”

Climate Models and Sunlight Reflection

Among the CLINTEL signatories are two Nobel laureates—physicists John Francis Clauser from the United States and Ivan Giaever, a Norwegian-American.

Mr. Clauser has made a significant addition to climate models to dismiss the narrative of global warming: the visible light reflected by cumulus clouds which, on average, cover half of the earth.

Current climate models vastly underestimate this aspect of cumulus cloud reflection, which plays a key role in regulating the earth’s temperature. Mr. Clauser previously told President Joe Biden that he disagreed with his climate policies.

In May, Mr. Clauser was elected to the board of directors at the CO2 Coalition, a group focusing on the beneficial contributions of carbon dioxide in the environment.

“The popular narrative about climate change reflects a dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people,” Mr. Clauser said in a May 5 statement.

“Misguided climate science has metastasized into massive shock-journalistic pseudoscience. In turn, the pseudoscience has become a scapegoat for a wide variety of other unrelated ills.”

“It has been promoted and extended by similarly misguided business marketing agents, politicians, journalists, government agencies, and environmentalists. In my opinion, there is no real climate crisis.”

False Doomsday Predictions, a Presidential Issue

CLINTEL’s declaration against the climate change narrative counters propaganda spread by climate alarmists who have long predicted doomsday scenarios triggered by global warming—none of which have ever come true.

In 1970, some climate scientists predicted that the earth would move into a new ice age by the 21st century. Pollution expert James Lodge predicted that “air pollution may obliterate the sun and cause a new ice age in the first third of the new century,” according to The Boston Globe.

In May 1982, Mostafa Tolba, then-executive director of the United Nations environmental program, said that if the world did not change course, it would face an “environmental catastrophe which will witness devastation as complete, as irreversible, as any nuclear holocaust” by 2000.

In June 2008, James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Sciences, said that within five to 10 years, the Arctic would have no ice left in the summer.

As climate alarmists continue to spread propaganda about global warming, the topic has become an issue in the 2024 presidential race, with multiple candidates openly dismissing it.

In a July 13 post on X, Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that climate change “is being used to control us through fear.”

“Freedom and free markets are a much better way to stop pollution. Polluters make themselves rich by making the public pay for the damage they do,” he said.

During the first 2024 GOP presidential debate, candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called climate change a “hoax.”

“The reality is, the anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket on our economy. And so the reality is, more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change,” he said.

High Temperatures, Biden’s Appliance Crackdown

Climate activists have insisted that global warming is responsible for the soaring temperatures across the United States, even claiming that temperatures are hitting record highs.

In a recent interview with The Epoch Times, John Christy, a climatologist and professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, dismissed the narrative of record high temperatures.

“Regionally, the West has seen its largest number of hot summer records in the past 100 years, but the Ohio Valley and Upper Midwest are experiencing their fewest,” he said.

“For the conterminous U.S. as a whole, the last 10 years have produced only an average number of records. The 1930s are still champs.”

Climate change policies have been used to justify sweeping lifestyle changes across the United States by the Energy Department, like restricting home appliances, and sometimes, even outright banning them.

In June, the Energy Department proposed rules that would require ceiling fans to become more energy efficient, a development that could lead to manufacturers having to shell out $86.6 million per year in “increased equipment costs.”

In February, the DOE proposed energy efficiency rules targeting gas stoves that would affect half of all new models of such stoves sold in the United States while making most of the existing ones noncompliant.

In July, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission proposed a policy that would remove nearly all existing portable gas generators from the market.

The Biden administration has already implemented a ban on incandescent light bulbs, which came into effect on Aug. 1.

Authored by Bryan Jung via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

A nationwide crime wave is forcing many retailers, large and small, to close their doors or lock up their merchandise.

One example is Nordstrom, which made an announcement in May that it’s closing its flagship store in downtown San Francisco after 35 years in business.

The location inside Westfield Mall said goodbye to its last customers on Aug. 27, after opening in October 1988.

The store at the corner of Fifth and Market Streets once occupied five floors and spanned more than 312,000 square feet but is now closing like many other retailers because of a surge in crime and poor sales.

San Francisco Centre has suffered from a rise in shoplifting, homelessness, and public drug use.

