“A third laptop belonging to Hunter was stolen by Russian drug dealers in August 2018”

 MAY 30, 2022 BY SCOTT JOHNSON at PowerLine:

WHITE MAN’S PROBLEMS: THIS DOES NOT COMPUTE

Miranda Devine and colleagues at the New York Post discovered the benefactor who has kept Hunter Biden rolling in the style to which he has become accustomed. He is a wealthy Hollywood attorney named Kevin Morris. Morris has money to burn from sources other than the royalties on his book of short stories, White Man’s Problems. In their May 8 story, Devine et al. reported that Morris has paid off Biden’s delinquent taxes as Biden awaits the results of a Delaware grand jury’s investigation into his personal finances. I noted the story in “White man’s problems: The sequel.”

Devine now reports that Morris has a new project addressing an old Biden problem. The problem is Hunter’s infamous laptop. Morris has woven a tangled web of a tale that resists paraphrase by me (the column is published along with a copy of Morris’s “mind map” to which Devine refers below):

[L]leaks from inside the Morris camp, and a hand-scrawled mind map he has shared with confidants, show a chaotic disinformation project attempting to rewrite the story of the laptop’s origins.

The counternarrative Morris is mounting on Hunter’s behalf has nothing to do with the damning contents of the laptop, which have been repeatedly verified as authentic by multiple media organizations since The Post broke the story in October 2020.

Instead, Hunter’s team is attempting to sow confusion about how the laptop became public, by denying that he abandoned his laptop in John Paul Mac Isaac’s Delaware repair shop on April 12, 2019, and claiming his private information was somehow stolen, “hacked” or “cloned.”

But the chain of custody of that laptop has been well established by The Post.

* * * * *

[I]n Morris’ telling, there was no laptop dropped off with Mac Isaac, just a laptop which Hunter abandoned on Feb. 1, 2019, at the office of his psychiatrist, Dr. Keith Ablow, in Newburyport, Mass., where he was being treated for his crack addiction.

Morris alleges in his scrawled mind map, and in conversations with confidants, that Trump ally Roger Stone and his lawyer, Tyler Nixon, masterminded a plot with Ablow and Mac Isaac to create “clones” of the laptop left in Newburyport to damage Joe before the 2020 election.

Devine pauses to explain:

It is true that Hunter abandoned a second laptop at Ablow’s office, along with a $12,000 Loro Piana blazer that he declined to pick up, despite numerous reminders from Ablow’s secretary.

That second laptop remained in a safe in Ablow’s basement for a year, until the psychiatrist was raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration on Feb. 13, 2020. Ablow was never charged over the raid, but DEA agents seized the laptop, which was then returned to Hunter’s lawyer George Mesires.

A third laptop belonging to Hunter was stolen by Russian drug dealers in August 2018, during a bender in Las Vegas, according to Hunter, who recorded himself telling the tale in a video on the Mac Isaac laptop.

Devine stands back to take in the big picture:

Clearly, losing laptops was a perennial problem for Hunter, who was addicted to crack during the time he was being paid millions by shady characters in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Romania while his father was vice president.

Hunter had at least 46 Apple devices between 2011 and 2019, including 20 iPhones, eight Mac computers, nine iPads and three Apple TVs, according to cyber-forensics expert Konstantinos Dimitrelos, who was commissioned by the Washington Examiner to examine a copy of the Mac Isaac-originated hard drive. Dimitrelos found it was “indisputably authentic [with] no evidence of any hacking or file manipulation.”

More to the point, the “conspiracy theory” does not compute:

The biggest problem with Morris’ conspiracy theory of the “Ablow clones” is that there are authentic videos and other material unique to the Mac Isaac laptop that were created after Hunter left his second laptop at Ablow’s office.

For example, 13 videos were created on the Mac Isaac laptop using the Photo Booth app between Feb. 6, 2019, and March 10, 2019, mostly recording his sex sessions.

Photo Booth videos are saved internally on a Mac and not uploaded to the cloud when the computer is synchronized with other devices. In other words, these videos are unique to the Mac Isaac laptop, confirming that it is not a clone of the earlier Ablow laptop.

In one of the videos, dated Feb. 24, 2019, Hunter films himself in a heated phone conversation with his widowed sister-in-law-turned-lover, Hallie Biden, over a Maureen Dowd column published in The New York Times that day about how the “troubled Hunter” could damage Joe’s presidential prospects.

