Month: August 2018

CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta became the story instead of reporting the story, again, on Thursday after he engaged in a heated exchange with White House press secretary Sarah Sanders during the daily briefing.

Acosta, who later whined that he’d left the briefing early because he was unsatisfied with Sanders’ responses to his questions, had been insistent that the president’s top spokeswoman purposefully undermine a rather clear and repeated statement from her boss that already had been explained.

Specifically, Acosta had demanded that Sanders walk back Trump’s classification of the media outlets and reporters who perpetuate “fake news” as the “enemy of the people,” which Sanders declined to do.

The sanctimonious showboating of Acosta and the manner in which he berated the press secretary didn’t sit well with the press secretary’s father — former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — and he took to Twitter to let his feelings on the matter be known.

I know I’m as objective about @PressSec as @NYTimes new hateful, racist hire Sarah Jeong is about white people, but I still think @PressSec is the WINDSHIELD and little Jim Acosta is the BUG.

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) August 3, 2018

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Huckabee tweeted, “I know I’m as objective about @PressSec as @NYTimes new hateful, racist hire Sarah Jeong is about white people, but I still think @PressSec is the WINDSHIELD and little Jim Acosta is the BUG.”

Aside from calling Acosta a “bug” that presumably ended up smashed on Sanders’ “windshield,” Huckabee also referenced the newly hired editorial board member of The New York Times, Sarah Jeong, who has a lengthy social media history of abjectly racist screeds against white people.

But that wasn’t all that Huckabee had to say about Acosta, as just a short time earlier he’d also shared his feelings about the reporter in his typically sarcastic manner.

Huckabee tweeted, “Breaking wind from CNN! Jim Acosta suffers severe nose bleed from the elevation of his high horse. Taken to safe space and provided with Play Dough, a popsicle, pictures of a pony to color and a puppy.”

Breaking wind from CNN! Jim Acosta suffers severe nose bleed from the elevation of his high horse. Taken to safe space and provided with Play Dough, a popsicle, pictures of a pony to color and a puppy. https://t.co/yLPkoRL7Bb

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) August 3, 2018

That was a hilarious shot at the self-righteous journalist who routinely positions himself atop a “high horse” and then whines as if he needs a “safe space” when he is called out over his sanctimony.

As noted, Acosta had taken issue with the labeling of some in the media as an “enemy of the people” by the president for their tendency to make inaccurate or blatantly false reports about the administration, their tendency to not report the good news that is happening and their frequent smears of Trump’s supporters as being the lowest sort of people.

Acosta seems to have taken it personally — he does fit the description — and has seemingly made it his quest to harp on the matter repeatedly instead of working to shift perceptions so he isn’t caught up in that particular classification of overtly biased anti-Trump media.

For her part, Sanders handled the onslaught of demands from Acosta rather stoically, and countered Acosta’s whines with several examples of what might make a member of the media be classified as an “enemy” to roughly half the country, particularly noting the personal attacks she has received.

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This isn’t the first time that Huckabee has taken to social media or the network airwaves in defense of his daughter — though she has proved admirably that she can defend herself quite well — and unfortunately will probably not be the last, as she has been marked by the left as a target.

As for Acosta himself, we unfortunately are also most likely to have not heard the last of him either, as he appears to have become addicted to the publicity he receives — both good and bad — following his heated encounters with the president or other members of the Trump administration, and will inevitably seek the spotlight again as the center of attention.

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Max Boot has made a relatively tidy visibility boost these last few years, all thanks to NeverTrumpism. Just last month, the CNN global affairs analyst wrote an article titled “I was a member of the Republican Party before Trump — now I want the Democrats to take over.” He’s said that Iran’s Hassan Rouhani, who recently threatened war against the United States, seems “more stable and rational” than Donald J. Trump. Trump has even got him thinking about race; the most guffaw-inducing headline on anything he’s written is almost certainly “2017 Was the Year I Learned About My White Privilege.”

In other words, he fits right in at CNN.

Alas, the Blitzer Network isn’t entirely a safe-space for Mr. Boot. Last week, Boot appeared opposite Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies at both NYU and Princeton, on “Anderson Cooper 360.” In just a few short minutes, Cohen managed to tidily destroy his argument on Trump and Russia (or, as Boot might say, exercised the privilege of being an arrantly un-woke white male).

The exchange was over Trump’s statement that he “had a great meeting, in my opinion — of course, the fake news didn’t cover it that way — but I had a great meeting with President Putin of Russia.”

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Cooper noted that they didn’t cover it because he didn’t say what they discussed. However, Boot was of a more conspiratorial bent.