A Popular 35-Year Store Location Closes Its Doors

A former shopping staple in downtown San Francisco, the neighborhood’s “unsafe conditions for customers, retailers and employees,” made operations difficult to sustain, a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors, Matt Dorsey, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The now-empty Nordstrom location has been described by local media outlets as desolated with countless empty displays and mannequins packaged away.

Other major retailers in the area, including Old Navy Whole Foods, AT&T, Anthropologie, AmazonGo, Office Depot, and Saks Off Fifth Avenue, closed earlier this summer.

Remaining stores have been forced to lock up their stock to deter shoplifters.

Nordstrom Rack, across the street from the flagship location, shut down operations in June.

Even the Westfield Mall announced in June that it would be closing, after operating on Market Street for more than 20 years, local TV news station KRON4 reported.

The future viability of the San Francisco Centre shopping district is uncertain.

San Francisco Swamped With Crime And Empty Store Fronts

In addition to the rampant drug use, homelessness, and crime, the city has lost thousands to remote work after the COVID-19 pandemic, which has decimated vast areas of its commercial neighborhoods.

Office vacancies in San Francisco reached a record high of 31 percent in May, enough space for 92,000 workers, according to the Daily Mail.

The loss of office workers is expected to contribute to a budget shortfall of $1.3 billion in five years, while a decline in property tax revenue alone may cost nearly $200 million per year, according to the city’s chief accountant.

Sales tax revenue for South of Market, or SoMA, where the stores were located, has seen a 25 percent decline from the first quarter of 2019.

Ms. Breed’s office announced that it was working on changing laws and tax reforms that would bring more businesses to the area.

IKEA’s opening of a new location at 945 Market Street on Aug. 23 was touted as a sign by Ms. Breed that things weren’t too bad, calling IKEA’s move “a game changer.”

Mr. Dorsey said that the city will “have some serious issues to work on.”

“San Francisco has always had ups and downs, but I’m going to tell you we always come back,” he said. “And I’m not going to lose my optimism about my district or my city.”

Last week, city authorities announced 17 new pop-up shops that will move into empty storefronts in the downtown Financial District in late September, according to ABC7 News in San Francisco.

Shoplifting Hits Democrat-Run Regions Across the US

Shoplifting has become a problem for retailers in major metropolitan regions nationwide, with even discount stores being hit.

On Aug. 24, Dollar Tree Chairman and CEO Rick Dreiling said the discount retailer would start locking up items to prevent growing theft.

Mr. Dreiling has blamed shrink, an industry term for stolen items and damages, for causing the company to miss its earnings forecasts and cut its outlook in May.

The retailer’s gross profit margins tumbled to 29.8 percent in the second quarter of 2023 from 32.7 percent in the second quarter of 2022.

“We are now taking a very defensive approach to shrink,” Mr. Dreiling said, noting that inventory losses had “advanced a little further than what we had anticipated.”

The spree of store theft has already forced larger stores such as CVS and Target to lock up entire isles of items.

The CEO also suggested that some items with the highest rates of theft would be removed from stores altogether but wouldn’t specify any in particular.

Representatives for Dollar Tree and Nordstrom didn’t respond by press time to requests by the Epoch Times for comment.

Today in “too sad to be ironic” news, a Chicago television news crew doing a report on a string of robberies this week wound up getting robbed at gun point themselves by three armed men wearing ski masks. 

A reporter and photographer for spanish-language station Univision Chicago were filming around 5AM in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, AP/ABC reported, when three masked men held them at gunpoint and robbed them of their television cameras “and other items”. 

Luis Godinez, vice president of news at Univision Chicago, commented: “They were approached with guns and robbed. Mainly it was personal items, and they took a camera.”’

“They’re OK, and we’re working on it together as a team,” he said of his crew.

The story was specifically on robberies in the West Town community where the robbery took place. The spot was supposed to run on the morning news but footage that was shot was “in the stolen camera” and, as a result, the report never made it to air.

ABC/AP reported that the victims were a 28-year-old man and 42-year-old man and that the armed robbers fled in the vehicles they showed up to the scene in: a gray sedan and black SUV.

“The offenders then took the victims’ belongings before returning to the vehicles and fleeing,” a police spokesperson told the Washington Post. 