The publication date of the column corroborates the time stamp of the video, created 23 days after Hunter left his second laptop with Ablow.

Back to the drawing board or easel, as the case may be.

“School closures were a disaster for a lot of kids in terms of math and reading scores. But it’s worse that that…..”

School counselors see warning signs about students’ mental health

by JOHN SEXTON at HotAir:  May 30, 2022  

AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File

I’ve written before about pandemic learning loss and the evidence that school closures were a disaster for a lot of kids in terms of math and reading scores. But it’s worse that that. Students who returned to school are also showing signs of mental health issues at greater rates than before. The NY Times spoke to more than 300 school counselors who reported an increase in emotional problems compared to pre-COVID levels.

Nearly all the counselors, 94 percent, said their students were showing more signs of anxiety and depression than before the pandemic. Eighty-eight percent said students were having more trouble regulating their emotions. And almost three-quarters said they were having more difficulty solving conflicts with friends…

Emotional health is necessary for learning to happen, counselors said, yet children had lost stamina and motivation in the classroom: “If what they are asked to do requires critical thinking or more than 10 minutes of effort, many students struggle, become frustrated and refuse to do the work,” said Laurenne Hamlin, a junior high counselor in Elkhart, Ind.

Another weakness was social skills. Sixty percent said children were having more trouble making friends, and half said there had been more physical fighting and online harassment of peers. “There is horrific violence and bullying,” said Alaina Casey Mangrum, a counselor in a Pittsburgh elementary school. “There are physical altercations every single day.”

One factor that seems to correlate with these problems is the duration of school closure. The longer a school remained closed, the more likely students are getting into fights now. Another issue some of the counselors pointed to was the influence of social media, particularly TikTok.

Computers were another factor, they said. After using them to attend school from home for so long, students are having trouble disconnecting, and more have had unrestricted access to the internet. Counselors connected that to an increase in age-inappropriate sexual behavior, drug use and vandalism. Thirty percent to 40 percent said they had seen an increase in each. In comments, many mentioned TikTok challenges, like one to vandalize or steal from school bathrooms…

Amy DeCesare, a counselor at a Catholic elementary and middle school in Albuquerque, said: “The influence of things like the TikTok monthly ‘challenges’ to young people, encouraging them to vandalize or disrespect the school environment and staff, is obvious. We also see significant online bullying and harassment — frequently teachers are the targets.”

The Times wrote about the influence of TikTok last year.

It’s all on TikTok. Missing are soap dispensers, bathroom mirrors, paper towel holders, fire alarms and even a teacher’s desk — anything that can be swiped from school and then revealed in a TikTok video, with the hashtag #deviouslicks.

In the last month or so, TikTok has hosted close to 94,200 similar videos under #deviouslicks, or #diabolicallicks, according to the website Know Your Meme. The hashtag also seems to have encouraged more serious vandalism, with students taking ceiling tiles, hand-railings, toilets and bathroom stalls…

“We are trying to convince students that this is not a prank, it’s vandalism,” Stephen Hegarty, the district spokesman, said. “It’s potentially a criminal behavior, and it’ll be a really bad day when we identify it.”

The TikTok challenges seem more like a symptom than a cause. Kids who are already acting out in other ways (fights, bullying) are essentially taking suggestions from their peers on other ways to act out. The article suggests the vandalism is an inappropriate way some kids are trying to deal with the powerlessness they’ve felt over the past couple years.

My own take is what we’re seeing in some of these schools sounds a lot like the kind of misbehavior we’ve seen among adults since the pandemic. For instance, by April of 2020 there were reports that while traffic was down, the number of people speeding was up. There were stories from around the country of people pulled over for driving over 100 miles per hour. And it turns out that problem never went away, even as traffic returned. About the same time that some of these TikTok challenges were taking hold last fall, the Associated Press published this story on speeding drivers.

Motorists do not seem to be slowing down.

“People are flying down the roads,” Maine State Police Cpl. Doug Cropper said of summer traffic on Interstate 95. “It’s just ridiculous.”

Tickets issued by the California Highway Patrol for speeding in excess of 100 mph from January to June were nearly double pre-pandemic levels, and the number of tickets for reckless driving citations grew, as well, officials said.