“Although he’s willing to threaten North Korea, he’s willing to threaten Iran, he never threatens Russia,” Boot said. “And that’s why a lot of American intelligence officials think that there is something highly suspect in the relationship between Putin and Trump.”

“I have no idea what Mr. Boot is talking about,” Cohen said. “He wants Trump to threaten Russia? Why would we threaten Russia? You’ve got two nuclear superpowers–“

“Because they’re attacking us!” Cohen, literally screaming, interjected. “Russia is attacking us, Professor Cohen! Russia is attacking us right now, according to Trump’s own director of national intelligence.”

Not content just to use the privilege of the un-woke white male, Cohen then decided to exercise erudition privilege.

“I’ve been studying Russia for 45 years,” Cohen said. “I’ve lived in Russia and I’ve lived here. If Russia was attacking us, we would know it.”

Boot was talking over Cohen, which prompted him to ask, “Excuse me, what did you say to me?”

“I said you’ve been consistent in apologist (sic) for Russia in the last 45 years,” Boot said.

“All right, I don’t do defamation to people,” a visibly piqued Cohen said. “I do serious analysis of serious national security problems. When people like you call people like me — and not only me, but people more eminent than me — apologists for Russia because we don’t agree with your analysis, you are criminalizing diplomacy and detente, and you are the threat to American national security. End of story.

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“Why do you have to defame somebody you don’t agree with? They used to do that in the old Soviet Union. We don’t do that here. Well, we used to — but we need to stop it.”

Boot could only manage a laugh to all of this. Meanwhile, Cooper decided to ask Cohen whether he believed Russia was actually attacking the United States.

“I know what you’re talking about: During the 2016 election, Russia attacked the United States,” Cohen said. “Yes, I don’t think Russia attacked the United States. “

“OK, and you just denied being an apologist for Russia,” Boot interrupted. “You’re apologizing for Russia as we speak.”

“Will you ever let me finish? You don’t know what I’m going to say,” Cohen said. “The meddling began right after the Russian Revolution when Woodrow Wilson sent American troops to fight in the Russian civil war against the communists. The meddling began on the Soviet and Russian side … when the communists formed the Communist International in 1919. Ever since then, Moscow’s meddled in our politics, we’ve meddled in theirs.

This is low-level stuff, what went on. It is not an attack. It is not 9/11. It is not Pearl Harbor. It is not Russian paratroopers descending on Washington. This kind of hyperbole — ‘an attack on America’ — suggests that we need to attack Russia. So you’ve got Mr. Boot saying that we should threaten Russia. With what? Does he want to attack?”

“Yes, actually,” Boot responded.

“I think Mr. Boot would have been happy if Mr. Trump had waterboarded Putin at the summit and made him confess,” Cohen said in response to that. “Trump carried out an act of diplomacy fully consistent with the history of American presidents.”

Pointing out that Boot is criminalizing diplomacy? What privilege. I don’t know what kind of privilege, but I’m sure Mr. Boot can find some.

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How does a Marine who lost both his arms and his legs in Afghanistan throw a baseball?

With incredible dignity and style, it turns out.

It seems hard to believe, but a wounded veteran just brought the crowd at a Rockland Boulders ballgame to its feet by tossing the ceremonial first pitch … eight years after all of his limbs were blown off while serving his country.

John Peck, it’s safe to say, is an amazing young man. He’s faced more than his fair share of adversity: As a Marine deployed to Iraq in 2007, he suffered a traumatic brain injury. He could have left the service. Instead, he re-enlisted after his recovery and redeployed to Afghanistan.

But there was more danger waiting for him there, and his second tour nearly cost him everything.

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“I stepped on 30 pounds of homemade explosives,” he said, according to The Smokeroom. “I instantly lost my right arm above the elbow. I instantly lost both my legs. And then my left arm had what’s called a de-gloving incident. It’s just kind of hanging there by a thread.”

With no choice, emergency surgeons were forced to remove Peck’s left arm as well, leaving him a quadruple amputee. “I had a dark spot in my life, [but] there was some part of me that wanted to stay alive,” explained the veteran.

In the past, that would have left the gravely wounded Marine dependent on prosthetic devices to have anything close to a normal life. Miraculously, doctors came to him with a proposal: an experimental 13-hour surgery to transplant two human arms from an anonymous donor onto the young man’s body.

“In August 2016, after two years on a waiting list, Peck said he became the second wounded veteran to receive arm transplants, which replaced the prosthetic limbs he had relied upon,” reported USA Today.

It was a long road, but the veteran is now able to shower, dress, cook and even drive — “things I thought I would never do,” he said.