Astonishingly, this is now the second robbery this month involving a television news crew after a WLS-TV photographer was robbed and assaulted earlier this month while preparing to cover a story on Chicago’s West Side. 

The corresponding union for the reporters, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Local 41, has now issued a warning about growing safety threats to those in the field covering the news. 

The union’s president said: “Our news photographers and reporters provide a very important public service in keeping our community informed. We are committed to making sure that their safety comes first.” 

Submitted by Mark Glennon of Wirepoints

The modern left’s assault on free speech is perhaps the most terrifying element of the madness we have succumbed to for the simple reason that democracy is meaningless without it. The assault has been largely successful. Voices that should be heard are muzzled and, more insidiously, countless other voices are frightened into silence.

We see that suppression routinely. Too often, readers here tell us of being intimidated into silence by the cancel mob, a mob now controlling much of our government. The iron boot of government on one’s throat is no small matter: Fear of the cost of litigating against a government intent on suppressing free speech is particularly intimidating.

That intimidation must come to an end. Help is often available – a resource you should prize. A number of law firms specializing in free speech are now available, pro bono – free or at reduced cost. And they are winning, thanks to federal courts that still recognize the First Amendment right to free speech.

A Chicago company’s free speech case is an illustration.

Townstone Financial is a smallish, Chicago-based home mortgage originator. It marketed itself primarily through a weekly one-hour show on AM 560 called The Townstone Financial Show. They discussed issues of interest to homebuyers and offered advice to listeners and callers, sometimes getting into topics like crime, policing, movies and the like.

In 2020, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sued Townstone claiming that the company violated a fair lending law by discriminating against African-Americans.

However, the CFPB never alleged any case of Townstone discriminating on mortgage applications.

Instead, the CFPB said Townstone discriminated through its marketing in its radio show by “discouraging” applications from Blacks. The CFPB’s evidence was a handful of comments on the show made over a four-year period representing perhaps 10 minutes of air time out of about 10,000 minutes.

Some of those comments might be regarded as offensive or in bad taste. They referred to a particular Jewel food store at Clark and Division Streets in Chicago as “Jungle Jewel” and included talk of certain Black areas having “hoodlum weekend” and approaching “a real war zone” or as “crazy” and places “to be driven through quickly” while avoiding eye contact.

But the CFPB did not produce even one example of anybody being discouraged from applying with Townstone. Nor, according to Townstone’s lawyers, has the company ever received any complaint about its show.

The comments from the show cited by the CFPB were taken out of context and meant little, Townstone believed. For example, the “Jungle Jewel” was commonly called that by people in the area, and referred to as such even by a Black blogger, who called it “a socioeconomic nightmare and a haven for street crazies.”

As Towntone’s lawyers later argued, if speech like Townstone’s is illegal, what wouldn’t violate the law? “Are creditors permitted to talk about crime at all? Education? Homelessness? Welfare? Poverty? Income distribution? Are they permitted to criticize the Black Lives Matter movement? Support the police? Criticize the Catholic Church about child abuse scandals? Support the BDS movement? Criticize the BDS movement? Support abortion rights? Oppose immigration?”

The lawsuit threatened to entirely destroy Townstone.

Its owner decided to fight.

But how do you fight against the government, which has unlimited resources?

Enter the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit with free speech expertise, which represented the company.

A federal court in Chicago threw out the CFPB’s lawsuit in February. However, the ruling was based mostly on the court’s conclusion that the CFPB had authority only to regulate actual discrimination in lending, not marketing conduct that might be deemed “discouraging.” The court therefore didn’t need to get to the First Amendment defense.

However, the CFPB has now appealed to the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, so the free speech defense is being raised again, and Townstone is getting still more help. Among the other firms filing amicus — friend of the court — briefs are Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, America’s Future, Free Speech Coalition, Free Speech Defense and Education Fund, U.S. Constitutional Rights Legal Defense Fund, and Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Lawyers from one of those firms, Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, were guests on our podcast last year discussing legal issues with the University of Illinois’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies and Gov. Pritzker’s gas tax signage law.