In New York state, the percentage of fatalities for which speeding was the primary cause and the total number of speeding tickets grew from January through June, compared to the year before the pandemic, officials said.

“There is continued concern about the rise in speeding and aggressive driving as we enter the heart of the vacation travel season and increased traffic volumes on the highways,” said Beau Duffy, spokesperson for New York State Police.

And it’s not just speeding. Road rage incidents are up as well as the Washington Post pointed out last month.

Last year was the worst on record for road rage shootings in the United States, according to data released by Everytown for Gun Safety, which found that more than 500 people were shot and wounded or killed in more than 700 incidents. The monthly average of 44 people killed or wounded by gunfire on the roads was double the 2019 average…

Experts say the rise in road-rage-related shootings is a quantifiable slice of an alarming problem. While it is difficult to determine the frequency of other kinds of road rage incidents — such as making obscene gestures, throwing objects or sideswiping or forcing a fellow driver off the street — anecdotal reports suggest that belligerent behavior on the road has generally increased during the pandemic.

“It’s like the Wild Wild West out there, and it’s just unacceptable,” said Pam Shadel Fischer, senior director of external engagement with the Governors Highway Safety Association. The group manages the National Law Enforcement Liaison Program and frequently hears from officers about “angry drivers, road rage aggressiveness, people going incredibly high rates of speed and people being really unpleasant to each other,” she said. “It is very concerning.”

I can’t prove these things are related but that’s how it seems to me. The pandemic created a general anxiety combined with a sense that the rules don’t really matter or weren’t being enforced. There was a literal breakdown in the social order for a period of time. Kids in school are reflecting that with emotional problems, fights, etc. Adults on the road are exhibiting some of the same behaviors, i.e. breaking the law, acting reckless, getting into fights with other drivers on the road. Not everyone is acting out but enough people are that we see a noticeable bump in these behaviors. I’ve been on the road here in California and you can still feel it out there. There’s an edginess that wasn’t there before. Things just haven’t settled down yet.

Our American Decay…..This Memorial Day!

May 30, 2022

Memorial Day: Connecting the Present with the Past

By Scott S. Powell at American Thinker:

Memorial Day is a profound American holiday because it connects the present with so many different points of our past. Originally known as Decoration Day, it was a day set aside to honor those who lost their lives in the Civil War — America’s most costly war, taking the lives of as many as 800,000 men. Among American holidays, Memorial Day is unique also in that it originated from the vanquished, not the victor.

After the war was over, women from the South — Columbus, Mississippi, and Richmond, Virginia — set out to decorate with flowers the gravesites of their fallen Confederate soldiers. But they became so moved in the process that they decided to equally decorate the gravesites of Union soldiers buried alongside their loved ones. That expression was profound for it showed amazing forgiveness toward even a merciless Union victor like General William Sherman.  

Although Abraham Lincoln could have blamed the South for starting the war by seceding from the United States and firing the first shots on Fort Sumter, he expressed no accusation or bitterness toward the South and held that both sides were to blame for the Civil War. “With malice toward none, with charity for all… let us bind up the nation’s wounds,” said Lincoln in his Second Inaugural Address.

Decoration Day would not become a national holiday for nearly a century until after the two World Wars and the Korean War cost America another 559,000 lives. During the Vietnam War, Decoration Day was officially renamed Memorial Day to honor all servicemen who died in the line of duty in any war or engagement. It became an official national holiday when Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1968.

While remembering those who lost their lives in serving America in wartime is a central purpose of this holiday, Memorial Day takes on its deepest meaning when we connect it with our heritage and roots. A takeaway from the Civil War era is not only acknowledging the magnanimity and quality of character of so many leaders of those earlier times, but also the respect and civility that allowed healing and moving forward as a nation.

One glaring difference between those times and the present is that we have lost much of the civility that facilitated keeping our diverse peoples together in earlier times. The qualities of character and societal norms shaped by Christian influence that were taken for granted through the mid-20^th Century — which included grace, respect, tolerance, and manners — have been increasingly crowded out by a coarse secular culture, and more recently by the legions of woke whose religious fervor has added to the aforementioned a judgmental closed-mindedness and loss of spontaneity, humor, and joy.

