When I was a police investigator for the Pennsylvania State Police, I found the job to be very like my work in my 10 years as a journalist.

The police officer and the news reporter both seek the truth. We both ask the following questions: Who, What, Where, When, How and, in my view the most important question, WHY. I found in both jobs it wasnt enough to know WHAT you were seeing, but WHY you were seeing it.

The Clearfield Municipal Authority was once thinking about building a massive public works project on Moose Creek Dam. Was it because Clearfield needed the water? Was it because authority members wanted to give friends and relatives rich contracts? Was it because the engineering firm designing the project practically ran the authority meetings? Maybe a little of each?

Why matters.

In police work, why is codified in law and in proof. Intent is key in the findings of guilt or innocence. Did the person do something intentionally, recklessly or carelessly?

When you are evaluating information, to get to facts, you need to know the why.

Kyle Rittenhouse is a 17 year old shooter from Antioch, Illinois, who traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, armed with a loaded assault rifle. FACT. Why?

In order to commit five felonies and a misdemeanor, in my world, you have to TRY. Meaning? Youre doing SOMETHING on purpose. Have YOU committed five felonies? Why?

The Kenosha demonstrations were over the police shooting of an unarmed man, Jacob Blake. The protests were marked by daily peaceful protesting followed by confrontations with law enforcement and rioting at night.

Kyle Rittenhouse appears to have been responding to the protest as part of some number of armed militia members.

There exists a video clip of Rittenhouse, shown with members of a group earlier in the evening, getting bottles of water from a law enforcement officer in an armored vehicle. The officer thanks the armed men for their help, though they are clearly civilians armed civilians in violation of the citys 8 p.m. curfew.

We appreciate you guys, the officer says. We really do.

Lets say I was, just spitballing here, at a riot in Penn State some years ago and I was in riot gear and some kid is calling me a Nazi. And I look to my left and a BOY is carrying an assault rifle around. Hed have been on the ground so fast his eyes would have sparkled. But maybe my PSP training was of a higher caliber.

Your president, the day after the Rittenhouse shootings, said this:

That was an interesting situation, he said at a coronavirus task force briefing. He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like, and he fell, and then they very violently attacked him.

He was in very big trouble. He probably wouldve been killed, but its under investigation.

In defending a supporter of his, the president never mentioned that the boy had already shot and killed one unarmed person. Instead, he blamed left-wing political violence.

To me, a trained journalist AND a trained police officer, asking the question, Why? the problem here isnt that unarmed black people are confronting white guys with guns. Its that militia types are self-deputizing and acting illegally in a law enforcement capacity. The actions of these militia members are illegal, never mind the cynical thinking of arming yourself and going to a Black Lives Matter protest.

The president here BLAMES the VICTIMS.

Over on Fox, Tucker Carlson said this:

Are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder? How shocked are we that 17 year olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?

Tucker does something clever here. He runs video of enraged protesters lighting something that looks like a piece of cloth on fire and throwing it over a chain link fence. Same clip, protesters are saying things like Kill the police back. For a Fox viewer, thats heady stuff. But it isnt shooting. Or looting.

Carlson is positing, blaming the local government here, that, to paraphrase, SOMEONE had to maintain order. The problem with Carlsons argument, emotional as it is, is that it is illegal for someone not the police to do so. To my reckoning, there are plenty of police in the streets in this instance.

Ann Coulter said this:

I want him (Rittenhouse) as my president.

She wants a 17 year old shooter to be president. When the president said he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose one vote well Ann Coulter is actually calling for it. Thats madness.

The president cannot run on a Law & Order platform while he defends criminals on his side and condemns criminals on the other.

I suspect, and this is my opinion, that the militia groups here, just like in Charleston and other places, have gone there for hateful reasons and to engage, fully armed, against unarmed black people. Im saying you will find a racist attitude underlying these kinds of actions.

The president stokes this, inflames this, and defends this.

When white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, killing one and injuring 19 others, the president said there were Good people on both sides.

Trump cannot run on a law and order message when he is fomenting violent crime. Tucker Carlson and Ann Coulter should be run off Fox for supporting violent criminals and any decent journalist should resign from Foxs news division because they are the sheeps clothing that the fox wears. They are the ones who give Fox a shred of credibility so their screeching opinion merchants at night can inflame their viewers to hatred. Thats my informed opinion.

