Corey Stewart, at-large chairman of the Board of County Supervisors in Prince Williams County, Virginia, spoke with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Tuesday regarding his run for a U.S. Senate seat in Virginia against Democrat Tim Kaine and discussed media coverage of recent events in Charlottesville.
While pointing out bias in media coverage of Charlottesville events and the lack of condemnation of violence by leftists, along with others, Stewart said, “The left, namely Antifa, is going to get emboldened. They already are.”
“And the left never condemns their own people,” added Stewart. “It’s always the right. We always condemn ourselves.”
Stewart went on, “Not that some of these groups are our own people, but for some reason, we feel obliged to apologize for these neo-Nazis and these KKK guys. We have nothing to do with them.”
“But the left is very, very smart,” he added, “They never apologize for Antifa. And now, because Antifa has essentially gotten away with this, they come across as the good guys, even though they were violent. They’re going to continue to attack conservatives like the attack on Steve Scalise and others. It’s going to happen again.”
Stewart predicted there will be killings of conservatives by “these groups,” in large part because no one is standing up to criticize the violence on the left.
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Americans emotionally devastated by the election of President Donald Trump are turning to an unorthodox form of therapy: professional cuddling.
Rolling Stone recently profiled the Love Dome, an event space in Venice, Calif. that hosts bi-weekly group cuddling meetings. These meetings are put on by Cuddle Sanctuary, an organization that provides group cuddling events, professional cuddling training, and connects interested parties to professional cuddlers.
For $80, clients of "all genders and orientations" are treated to an hour-long session of "hugging, spooning, holding hands, and sharing compassion and kind words" from a professional cuddler on the huggable team, "selected for integrity, professionalism, and clear communication skills."
Rolling Stone described the scene at a cuddle party organized by Cuddle Sanctuary:
Along one wall, participants sit stacked snugly in between another person’s legs, one person using another’s body as a support pillow; in the middle of the room is a spooning train; others sit side-by-side coloring. Just as touch is optional, so is speaking.
According to Cuddle Sanctuary’s website, arousal—a common concern—is not an issue. The organization recommends clients simply "shift positions and move your attention to bring the experience back to platonic."
Here is Cuddle Sanctuary’s founder and CEO, Jean Franzblau, demonstrating what a typical private cuddling session looks like for the UCKYA website:
Since November and the election of Trump, the number of people seeking out professional cuddling services has increased, according to Rolling Stone. Cuddle Sanctuary has gained 252 new clients since Trump was elected. The day after Trump’s victory, Cuddle Sanctuary held a workshop entitled "Election Detox" where five of the 21 attendees were new.
The owners and operators of cuddling services organizations profiled in Rolling Stone all attribute the spike in numbers to trauma associated with Trump’s election.
The co-founder of Cuddle Party, Marcia Baczynski, told Rolling Stone her organization’s work has become a "political" response to the government’s violation of "boundaries" and said Trump is "essentially an abusive asshole." She said her clients feel "triggered by Trump’s actions, history of sexual abuse allegations, and manipulative behaviors." She also likened Trump to an "out of control, abusive father."
"A significant number of those seeking professional cuddling services have experienced abuse, and some see in Trump qualities that remind them of past trauma," Rolling Stone claimed
One client raised the possibility of Trump’s election "subconsciously" driving him to seek out professional cuddling.
In a report from Iceland, “CBSN: On Assignment” said that since screening tests were introduced in the country in the early 2000s, almost 100 percent of women who received a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis terminated their pregnancy. According to CBS, abortion is legal in Iceland after 16 weeks “if the fetus has a deformity.”
While Iceland’s Down syndrome termination rate is high, other countries aren’t far behind. According to CBS News, in France, 77 percent of women who received a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis terminated their pregnancies in 2015 and 98 percent did so in Denmark. In the United States, that rate is estimated to be 67 percent.
CBS News noted that the screening test is only 85 percent accurate.
When Thordis Ingadottir discovered she was pregnant with her third child at the age of 40, she underwent the screening test. The results showed her odds of having a child with Down syndrome were only 1 in 1,600. Ingadottir’s daughter Agusta, who is now 7, was diagnosed with Down syndrome after her birth in 2009.
Ingadottir told CBS News that Agusta was one of only three children born with Down syndrome in the country that year. In contrast, according to the National Down Syndrome Society, about 6,000 babies with Down syndrome are born each year in the United States.
Ingadottir has since become an activist fighting for the rights of people with Down syndrome in Iceland.