The deepest meaning of Memorial Day can be found in simply remembering that when Americans sacrificed their lives in military service, it was not just to defend the United States, but it was also to uphold the natural God-given rights of all people that were articulated in the nation’s founding documents, which established a government of the people, by the people and for the people. As a result, America became an inspiration for others around the world… Some likened America to being a light to the world, like a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

One cannot help feeling that America’s light has dimmed this Memorial Day 2022 with our country’s leadership losing its way on many fronts and even betraying the people. So, it is fitting to reflect on our past and rediscover the threads that not only hold us together but also provide strength to the patchwork of our national fabric to withstand the storms ahead.

A discussion of Memorial Day would not be complete without appreciating the significance of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, formally established on what was then known as Armistice Day, three years after the end of World War I.  Congress had approved the burial of an unidentified American soldier who had fallen somewhere on a battlefield in France at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier came to be recognized as the most hallowed grave at Arlington Cemetery — the most sacred military cemetery in the United States. And here, one of the profound ironies of our history is that this hallowed and sacred ground came from vanquished Confederate general Robert E. Lee, who despite his defeat in leading the Confederate cause in the Civil War, ended up with the highest unrecognized national honor. That honor unexpectedly came from the loss of being forced to give up his family’s Arlington House plantation, which he and his wife forfeited to the federal government after they sided with Virginia and the South. The 1,100 acres of that seized plantation land would later become the Arlington Cemetery, providing a final resting place for future patriots who gave their lives for the cause of freedom and the American republic.

The selection process for the World War II Unknown proved more difficult than that of World War I since American soldiers had fought on three continents. Then, the process was interrupted by the Korean War, which resulted in numerous deaths that could not be identified. Finally on May 28, 1958, caskets bearing the Unknowns of World War II and the Korean War arrived in Washington. The caskets were rotated such that each unknown serviceman rested on the “Lincoln catafalque,” a raised platform that held President Lincoln’s casket in April 1865. Two days later on May 30, then the official date of Memorial Day, those Unknowns were transported to Arlington Cemetery, where they were interred in the plaza beside their World War I comrade.

The Vietnam War Unknown was identified in 1998 as Lt. Michael J. Blassie. Afterward, with so many “missing in action” in the Vietnam War, it was decided that the crypt designated Unknown for that war would remain empty. It was rededicated to honor all missing U.S. service members from the Vietnam War on September 17, 1999, with the inscription on the crypt reading, “Honoring and Keeping the Faith with America’s Missing Servicemen, 1958-1975.”

The inscribed words on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of “Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier Known but to God” are an uplifting reminder that all those who died for the American cause should have a special place in our hearts as they do in God’s. Anyone who visits the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is guarded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year regardless of weather by special armed Tomb Guard sentinels cannot but be humbled and even tearfully reminded of what Lincoln said at Gettysburg, “…that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Memorial Day reminds us that U.S. military personnel are asked to put their lives on the line. Defending the nation and fighting wars is the most serious and important job of all. We have to acknowledge also that there has been inept political and military leadership, such as what led up to throwing away a long and hard-fought victory in Iraq by withdrawing all U.S. forces in 2011, enabling the rise of ISIS; and the hasty retreat from Afghanistan in August 2021, which unnecessarily cost 13 American Marines and left behind some $83 billion of U.S. military equipment in what was effectively a surrender to the Taliban.  Similarly, there should be zero tolerance for policies or programs that divide and demoralize our troops such as Critical Race Theory indoctrination, which has been the willful policy choice of President Biden’s Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In sum, Memorial Day this year takes on a greater twofold meaning than it has previously. We are called to remember those who died in military service to the country and recommit to the conviction that those lives lost shall never be in vain. Equally important, we should remember and deepen our appreciation of a heritage that began with a courageous, brilliant, and faithful group of founders and those that followed who were willing to give their lives to establish, preserve and protect the United States and what it stands for.

While many of us now feel that the light from the City on a Hill has grown dim, our Constitution still stands, and we the people are still in charge. In the face of internal and external enemies seeking our demise, we cannot falter or retreat, for we have much to do. Let us go forward with the biblical admonition that “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will… forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Scott S. Powell is senior fellow at Discovery Institute. 

Why Have George Floyd’s crimes the day he died BEEN MADE TO DISAPPEAR? Who Caused the RIOT? WHO CAUSED THE VIOLENCE?