Black people are protesting because they want justice.

Every one of these horrible videos I watch flies in the face of proper police training. You dont shoot people in the back. You dont shoot a guy you pulled over for DUI in the back as he runs away when you know who he is, you have his car, and hes been with you doing all your tests for 45 minutes. Flight, in itself, we were taught at the state police academy, is not an escalation of force.

You do not shoot a man in the back seven times, point blank range, holding him by his t-shirt, in front of his three kids in the back seat of a car when you cant identify the crime the man committed and later claim he had a knife in his car. Anyone have a knife in their car? In your pocket? That man was not holding a knife. He was not brandishing a knife. He was not even facing the officer. If he was coming at him, brandishing a knife, and if the officer commands him to stop and he doesnt Different story. But those arent the facts.

You dont need to defund the police. You need to have a higher standard of training, like I got with the PSP, uniform, across the country. And thats expensive. You gotta fund that. I lived there at the academy for six months. I studied the constitution and where police powers come from. I studied the FBI use of force continuum and its application to real world situations.

When Rodney King was surrounded by seven jackals beating him senselessly on the ground with riot batons, I could think of no police training video I had ever seen where that was LEGAL.

When Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyds neck, it was illegal.

And when a heavily armed boy kills in the streets, its illegal.

If the Kenosha police had the PSP training I had? We wouldnt be here.

If the president and the right wing media chamber didnt support such criminals and instead condemned such killings, we wouldnt be here.

Trump cannot have it both ways. It is an affront to my sense of decency that he can defend racists and murderers. It is galling to run on a law and order message while pouring gas on the fire.

There will be a trial for Kyle Rittenhouse, who was illegally in possession of a dangerous weapon, who intentionally loaded the weapon, crossed state lines, went to a protest, aimed at and killed a man shooting him five times. When he was pursued, he killed another unarmed man.

Kyle Rittenhouse may well have racist motivations. That might help explain the why. A trial will tell. But even if he did not have such motivations, he still brought an assault rifle to a protest. He chose to. Intentionally. Hes a BOY. A stupid BOY. Raised, Im betting and this is a guess, in hate.

Hes certainly a killer.

And THIS is Donald Trumps America. This is what your president SUPPORTS and defends. He FEEDS hate.

Law and order. Yeah, right.

q q q

More here:

Fact vs. opinion in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse: Part 2 - Clearfield Progress

Ann Coulter has a knack for tweeting things that get a rise out of people but this post is raising eyebrows for a different reason.

The conservative commentator has been a lightning rod due to some of her controversial comments, such as saying that the teen arrested for shooting three Black Lives Matter protesters (and killing two) in Kenosha, Wis. should be president.

But she tweeted something on Monday night that even liberals could get behind: expressing outrage at the New York Times report alleging President Trump paid just $750 in income taxes in 2016 and in 2017, and shelled out no income tax in 10 of the 15 years before that. She also slammed Trump supporters like Rick Santorum for saying its natural for rich people to game the system.

I dont think the conservative take on @realDonaldTrump paying no taxes should be: BECAUSE HES SMART! she wrote in a post thats drawn more than 13,000 comments and been shared more than 14,000 times. It led to her trending on Twitter TWTR, +1.33% into Tuesday afternoon.

Related:This map shows where American taxpayers are most likely to be audited and its certainly not Washington, D.C.

Ive paid nearly 50% of my income in taxes, year after year, and any system that allows billionaires to pay ZERO is unspeakable corrupt, she continued, adding, How about changing it, Democrats?

And she attacked the utterly corrupt tax code in a series of tweets.

Many of the stunned social media reactions came from Coulter critics who couldnt believe that they were agreeing with her for a change.

But others noted that while they agree with her response to the New York Times tax report, they still dont condone the controversial hot takes that she has made in the past.

And even Coulter clarified in later tweets that shes not suddenly supporting the Democrats, and shes still on brand which she hammered home by using a slur to describe someone mentally disabled, suggesting that she really hasnt changed as much as liberals might have hoped.

Indeed, she suggested that Democrats wont touch the shockingly corrupt tax system because the real estate moguls and hedge fund billionaires who are benefiting from it donate to Democrats. And she questioned how much Biden supporters like real-estate broker George Marcus and the Pritzker family have paid in income taxes.