It’s amicus brief in Townstone’s case summarizes it nicely: “Congress has not deputized CFPB as the ‘Tasteful Joke Police,’ nor would the First Amendment permit that delegation…. By conflating candid discussions of crime with the disparagement of African-American communities, CFPB seeks to do just that. Under the First Amendment, it cannot.”

If you think Townstone’s case or other First Amendment cases you’ve heard about are isolated examples, you are dangerously uninformed.

The assault on free speech is massive. Much of the government, social media and the press are partners in the Censorship Industrial Complex. That term was coined by Michael Shellenberger, who laid out 56 pages of evidence in congressional testimony last year. The Missouri v Biden case, now on appeal and likely to go to the U.S. Supreme Court, is already blowing the lid off much of the unholy alliance. Read about the massive evidence of record, discussed in the trial court’s Independence Day order.

And if you think the assault on free speech isn’t ongoing in Illinois, you are again dangerously uninformed. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul essentially thumbed his nose at the First Amendment when he personally drafted the Illinois law targeting alleged pro-life “misinformation” given out by crisis pregnancy groups near abortion clinics. A federal judge ridiculed it and enjoined its enforcement earlier this month. Chalk up that victory to another of the pro bono law firms available to help on First Amendment issues, the Thomas More Society.

Gov. JB Pritzker “is gaining a reputation as a hard-left culture warrior who is happy to silence political opponents,” as the Wall Street Journal recently said. “Pritzker apparently thinks that invoking the name Trump is a justification to get away with saying or doing anything. Not under the U.S. Constitution,” wrote the Journal.

He told CNN, “There ought to be a private right of action for anybody that’s dissuaded or told something that’s false, that’s the important thing.” That would be flagrantly unconstitutional.

Under the guise of banning book bans, the General assembly passed and Pritzker signed a bill delegating control over what books libraries carry to a group run by an open Marxist. Most recently, they passed an “anti-doxing” law that flies in the face of textbook First Amendment law, as we explained here.

Illinois Senators Durbin and Duckworth have been among the progressives jawboning tech platforms to do more censorship. And Illinois Congressman Sean Casten introduced a bill to strip courts of the power of judicial review — their power to declare laws invalid as violations of the First Amendment, or anything else.

Do not stand silent when your right to free speech is suppressed. Know that quality legal firms are often available for free. There are more beyond those I’ve mentioned here.

The assault on free speech must be defeated at all cost. Do your part.

Leisurely shoppers at two different California malls suddenly found themselves amid disturbing frenzies of teenage antisocial behavior on Sunday afternoon. At each of the malls, the mayhem carried on for hours, with a series of brawls and other disturbances culminating in gunfire and a stabbing as overwhelmed security guards and local police summoned reinforcements from nearby jurisdictions. 

First, we take you to the “Del Amo Fashion Center” in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance. According to the police and the Los Angeles Times, a staggering one thousand juveniles descended on the mall and proceeded to savage each other. 

The chaos caused by teenagers occurred in Del Amo Fashion Centre in Torrance on 23rd of August, 2023. pic.twitter.com/1bFa2k3cfV

— C. Dennis Chang (@cdennischang) August 29, 2023

What’s happening with today’s youth? The Del Amo footage just keeps getting crazier. pic.twitter.com/5AyZPaxq4N

— Wilmington Chronicles (@Wilmington_) August 28, 2023

Here’s another mob descending on a single victim. While the tweet says the victim is white, that’s not clear to us:

White guy gets jumped by a large group of scholars in Torrance, California.

Around 4 p.m. Torrance police received a call reporting “a large crowd of juveniles fighting among themselves”. pic.twitter.com/qSEmo1LNLk

— iamyesyouareno (@iamyesyouareno) August 28, 2023

If you look closely at the video above, you’ll see a black adult male in a blue shirt bravely push his way into the pack to stop the beating that was in progress.

According to KTLA5, that hero was Maurice Hardy, who told the station, “I’ve got two little brothers and if I see something like that happening, I would want somebody to help them,” Hardy said. “So I thought, ‘I got to help them.’ I don’t like bullies. I don’t like stuff like that.”

This video shows security personnel overwhelmed by the chaos, and being challenged to fistfights by brazen teen-fiends who are as inclined to beat up the guards as they are each other: 

TORRANCE CALIFORNIA—Approximately 1,000 juveniles swarmed the Del Amo Mall on Sunday, starting fights and causing a massive disturbance.