GEORGE FLOYD supporters around the world have been protesting against police brutality following his death in May.

His death sparked the recent Black Lives Matter protests after a video went viral on May 25, 2020, showing police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck and back as he pleaded for his life.

Who was George Floyd? Reported by the US Sun:

George Floyd was a 46-year-old dad who spent most of his life in his hometown of Houston, Texas.

He was charged in 2007 with armed robbery in a home invasion in Houston.

In 2009 Floyd was sentenced to five years in prison as part of a plea deal, according to court documents.

Years later, seeking a fresh start, and unemployed, he left Houston to find a job and start a new life in Minneapolis, where he worked as a truck driver and bouncer.

Prior to his death, he had been working as a security guard at Latin American restaurant Conga Latin Bistro in the city.

But, due to the coronavirus stay-at-home orders, Floyd lost his job.

Conga customer Jessi Zendejas said in a Facebook post that the security guard “loved his hugs from his regulars.

“[He] would be mad if you didn’t stop to greet him because he honestly loved seeing everyone and watching everyone have fun.”

BEAUTY STILL EXISTS IN TODAY’S DEM AMERICA……IF YOU CAN FIND IT!!!

Minnesota’s DFL Party Hasn’t Lost A Statewide Election Since 2006!

POSTED ON MAY 29, 2022 BY JOHN HINDERAKER at PowerLine:

A DIRTY TRICK FOILED?

Minnesota’s DFL party hasn’t lost a statewide election since 2006, but they apparently are taking no chances. Over the last few days a mini-scandal has emerged, as DFL operatives apparently plotted to take over the Grassroots Legalize Cannabis Party, which siphons votes from the Democrats. While this doesn’t seem to have been captured on audio, it is claimed that they intended to change the party’s name to the “MAGA Party,” thus wasting Republican rather than Democratic votes.

As heard on leaked audio, the plan was to take over the Cannabis convention that was scheduled for yesterday, entertain a motion to change the party’s name, rule from the chair that the “Ayes” have it regardless of the actual vote, and then adjourn. Kyle Hooten recounts the story, which emerged mainly on Twitter. This is one of my favorite parts:

“We don’t give a shit if it’s unfair,” he explains to those in attendance. “We gotta get this done. We gotta do it now or we’re going to lose 7%. We’re going to lose [Governor Tim] Walz if we don’t do this shit, and we gotta do it and we gotta do it now, and being nice is nice but fuck that, let’s just do it.”

Spoken like a true Democrat! Personally, I find it heartwarming that Minnesota Democrats think thy are in danger this cycle. I hope they are right.

Is the story correct? It seems to be. The Grassroots Legalize Cannabis Party canceled its convention and released a statement, quoted in the linked article, indicating that they, at least, believe it is true:

Now, in 2022, the DFL is facing stiff odds that they estimate is 7-points behind the GOP. By infiltrating the Grassroots Party, they could destroy the weed movement to eliminate the competition.

It looks like the Democrats will have to come up with another dirty trick.

That Ramos Case!

May 29, 2022

Something About School Shootings

By Clarice Feldman at American Thinker:

Every mass school shooting strikes terror in parents’ hearts and grief in the communities in which they occur. You might from press coverage have the idea that they are a regular occurrence, but, in fact, they remain rare — 13 mass school shootings since 1966.

Still, like all seemingly incomprehensible tragedies it causes a search for meaning. After all, people my age went to schools where there were rifle clubs. Kids in those clubs regularly brought their weapons to school, and yet there weren’t any school shootings. (I expect in some rural areas of the country this may still be the case.)

What is common, as it is in all tragic events, is the jumbling of facts and the need to wait a few days for a clearer picture. The best information I can find right now about the shooting in Uvalde, Texas comes from the Wall Street Journal.

With minor additions as late-developing information comes in from elsewhere, that is the source of this summary timeline. 

Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old, shot his grandmother Tuesday morning. He drove her truck to Robb elementary school and crashed it in a ditch at 11:28. Emerging from the truck he began shooting at persons outside a funeral home located across the street from the school. Police received a 911 call about the shooting at 11:30. He then climbed a fence and entered the school grounds, began firing without interference at 11:40. By 11:44 the local police arrived at the school. By that time Ramos had locked himself into a fourth-grade classroom and killed teachers and students. Some students in that room sent 9ll messages as the shootings were taking place. The location of the gunman was known but the police did not enter the room until 12:40. 