It should be noted that Coulter has turned on Trump before, such as calling him a shallow, lazy ignoramus at a Columbia University event in 2018, where she expressed regret for voting for him in 2016, calling herself a total idiot.

Read more:When Ann Coulter turns on you, she REALLY turns just ask Trump

Plenty of politicians have piled on to attack the president in the wake of the #TrumpTaxes allegations that have largely dominated election buzz this week leading into Tuesday nights presidential debate between Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden. New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seized on the report that Trump wrote off $70,000 to style his hair while he was hosting The Apprentice, countering Republicans attacking her for getting a $250 haircut and color treatment last year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the report showed the presidents disdain for working families.

Related:$70,000 in hairstyling expenses? Ocasio-Cortez attacks Republicans over Trumps taxes

Trump has responded by saying that he paid his taxes, but would not disclose how much he has paid. While he isnt legally required to release his tax returns publicly, he has broken a 40-year precedent of major-party presidential candidates and presidents doing so.

Stay up-to-date with MarketWatchs election coverage here.

See the original post here:

Ann Coulters take on Trumps taxes has her critics agreeing with her - MarketWatch

KEY POINTS

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter, incensed by reports President Donald Trump paid just $750 in income taxes in 2016 and 2017 and no taxes in 11 of the past 18 years, is calling for an overhaul of tax laws to keep the ultra-rich from paying little to no taxes.

Coulter, who has slammedTrump in the past,took issuelast month with a Trump tax speech in Missouri in which he called for more tax cuts. She said the 2020 electionwasabout immigration and the border wall, and not taxes.

OnMonday, she turned her attention to a weekend report from the New York Times, revealing the self-described billionaire real estate developer lost hundreds of millions of dollars and is personally responsible for $400 million in loans. He also allegedly claimed $70,000 in hairstyling expenses as host of The Apprentice.

Coulter lashed out at conservatives who gave Trump credit for reducing his tax liability so drastically.

I dont think the conservative take on @realDonaldTrump paying no taxes should be: because hes smart! Coulter wrote, calling for rewriting tax laws that allow for depreciation on real estate projects that then sell for much more.

Her tweets garnered thousands of responses and by early Tuesday, her responses became more vitriolic.

Coulter said, however, she doesnt think Democrats have the guts to change tax law, given that most of the billionaires donate to them. She said Bidens biggest donor is real estate billionaire George Marcus, chairman of Marcus & Millichap and the Essex Property Trust.

Trump, who has refused to make his tax returns public, boasted during the 2016 campaign that he knew how to work the tax laws to pay as little as possible and he was the only one who could fix the situation.

Democratic nomineeJoe Biden released his 2019 tax returns Tuesday, ahead of his evening debate with Trump. The Bidens paid nearly $300,000 in income taxes.

Link:

Conservative Pundit Slams Donald Trump, Corrupt System Over Tax Returns - International Business Times

A DEMOCRATIC lawmaker has been slammed for saying being a white woman is "shameful" and "embarrassing" in an apparent jab at Amy Coney Barrett.

Louisiana state Rep Mandie Landry made the comments on Saturday when President Donald Trump officially announced that he would be nominating conservative federal appellate judge Barrett to the Supreme Court.

Follow our US election 2020 live blog for the latest news & updates

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Trump's decision to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Barrett, who many fear will be swayed by her Catholic faith when making crucial decisions, has been met with huge backlash especially with the 2020 election just weeks away.

Landry is apparently one of those critics taking to Twitter to slam conservatives who hope to see Roe v Wade overturned.

"I went to catholic school for 20 years of my life," Landry wrote. "...Did all the requisite sacraments. I'm as catholic as all of y'all. And I 100% support your right to choose what you want to do with your body."

She went on to say that she also went to Notre Dame, where Barrett is a law professor, and pointed out that Louisiana has many poor women who die in childbirth.

She added, "I also want to say something about how shameful it is to be a white woman, often."

"We're embarrassing. I don't know what else to say besides I'm sorry and I'm trying. I will try to respond her."

The post garnered thousands of comments, many of them slamming the lawmaker for her broad generalization.

"Well, maybe your whiteness and your womeness [sic] embarrasses you, but mine doesn't embarrass me," wrote one use who goes by the handle @FatiusV.