“I will hope that she will be fully integrated on her own terms in this society. That’s my dream,” Ingadottir said of her daughter. “Isn’t that the basic needs of life? What kind of society do you want to live in?”
Geneticist Kari Stefansson, the founder of deCODE Genetics, a company that studies the Icelandic population’s genomes, told CBS News: “My understanding is that we have basically eradicated, almost, Down syndrome from our society — that there is hardly ever a child with Down syndrome in Iceland anymore.”
Stefansson said the Down syndrome termination rate “reflects a relatively heavy-handed genetic counseling” in the country with a population of around 330,000.
“And I don’t think that heavy-handed genetic counseling is desirable. … You’re having impact on decisions that are not medical, in a way,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with aspiring to have healthy children, but how far we should go in seeking those goals is a fairly complicated decision.”
Helga Sol Olafsdottir counsels women who have a pregnancy with a chromosomal abnormality at Landspítali University Hospital in Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. She told CBS News that she tells women, who are wrestling feelings of guilt about the decision to abort, that “This is your life — you have the right to choose how your life will look like.”
“We don’t look at abortion as a murder,” Olafsdottir said. “We look at it as a thing that we ended. We ended a possible life that may have had a huge complication … preventing suffering for the child and for the family. And I think that is more right than seeing it as a murder — that’s so black and white. Life isn’t black and white. Life is gray.”
Actress Patricia Heaton criticized the report, tweeting that “Iceland isn’t actually eliminating Down Syndrome. They’re just killing everybody that has it.”
Despite all the ongoing chaos, the economy continues to grow, thanks to the pro-business nature of the Trump administration.
According to the Department of Commerce, retail sales increased by 0.6% in July, the highest increase in seven months and exceeding the 0.4% figure forecasted by economists. When automobile and gasoline sales are taken out of the equation, retail sales increased by 0.5%.
Here is Reuters‘ breakdown of the specific retail sales:
Retail sales in July were also buoyed by a 1.2 percent increase in receipts at building material stores. That followed a 1.1 percent gain in June. Sales at online retailers vaulted 1.3 percent in July, the largest gain since December 2016, likely buoyed by Amazon.com’s (AMZN.O) Prime Day promotion.
Sales at restaurants and bars rose 0.3 percent. Receipts at sporting goods and hobby stores also increased 0.3 percent.
But sales at electronics and appliance stores slipped 0.5 percent last month. Sales at clothing stores fell 0.2 percent after rising 0.7 percent in June. Clothing retailers are struggling with falling traffic in shopping malls and increased competition from Amazon and other online retailers.
Additionally, there was a 1.2% increase in automobile sales, likewise the biggest increase in seven months.
The retail sales figures for June and May were each revised from a 0.2% decrease to a 0.3% increase and from a 0.1% decrease to remaining even, respectively.
The dollar also increased by 0.47% to 93.90, putting the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates in September.
The engine behind the latest economic growth figures has been consumer spending, which was at 2.8% in the second quarter of 2017. However, the savings rate declined to 3.8% from 6.2% from the second quarter of 2015, suggesting that some consumers are having to borrow to fuel the spending.
Still, the latest retail sales and dollar index numbers combined with the over 200,000 jobs created in July shows the economy is steadily improving thanks to the economic stability under President Trump, largely stemming from the quiet dismantling of onerous regulations. Good Trump indeed.
A black former Dallas city councilwoman joined with Confederate history organizations to oppose the tearing down of statues honoring the historical figures from the past.
Former Dallas city councilwoman Sandra Crenshaw told a local CBS reporter, “I’m not intimidated by Robert E. Lee’s statue. I’m not intimidated by it. It doesn’t scare me.”
“We don’t want America to think that all African Americans are supportive of this,” Crenshaw said. She expressed that she believes the thoughts of those wanting to tear down these statues are “misguided.”
“Some people think that by taking a statue down, that’s going to erase racism,” she explained.
She is now joining with Buffalo Soldier historians and Sons of Confederate Veterans groups to protect the statues that many seek to tear down.
A current member of the Dallas City Council disagrees. “What we don’t do is leave up a monument that celebrates the very idea that some of us are not equal to the others,” Councilman Philip Kingston told CBSDFW. “These monuments distort history, they don’t teach history.”
Skylar Craig, an Austin, Texas, resident, told CBSDFW he believes Confederate statues must remain in place. “It’s a part of history. And even if it’s a bad part of history, it’s something you have to remember,” he expressed.
Crenshaw has a personal link to these historical markers. We found out that we are the children of the sons and daughters of the Confederacy,” she explained. “I call the people out here fighting to remove statues … I call them cowards.”