There was also a report of gunfire.

It took several hours for the crowd to disperse while city officials warned the public to steer clear of… pic.twitter.com/gbN1fVSUec

— Amiri King (@AmiriKing) August 28, 2023

🚨 WATCH: CAUGHT ON TAPE A Massive Brawl Involving approx 1,000 Juveniles Breaks Out At Del Amo Fashion Center mall in California draws large police presence.

Civil war
Revolutionary war
Don’t tread on me pic.twitter.com/3omawhjQN8

— Coolwa (@Cooolwanyc) August 29, 2023

A shot was fired in Torrance but didn’t hit anyone. The same happened on Sunday at the East Bay Mall in Emeryville, a city wedged between Oakland and Berkeley. There, the trouble started around 4:30 pm with a pack of 50 teens creating an unspecified disturbance at one of the businesses at the mall.

Over the next two hours, some 250 more teenagers amassed near the AMC theater. ABC7 says they were drawn lured by National Cinema Day, a promotion that saw theater chains offering $4 tickets — probably for the last time ever. One shopper said people were “pepper-spraying each other” and “throwing chairs,” prompting her group to make a roundabout escape through a parking garage. 

🚨 Emeryville Police: multiple fights broke out involving 300 juveniles near AMC Theater at Bay Street mall around 5 pm.

Police said the call to congregate was put out on social media.

1 shot was fired, no one injured. A juvenile was stabbed, non life threatening injuries. pic.twitter.com/Z1jQvjtsn0

— Betty Yu (@bett_yu) August 28, 2023

Fighting erupted….

Teenager fires a gun after hundreds of teens swarmed Bay Street shopping center in Emeryville, California today 🚨

A woman was also stabbed in the neck while multiple fights broke out. pic.twitter.com/g5wKRVbYSa

— BAY AREA STATE OF MIND (@YayAreaNews) August 28, 2023

…and then gunfire: 

Emeryville, just north of Oakland, CA
======================

“Emeryville police say they were on the scene Sunday evening after about 300 juveniles broke into groups and were involved in multiple fights near the AMC Theater on Bay and Shellmound Streets.”

“Emeryville police… pic.twitter.com/6hAMsvmoRR

— Crime in NYC (@CrimeInNYC) August 28, 2023

The gunshot in Emeryville wasn’t enough to scare off the teens. The discord played out for another hour before a teen was stabbed: 

400 TEENAGERS SWARMED BAY STREET SHOPPING CENTER IN EMERYVILLE, CALIFORNIA TODAY 🚨

WOMAN ST*BBED IN THE NECK AFTER MULTIPLE FIGHTS BREAK OUT, SHOTS FIRED pic.twitter.com/LJsCoYpCBj

— BAY AREA STATE OF MIND (@YayAreaNews) August 28, 2023

“It’s terrifying being out in public and it’s frustrating that it’s happening by our own kids,” Nadine Huerta told NBC Bay Area. 

“I don’t believe that kids were gathering to fight,” East Oakland Youth Development Center CEO Selena Wilson told ABC7. “I think kids were gathering to get a lot of energy out and I think there is a lot of pent up rage, anger, frustration and anxiety that kind of creates this powder keg that is easy to ignite.” 

Wilson attributes the antisocial behavior to a variety of factors. Allow ZeroHedge to list her factors in order, from credible to preposterous. They are: forced isolation during the Covid lockdowns (absolutely); a housing crisis (um…maybe?); political divisions (LOL…among these teens?); and climate change (ROFLCOPTER).

Conspicuously absent from Wilson’s list: fatherless households and lax policing. She says parents and caregivers need “additional resources” to manage the burgeoning “mental and social health crisis.” Upon learning that many of the hoodlums in the Emeryville riot were from its student population, the Oakland Unified School District messaged parents, urging them to talk to their kids about how to peacefully resolve conflicts. 

Informed people are increasingly wary of venturing into public venues where teens are likely to convene. “I don’t come here on the weekend, same as other places,” Michelle Moore told NBC Bay Area. “It’s silly, but I’ve been doing that for a while because crime has gotten so bad.” 

Not silly at all, Michelle, not silly at all.