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"Have I done things to embarrass myself? Sure. Do I have character flaws? Yes. Are they intrinsically tied to being white and/or a woman? No. You're right, you do need to do better."

"You definitely should be embarrassed, but not by your skin color," added another user.

Landry tried to hit back at her critics, by posting some examples of instances when being a white woman is "embarrassing."

"Since a couple thousand of you are very, very confused, here are just a few examples of why it's sometimes embarrassing to be a white woman in this country," she wrote, alongside two photos of white women protesting school desegregation in the 1960s.

She then went on to share a headline about how white women could swing the election in Trump's favor, and to name drop Betsy DeVos, Laura Ingraham, and Ann Coulter as prime examples of "embarrassing" women.

That post wasn't met with too much kindness either, with users calling Landry out for "pandering" and being "racist."

While Landry's message was clearly overtaken by the way she chose to word it, she is far from the only politician to be highly critical of Trump's Supreme Court choice.

After the president's decision was announced, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement saying the Affordable Care Act would be in danger if Barrett was confirmed.

"For four years, President Trump has tried to crush the Affordable Care Act," Pelosi wrote.

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"With his Supreme Court nominee, he is threatening the destruction of every benefit and protection of the ACA, including life-saving protections for 135 million Americans with pre-existing conditions."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has also slammed the nominee and said he will not meet with her.

"I am not going to meet with Judge Barrett. Why would I meet with a nominee of such an illegitimate process and one who is determined to get rid of the Affordable Care Act?" he wrote on Twitter.

Go here to see the original:

Democrat lawmaker slammed for saying shes embarrassed to be a white woman in apparent jab at Amy Coney Barr - The Sun

Conservatives have been up in arms over Twitters failure to remove a journalists call for teen shooter Kyle Rittenhouse to be murdered in prison, while at the same time wiping out tweets in his support.

Journalist Dustin Nichols tweeted on Saturday that Rittenhouse, who was charged with murder after shooting three people last month in Kenosha, should be stabbed to death in prison. The post elicited an avalanche of angry reaction from conservatives, while also prompting questions about Twitter censorship after the company declined to delete the tweet for 20 hours and counting.

"The real hero will be the inmate that stabs Kyle to death once he gets booked," Nichols said.

His tweet came in reply to messages by conservative author Michelle Malkin, who had just attended an event with Rittenhouse's mother and one of his lawyers. She said she was proud "to stand with those who stand up for our country and those who defend the defenders."

Those who support the teen say he was acting in self-defense while being chased by protesters, when he killed two people and injured one during riots in Kenosha on August 25. Others argue that it was intentional murder.

Malkin responded on Sunday to Nichols' call to kill Rittenhouse, urging #FightBack and other Rittenhouse supporters to "please let this thug know how you feel about his disgusting tweet." She also urged supporters to report the tweet to Twitter Safety and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, which some commenters said they had already done.

Earlier this month, Twitter suspended the account of Lin Wood, the lawyer who launched Rittenhouse's legal defense fund, saying he violated an unspecified rule. The social media platform also has locked the accounts of prominent conservative writers, such as Ann Coulter and Cassandra Fairbanks, for tweeting support for Rittenhouse. Twitter said such messages were condoning an act of violence.

Wood said he plans to sue Twitter and Dorsey for briefly suspending his account.

Nichols describes himself as a "straight edge, tattooed nerd" and said he has done freelance writing for a range of small outlets.

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Twitter slammed for lack of action after journalist tweets Kenosha shooter Rittenhouse should be STABBED TO DEATH in prison - RT

Every day is a reenactment of my book, Resistance Is Futile. Trump does something stupid (or many things) and the media say, We can top that!

Trump fumbles the ball, followed by the media throwing an interception, then Trump commits a personal foul, but the media blows the field goal, then Trump throws the ball out of bounds.

Does anyone want to win this election?

As the country burns, Trump (the president) sits in his bed sending out gratuitously bad-ass tweets ... followed by utter spinelessness. He talks like hes Yosemite Sam, then does nothing. This is the worst of everything. How about saying sweet nothings then stunning them with force!

Trump claims hes the antidote to the mass riots in cities across the country, but what powers will he have after being reelected that he doesnt have right now, while hes already president?