Dallas historian, Dr. Michael Philips, disagrees with Crenshaw.
“I find Ms. Crenshaw’s comments peculiar, particular after what happened to Charlottesville,” Philips explained. “The man who ran over the counter-demonstrators was shaped by this.” He is calling for the removal of Confederate statues in the Dallas area and the renaming of Dallas schools named after Confederate leaders.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings has yet to weigh in on the issue, saying he will hold a press conference later this week.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.
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After a Durham, North Carolina, monument of a Confederate soldier holding a rifle was pulled down by protesters on Monday, Durham County Sheriff Mike Andrews said Tuesday his office will seek charges against the protestors.
The statue, erected in 1924 outside the county courthouse, had the inscription, “in memory of the boys who wore the gray.”
Andrews stated,“Collectively, we decided that restraint and public safety would be our priority. As the Sheriff, I am not blind to the offensive conduct of some demonstrators nor will I ignore their criminal conduct. With the help of video captured at the scene, my investigators are working to identify those responsible for the removal and vandalism of the statue.”
Takiyah Thompson, 22, who claimed she is a member of the Workers World Party, a group that helped organize the protest, told ABC 11 she climbed the ladder to put a nylon rope around the statue to enable others to topple it. She added, “I feel like it’s important to tear down these vestiges of white supremacy.”
One of the organizers of the protest, Loan Tran, told WNCN, “It needs to be removed. These Confederate statues in Durham, in North Carolina, all across the country. When I see a confederate statue in downtown Durham, or really anywhere, it fills me with a lot of rage and frustration.
Gov. Roy Cooper, assuming the statue should be removed, tweeted:
The racism and deadly violence in Charlottesville is unacceptable but there is a better way to remove these monuments #durham – RC
The DPD is aware that a Confederate monument was toppled at the old Durham County courthouse. Because this incident occurred on county property, where county law enforcement officials were staffed, no arrests were made by DPD officers.
Early Tuesday morning, Durham County issued a statement; it did not mention the statue-toppling:
Our elected officials and senior staff understand the unrest in our nation and community, particularly following the senseless acts that took place in Charlottesville, VA. We share the sentiments of many communities around the nation that admonish hate and acts of violence as we believe civility is necessary in our every action and response. Governmental agencies dedicated to public safety will continue to work collectively to ensure Durham remains a community of excellence where all of our residents can live peacefully, grow and thrive.
via Daily Wire
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Hillary Clinton’s longtime pastor plagiarized portions of his new book, Strong for a Moment Like This: The Daily Devotions of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Clinton and Rev. Bill Shillady, an ordained minister of the United Methodist Church, first met in 2002. Shillady formed a bond with Clinton, serving as the officiant at her daughter Chelsea Clinton’s wedding and presiding over her mother’s funeral.
Clinton even wrote the preface to Shillady’s book, based on a series of letters he sent her during the 2016 election. One letter in particular caused controversy for seemingly comparing Clinton’s loss to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
But after that story went viral, another pastor, Matthew Deuel, contacted CNN and pointed out similarities between Shillady’s book and a blog post he wrote months earlier.
Both Duel’s blog post and Shillady’s book contained the following paragraph: "For the disciples and Christ followers in the first century, Good Friday represented the day that everything fell apart. All was lost. The momentum and hope of a man, claiming to be the Son of God, the Messiah who was supposed to change everything, had been executed.
Duwel wrote, "Death will be shattered. Hope will be restored. Redemption is coming. But first, we must live through the darkness and seeming hopelessness of Friday." Shillady’s book contained the exact same paragraph, without the sentence about redemption.
In a statement to CNN, Shillady apologized to Duwel.
"In preparing the devotional on the morning of November 9, I was determined to provide comfort with the familiar adage that ‘It’s Friday But Sunday is Coming.’" I searched for passages that offered perspective of this theme," he explained.
"I am now stunned to realize the similarity between Matt Deuel’s blog sermon and my own. Clearly, portions of my devotional that day incorporate his exact words. I apologize to Matt for not giving him the credit he deserves."
TEL AVIV — A top official with Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps expressed strong opposition to the notion that the United States should be allowed to inspect Iran’s military sites.
“Both the great Iranian nation and the U.S. and the world should know that if there is only one demand in the whole world which will be rejected and if there is only one wish that will be taken to the grave, it is the Americans’ demand to visit our military centers,” lieutenant commander of the IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Salami said, according to a report by the Iranian Fars news agency.