When the Rockland Boulders, an independent team in New York, found out about the amazing man and his equally amazing story, they invited him to the ballfield to receive what every veteran deserves: sincere appreciation.

“Sitting in his wheelchair, he used his arm transplants to get the ball across the plate and received a loud ovation from the fans,” USA Today reported.

“Peck’s first pitch was part of the Boulders’ annual Military Appreciation Night, which also included a motorcycle procession presented by Hudson Valley Honor Flight, escorting Gold Star families to the field and honoring those who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam,” the newspaper continued.

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The word “hero” gets tossed around a lot, and it’s even used to describe millionaire athletes. For people who have gotten to know Peck, however, that description takes on a whole new meaning.

“He’s a war hero, he’s my hero and I’d like to share him with 5,000 people,” said Barry Fixler, a fellow Marine veteran and New York businessman who helped bring the amputee to the team’s attention.

“He is a gift, a breath of fresh air, no complaints,” Fixler said about Peck. “When I speak to him on the phone he’s just another fella. … He speaks soft, he speaks to the point. There’s no animosity, there’s no feeling sorry.”

Life can get tough for everyone. When things get difficult, however, it’s worth remembering individuals like John Peck. His tenacity to never give up is truly inspiring, and we can’t think of anybody more worthy of being honored by America.

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The hot new thing to do on the left these days in response to President Donald Trump’s no-nonsense, “zero tolerance” policies on illegal immigration is to protest and call for the abolition of the agency tasked with upholding such laws, namely the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

As such, leftists across the country — predominately in liberal-leaning cities — have staged protests or set up encampments outside of ICE facilities in a bid to harass and prevent the agents from effectively doing their jobs.

The latest gambit of this sort occurred this week in the Denver area as protesters set up camp on Sunday along the public sidewalk in front of the Centennial ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado, only to see their efforts busted up by police on Thursday, according to The Hill.

Perhaps borrowing a page from their leftist comrades in Portland, Oregon, the protesters in Colorado attempted to block off the entrance to the facility’s parking lot by forming a human chain that utilized real chains inside of long cylinders to keep themselves attached to each other.

We are live at Aurora ICE. Follow live stream on my public facebook. #AbolishICE #FamiliesBelongTogether pic.twitter.com/uJnS4cCpAx

— • elisabeth • (@elisabeth) August 2, 2018

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Unlike in Portland, where the local law enforcement agencies essentially “stood down” and allowed protesters to wreak havoc for weeks against the federal officials — leaving it almost entirely up to federal agents to clear out the area so the mess could be cleaned up — local law enforcement agencies in Colorado stepped up and provided an assist to their federal colleagues who were being harassed and targeted by the antics of the unlawfully assembled group.

The Denver Post reported that a SWAT team with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office arrived on scene late Thursday afternoon and began the process of detaching the protesters from each other and taking them into custody.

Armed with riot gear, rifles and power tools, the sheriff’s office SWAT team used those power tools to carefully cut through the cylinders and chains to separate the protesters that had stretched themselves across the entrance/exit of the facility, preventing anyone from coming or going in a vehicle, according to KDVR.

At least eight individuals were arrested once all was said and done, presumably the eight people who had formed the dual human chains that blocked off the facility’s parking lot.

The protest that began on Sunday was intended to last all week, that is until the police showed up and put a stop to their unlawful shenanigans.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fully respects the Constitutional rights of all people to peacefully express their opinions,” ICE said in a statement. “ICE remains committed to performing its immigration enforcement mission consistent with federal law and agency policy.”

In other words, sorry “peaceful” protesters, but your antics aren’t going to convince us to stop doing our jobs, thank you very much.

Local media outlet Denverite issued a rather favorable report in support of the protesters that noted the sheriff’s office SWAT team had been joined in their efforts to break up the blockade of the ICE facility by local Aurora Police Department officers as well, signifying that local authorities were standing in support of the federal authorities that were essentially under siege … a far cry from what was witnessed — and the protesters may have mistakenly expected — in Portland.

Ironically, the obviously supportive photographer from Denverite — check out his thread of pics and commentary — noted that the effort to blockade the parking lot of the facility was a total fail even before it was broken by the police as the facility’s employees merely drove through the grass to get out of the parking lot once their work day had concluded.

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The left seems to be under some illusion that illegally crossing the border and entering this country in a manner other than as is laid out by existing law is somehow not a crime, and that if they just chant a little louder and protest a little harder, the law enforcement agents tasked with enforcing immigration laws will just shrug, give up and go home.

Unfortunately for them, that isn’t how things work in this country, and illegal entry into this country is illegal, no matter how earnestly they wish we had open borders and no immigration laws requiring an enforcement agency.

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