Our only alternative is the party that embraces Black Lives Matter, as The Washington Post admitted, calling Democrats cuddling up to BLM a remarkable development in American politics, as a major party sought to associate itself fully with an emerging protest movement.

So your choice is: a president who denounces riots, looting and violence in the streets, but does nothing, or a president who actively supports the people doing the riots, looting and violence in the streets.

And what can the media say? They denied the riots were even happening, then blamed white supremacists for the violence they said didnt exist. (Is it the Boogaloo Boys or QAnon?) Now the media are calling the riots peaceful protests again, so I guess they know its their side doing the arson and destruction.

Democrats could wallop Trump if the media would just stop lying constantly.

FIVE Trumps spoke at the Republican Convention. You got anything to say about that, media? No, theyre too busy claiming ethics violations because Trumps secretary of state spoke at the convention. That may have violated a norm! A norm, I tell you!

And the medias No. 1 standby for any occasion is to repeat the lie that Trump called neo-Nazis fine people.

That one, they wont give up. The neo-Nazi lie is even crazier than the one about Trump, an incompetent buffoon, orchestrating a vast international conspiracy with Russian intelligence to steal the 2016 presidential election. The Russian collusion story was merely preposterous. The neo-Nazi lie is on tape.

But that lie is the centerpiece of Bidens campaign. When he announced his candidacy, Biden said he was propelled into the race when he saw Trump call neo-Nazis fine people.

Why not because Trump didnt end the carried interest loophole giving billionaire hedge fund managers a minuscule tax rate? Or because Trump never produced an infrastructure bill? Or because hes put his incompetent son-in-law in charge of everything?

Regular people had to post the true Trump quote, including this part: ... and Im not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists ...

Can Joe withdraw now?

No, he doubled-down, repeating the lie in his taped convention speech. Then regular people produced the quote all over again.

The media regularly invoke the neo-Nazi lie in some sort of weird sacramental ritual. And regular people have to keep posting the truth over and over and over again.

If Trump could be locked in the basement like Biden, hed probably be reelected just to spite the media.

There are plenty of things for the media to dunk Trump on, by which I mean things hes actually done as opposed to things the media wish hed done. But no, they have to tell huge stinking lies about him. Even a guilty person can be framed, and thats whats happening to Trump.

The media hysterically denounce Trump for opposing vote-by-mail, smugly announcing that vote-by-mail is exactly the same as absentee voting, as Chuck Todd emphatically stated on MSNBC this week.

Look up the absentee voting requirements in your state right now and see if its the same as having ballots dumped on your doorstep because you or someone who once lived there ever registered to vote.

In New York state, for example, to receive an absentee ballot, you have to fill out an official form stating:

1. Name and date of birth of the voter

2. The address where you are registered

3. An address where the ballot is to be sent

4. The reason for the request, and

5. The signature of the voter

By contrast, with vote-by-mail schemes, ballots are automatically mailed to every eligible voter without any request at all. Ballots will be piled up outside apartment buildings, college dormitories and homeless shelters.

Usually, its conservatives who instinctively lunge for the worst possible argument nah, leave those AK-47s behind, Ive got the water balloons! but with Trump, liberals cant help themselves. Theyd be better off being fairer to him, but their hatred makes that impossible.

The media are forcing people to say, I dont like the guy, but if it will upset The New York Times, NPR, The New Yorker and MSNBC, I have to vote for Trump.

The rest is here:

Ann Coulter: Are the media trying to throw the election to Trump? - Today's News-Herald

Alan Endries was among them. When asked what spurred him to make the 40-mile drive from Milwaukee for President Donald Trumps visit to Kenosha on Tuesday, he said he felt empathy for Rittenhouse. I just feel bad for that 17-year-old.

Hes a hero. He stuck up for the population, for property owners, Endries said. He didnt come up here just to shoot people. He came up here to defend himself.

The defense of Rittenhouse by Trump backers reflects the chasm thats opened across the nation in the wake of deadly violence in Kenosha and Portland, Ore. Activists on the left rushed to defend Jacob Blake, a Black man shot seven times in the back by a white police officer, launching a series of demonstrations protesting what they call systemic racism by police.