Speaking on Saturday night, Salami said that “if (the Americans) want to visit a base, they should go to the military sites in the U.S. The Americans should not allow themselves at all to speak about Iran.”
According to the Israel-based i24 news service, another Iranian military official, Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, made similar comments last week on the possibility of visits to Iranian military sites by officials from the U.S. and other western countries.
“We will not give them such permission,” Hajizadeh said last week.
Salami’s comments came after President Donald Trump said that Iran was failing to abide by the spirit of the nuclear deal it reached with the U.S., UK, France, Russia, China and Germany in 2015. The White House said last month, however, that Tehran was complying with the terms of the agreement as delineated.
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Durham County Sheriff Mike Andrews says his office is working to identify individuals who pulled down the Confederate statue on Durham County property Monday night.
Andrews’ statement comes amid reports that sheriff’s officials were present when the statue was pulled down, videoing the act but not intervening to stop it or arrest those doing it.
Breitbart News reported that protesters placed a tow rope around the neck and shoulder of a Confederate statue and pulled it down from atop the monument on which it stood. WNCN reports that protesters took turns kicking the statue once it was on the ground, and at least one protester spat on it.
After the statue was pulled down, Durham’s The Herald-Sun reported, “Sheriff’s deputies recorded the event but did not intervene as a protester climbed a ladder and slipped a yellow, bungie-like cord around the soldier’s head and arm and a group pulled the cord.”
When protesters left the fallen statue and marched down the street, Durham Police Department officers “accompanied” them but made no arrests. Rather, Durham Police noted that the statue was on county property and “Durham County Sheriff’s Office has jurisdiction over all county buildings and landmarks.”
On August 15–the morning after the statue was pulled down–Durham County Sheriff Mike Andrews posted a statement to Facebook:
I am grateful the events that unfolded Monday evening did not result in serious injury or the loss of life, but the planned demonstration should serve as a sobering example of the price we all pay when civil disobedience is no longer civil. Before the protest, my staff met with our community partners to discuss how to safely and appropriately respond to the protest. County leaders were aware of the risk of damage to the Confederate statute, as well as, the potential risk of injury to the public and officers should deputies attempt to control the crowd. Collectively, we decided that restraint and public safety would be our priority. As the Sheriff, I am not blind to the offensive conduct of some demonstrators nor will I ignore their criminal conduct. With the help of video captured at the scene, my investigators are working to identify those responsible for the removal and vandalism of the statue.
Sheriff Andrews went on to say, “I am asking both city and county leaders to establish guidelines and safe spaces for protesters to prevent demonstrations from becoming disruptive and as we witnessed in Charlottesville, dangerous.”
Representatives for Durham County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to inquiries from Breitbart News.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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Gaming communications company Discord says they’re shutting down “alt-right” servers on their network, after users of the online network discovered members of white supremacist groups were using Discord’s services to coordinate their protests.
Discord is a free messaging and voice chat app that gamers around the world use to coordinate efforts and share tactics. But, the company discovered Monday, members of alt-right organizations across the country were using Discord’s servers to facilitate a planned demonstration outside a memorial for Heather Heyer, the woman who was killed during Saturday’s Charlottesville melee.
Discord was built to bring people together through a love of gaming and our mission is to connect positive communities who share this appreciation. We unequivocally condemn white supremacy, neonazism, or any other group, term, ideology that is based on these beliefs. They are not welcome on Discord. While we don’t read people’s private servers our Terms of Service explicitly forbid harassment, threatening messages, or calls to violence. When hatred like this violates our community standards we act swiftly to take servers down and ban individual users. The public server linked to AltRight.com that violated those terms was shut down along with several other public groups and accounts fostering bad actors on Discord. We will continue to be aggressive to ensure that Discord exists for the community we set out to support – gamers.
Immediately, Discord began receiving questions as to whether it would perform similar excommunications for any Antifa or leftist organization on its servers – and whether it was booting the alt-right as part of an ideological agenda.
Although Discord couldn’t point to specific examples of enforcing its terms of service against radical “anti-fascists,” they did note that if users see evidence of leftists collaborating on violent protests inside the program, Discord will investigate and potentially shut those accounts down, too.
Of course, Discord isn’t the first tech company to level a ban on the alt-right following the weekend’s violent clashes. GoDaddy revoked hosting for the white supremacist website, the Daily Stormer, and Google domains booted the same site from its domain registry. Sites like AirBnB have also said their renters reserve the right to deny housing to anyone booking an apartment to attend an out-of-town rally (though its not super clear how they’d be able to tell).
via Daily Wire
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