(The Texas DPS says the police did go in and engage Ramos immediately but then retreated and stood outside in the hallway until 12:50.) Ramos entered the building at an exit door one teacher, not identified, had propped open when the shooting began outside the school and failed to secure it. Presumably this is the same person who first called 911 and if so, it is easy for investigators to determine the teacher’s identity. This seems to have been the first serious mistake, the second being the police failure to stay in and engage Ramos immediately. 

Mass shootings — unlike the never-ending daily carnage on the streets of our major cities — receive outsize coverage from people who have their pet theories as to why such tragedies occur. I think we are dealing with a combination of the killers’ psychiatric issues and clueless behavior by their family members. The family usually expresses disbelief that one of their members could do this. Less blinkered observers report that Ramos abused animals, bullied people, engaged in self cutting, threatened girls with rape, and announced on social media that he’d be shooting up the school before he made good on that threat. 

Parents were prevented in the interim between Ramos’ entry into the school and the tardy police response from entering to save their kids. One woman was handcuffed for trying. When she was released from the police cuffs by a friend, she climbed the fence, entered the school and removed her two children to safety. The Border Patrol arrived at the school shortly after noon to assist. As they did with the parents, the local law enforcement team on site refused to allow them to enter. 

Flopping Aces, echoes my thoughts on this.  Reviewing several other cases — Jared Loughner, Nikolas Cruz, Peyton Gendron — along with this one, the  author shows that those closest to the shooter just were not paying even minimal attention to the teens’ psychiatric issues:

Salvador Ramos wasn’t right in the head and was known to police. He also left a trail:

Just hours before the killings took place, Ramos had messaged an acquaintance on Instagram telling her he had a ‘lil secret’ he wanted to share, after earlier tagging her in a photo of two guns he bought himself on his 18th birthday. His TikTok account also featured a short user bio that read: ‘Kids Be Scared.’

He mutilated himself

Neighbors and classmates say his behavior spiraled into the bizarre and macabre as he entered his later teenage years, with one friend telling Good Morning America: ‘He had scars on his face and someone asked him, ‘Are you ok?’ and he just said with a smile ‘I did it myself, I liked how it looked.’

He began dressing in dark clothes and military boots and used his BB gun to target random people, one local claimed.

Ramos sent Facebook messages:

‘Ima do something to her rn [right now]’ wrote Ramos in a message at 11.10am Texas time. He added a few minutes later: ‘She’s on the phone with AT&T abojt [sic] my phone… It’s annoying’.

At 11.21am he wrote ‘I just shot my grandma in her head’ and added in his final message: ‘Ima go shoot up a elementary school.’

None of these young people should have been able to buy a gun. Families always profess shock and surprise but never seem to pay attention to the trails of crumbs being left along the way.

Without fail, such events encourage those who’d like to wipe the Second Amendment off the books and deprive lawful citizens from the means to defend themselves. Does the fact that the cops stood outside the school for an hour during the slaughter give you comfort? It doesn’t ease my friend Betsy Gorisch: “Among all the other things we need to keep in mind about the Uvalde school shooting there is this: In what is arguably the only true test of whether or not we should rely on the police to protect us, the courts have ruled that they cannot be sued for failure to do so.” That’s another way of saying law enforcement has no legal duty to protect you.

Professor Ann Althouse also finds that the police response diminishes the anti-gun crowd’s arguments:  “If the police don’t arrive and save us from violence, how can this event support the argument for restricting guns? This is the very situation that makes the most responsible people want to own guns. It reminds me of the summer of 2020, when there were riots, and the police stood down.”

Just as reason will not stop the anti-gun crowd from using this wretched example of inept and useless law enforcement to argue that we should depend solely on them and cede our rights to personal defense, these events only fuel the efforts of demagogues to use them for other sleazy political purposes. Right on cue Democrats again try to inject race into the mix, led off by Barack Obama “crowbar[ring]” the death of the far from innocent George Floyd into this tragic slaughter of the Uvalde innocents. 

Well, at least, unlike the Washington Post which seems to be editorless, he didn’t claim the cops shot Floyd.