But many people on the right see a different dominant narrative from Kenosha: A teen who was wrongly charged with homicide and should be lionized. Online crowdfunding petitions have sprouted, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Rittenhouse. And he's gotten a hand from the president himself, who refused this week to denounce the teens actions.

The divisions were on full display Tuesday in Wisconsin, one of the most pivotal swing states in the country. During Trumps visit, his supporters and Black Lives Matter activists clashed in the street along the main government complex near downtown, trading chants of All Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter.

Participants in a community gathering at the site of Jacob Blake's shooting hold a sign in support of justice during speeches Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020, in Kenosha, Wis. | AP Photo/Morry Gash

BLM activists held signs and voiced support for Blake, whose shooting prompted both peaceful protests and destructive riots. Meantime, more than a dozen Trump supporters interviewed Tuesday questioned the case against Rittenhouse, accusing the media of clouding the facts in the case.

Rittenhouse, wielding a military-style weapon that he could not legally carry at his age, shot three protesters, killing two of them. His attorney has said Rittenhouse acted in self-defense.

Rittenhouse was charged as an adult with six criminal counts, including two counts of first-degree murder, for shootings that killed two men, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and injured a third. In videos of the incidents, Rittenhouse was pursued before he fired his weapon. The criminal complaint filed against Rittenhouse states Rosenbaum threw a plastic bag at him. The footage also shows Huber trying to hit Rittenhouse before he was shot in the chest, perforating his heart, aorta, pulmonary artery and right lung, according to authorities.

You shouldnt put a gun in a childs hand, Shawn Lyons, a Trump supporter from nearby Burlington, said. But it was self-defense, definitely. I think we could have avoided the whole thing if we had the National Guard protecting Kenosha at the time instead of children wondering how their familys business is going to do it with all the mobs.

Free him. Free Kyle, said another man who said he was a Kenosha resident but declined to provide his full name. He was here to protect us.

His friend agreed. Hes a patriot, he was protecting people," said the man, who also declined to give his name. "The people out there are trying to make him look bad. He shot some people thats bad. He killed two people, thats bad, I understand that. But thats our right as American people, to protect ourselves, right?

Rittenhouses interactions with police have drawn scrutiny, particularly when compared with the swift reactions of officers to Black suspects.

J.A. Moore, a Biden supporter and South Carolina lawmaker whose sister was one of nine Black congregants killed at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in 2015, recalled how officers brought fast food to the shooter, Dylann Roof. Moore and others compared that with Kenosha police providing water to Rittenhouse and thanking his armed group just before the shooting last week.

Clashes between racial justice advocates and Trump supporters. Cries of "Black lives matter" met with chants of "all lives matter." POLITICO's Natasha Korecki gives an on-the-ground look at Kenosha.

If he was Black, he would be a thug. But because hes white, hes a young man,' Moore said of how Rittenhouse has been portrayed. Hes not a young man. Hes a murderer.

Rittenhouse has become a cause clbre on the right. Shortly after the shootings, someone tweeted they wanted Rittenhouse to be their bodyguard. Ann Coulter tweeted back that she wanted the teen to be my president. Aubrey Huff, a former baseball player for the San Francisco Giants, hailed him as a national treasure.

And Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host, quickly dedicated time on his program to the Rittenhouse story. Carlson drew fierce backlash when he seemed to justify the shootings by questioning why anybody would be surprised that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?

Carlson was slammed by Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter died in the Parkland, Fla. school shooting in 2018, while others urged his Fox News advertisers to boycott the show.

The rush to defend Rittenhouse prompted a Chicago Sun-Times columnist to ask, "How does a teenage vigilante get to be the hero?"

But right-wing activists and Trump supporters began seizing on new information, including a detailed sequence of the period leading up to the shootings published by The New York Times, to argue that Rittenhouse had no choice but to defend himself. In his first remarks about Rittenhouse, Trump on Monday refused to condemn the shootings and seemed to indicate that they may have been warranted. He also "liked" a tweet offering support for Rittenhouse.

He needs to be in jail, said Jayden Brown, a Kenosha resident who is Black.

Bryan Lanza, who worked on the 2016 campaign and remains close to the White House, lauded Trumps trip to Kenosha and said the celebration of Rittenhouse helps drive a narrative around the president thats helpful to energizing supporters.

The facts will play out, Lanza said. What plays in the burbs is that you have the right to defend yourself and theres no district attorney or attorney general that can take that away from you. If the facts bear out that he had a gun for safety reasons and used it to defend himself because he was attacked, thats a pretty strong case to make.

But other Republicans think Trumps refusal to denounce Rittenhouse including by liking a tweet that said, Kyle Rittenhouse is a good example of why I decided to vote for Trump could backfire. GOP strategist Rob Stutzman said he thinks the rush to support Rittenhouse will repel key segments of voters the president needs.

The image of a dopey delusional kid with an AR-15 isnt comforting to the burbs, Stutzman said. The type of weapon he had I think influences those perceptions.

Rittenhouses attorneys have portrayed him as a good kid who works as a lifeguard, saw that Kenosha was burning, and spoke with a Kenosha business owner before traveling there to help stand guard.

The lawyers did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment. But in previous statements and cable interviews, they said Rittenhouses gun never crossed state lines and was legal in Wisconsin, an open-carry state.

Joe Biden has not spoken in-depth about Rittenhouse, though he said last week he was concerned about armed militias. In a statement Monday after Trumps news conference, Biden criticized the president for refusing to repudiate the Kenosha shootings.

He is too weak, too scared of the hatred he has stirred to put an end to it, Biden said. He urged Trump to join him in saying violence is wrong, period. No matter who does it, no matter what political affiliation they have. Period.

See the rest here:

With a hand from Trump, the right makes Rittenhouse a cause clbre - POLITICO

Bill Gindlesperger, Columnist Published 7:00 a.m. ET Sept. 2, 2020

Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway leaves position to focus on family, and her husband will also be stepping away from the Lincoln Project. USA TODAY

So who is George Conway, and why should you care?

George Conway is a 57-year-old American attorney and ultra-conservative Republican. Not a RINO (Republican in name only). He is dyed in the wool.

Conway knows Donald Trump. He was on the shortlist for appointment to U.S. solicitor general. He was also recruited for assistant attorney general heading Civil Division in U.S. Department of Justice.

Trump wanted him, because Conway is a star. Conway argued Morrison v. National Australia Bank before the U.S. Supreme Court. He won unanimously with the opinion authored by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

Twenty years ago Conway dated conservative Fox News pundit Laura Ingraham. Then he saw Kellyanne Fitzpatrick on the cover of a society magazine and was stunned. He called another friend, Ann Coulter, for an introduction.

Bill Gindlesperger(Photo: Bill Gindlesperger)

More: Social Security issue shows that Trump's words mean nothing

More: Political trial balloons are soaring all around, testing the atmosphere for Trump

George and Kellyanne were married in 2001, and Kellyanne Fitzgerald became Kellyanne Conway. Today they have four children and live in Washington, DC.

Kellyanne turned out to be no slouch. She is a pollster, political consultant and pundit. She worked as campaign manager and strategist in the Republican Party and was CEO of The Polling Company / Woman Trend. She became Trump's campaign manager when he ran for president.

Up until recently Kellyanne was Trumps counselor and spokesperson. She appeared regularly on Fox News. Thats why you may recognize the Conway name.

Meanwhile George Conway and Neal Katyal, another high-powered lawyer, wrote an op-ed in New York Times challenging the constitutionality of Trump's appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general after Trump fired conservative Jeff Sessions. Conway and Katyal argued Trump was overriding explicit wording in the Constitution.

George Conway sought support from members of the ultra-conservative and libertarian Federalist Society. Members were influential in selecting candidates for Trump to appoint to federal courts. They concluded Trump was betraying well-established legal norms and conservative values.

None of this went down well with Trump.

With Trump suffering from narcissism to the detriment of the country and its Constitution,George Conway founded the Lincoln Project.

This conservative Super PAC wants to Defeat President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box. In fact the Lincoln Project is dedicated to "persuading enough disaffected conservatives, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in swing states and districts to help ensure a victory in the Electoral College, and congressional majorities that dont enable or abet Mr. Trumps violations of the Constitution".

Contrary to what Trump has tweeted, the Lincoln Project is hard right, conservative, libertarian, rule-of-law, and Constitution-based.

Trump has called George Conway a "stone cold LOSER & husband from hell".

Trump has publicly called George Conway Moonface. This racial slur is based on George Conway being half Filipino. His mother was a well-respected organic chemist from the Philippines.

George Conway grew up near Boston, graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude, and obtained a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. Thats where he was editor of Yale Law Journal and president of Yale Law Schools chapter of the ultra-conservative Federalist Society.

More: Trump is pulling the ultimate con on the American people

More: Political posturing will not change the facts about COVID-19

Several weeks ago, conservative Republican George Conway made a statement regarding COVID-19 and Trumps responsibility to the American people. Here it is:

"For Trump supporters, let me make one thing VERY clear!

For the record NO ONE is blaming the President for the virus. Let me repeat. Coronavirus is not Trumps fault.

Heres a detailed list of what we are blaming him for:

* Trump declined to use the World Health Organizations test like other nations. Back in January, over a month before the first Covid-19 case, the Chinese posted a new mysterious virus and within a week, Berlin virologists had produced the first diagnostic test. By the end of February, the WHO had shipped out tests to 60 countries. Oh, but not our government. We declined the test even as a temporary bridge until the CDC could create its own test. The question is why? We dont know but what to look for is which pharmaceutical company eventually manufactures the test and who owns the stock. Keep tuned.

* In 2018 Trump fired Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossart, whose job was to coordinate a response to global pandemics. He was not replaced.

* In 2018 Dr. Luciana Borio, the NSC director for medical and bio-defense preparedness left the job. Trump did not replace Dr. Borio.

* In 2019 the NSCs Senior Director for Global Health Security and bio-defense, Tim Ziemer, left the position and Trump did not replace the Rear Admiral.

* Trump shut down the entire Global Health Security and Bio-defense agency. Yes, he did.

* Amid the explosive worldwide outbreak of the virus Trump proposed a 19% cut to the budget of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention plus a 10% cut to Public Health Services and a 7% cut to Global Health Services. Those happen to be the organizations that respond to public health threats.

* In 2018, at Trumps direction, the CDC stopped funding epidemic prevention activities in 39 out of 49 countries including China.

* Trump didnt appoint a doctor to oversee the US response to the pandemic. He appointed Mike Pence.

* Trump has on multiple occasions sowed doubt about the severity of the virus even using the word hoax at events and rallies. He even did it at an event where the virus was being spread. Trump has put out zero useful information concerning the health risks of the virus.

* Trump pretended the virus had been contained.

* Trump left a cruise ship at sea for days, denying them proper hospital care, rather than increase his numbers in America.

Repeat. We do not blame Trump for the virus. We blame him for gutting the nations preparations to deal with it. We blame him for bungling testing and allowing it to spread uninhibited. We blame him for wasting taxpayer money on applause lines at his rallies (like The Wall). We blame him for putting his own political life over American human life. I hope this clears things up."

This is not a liberal speaking. These are the words of George Conway and members of the ultra-conservative libertarian Federalist Society.

Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Shippensburg University trustee and founder of eLynxx Solutions that provides Print Buyers Software for procuring and managing direct mail, marketing, promo and print. He is a board member, campaign advisor, published author and commentator. He can be reached at Bill.Gindlesperger@eLynxx.com

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One of Trump's biggest detractors is as conservative as they come - Public Opinion

Ann Coulter (Gage Skidmore)

By Megan Prince

Right-wing commentator Ann Coulter got into a highly-publicized fight with her boyfriend after she tested positive for both an STD and the coronavirus, according to news reports. The brawl took place at Coulters Los Angeles home.

During the fight, Coulter and her African American boyfriend both flung items at each other. According to people on the scene, the items included dildos and interracial group sex videos. This is curious since most of Coulters audience is made up of old, racist white men.

Coulter was alleged to have said getting the virus would make her look stupid.

Like many Republicans, Coulter downplayed the existence of COVID-19.

On Tuesday evening, conservative commentator Ann Coulter tweeted out that chart, along with a curious misinterpretation of the data presented: For people under 60, coronavirus is LESS dangerous than the seasonal flu. (said Coulter in a tweet,) said Business Insider.

Several news stories have detailed how coronavirus denialism was widespread on the right. State TV, aka FOX News, is currently being sued after claiming the virus was a hoax for several months. FOX News owners learned about the dangers of the virus as far back as January.

However, an in-depth story by The Washington Post revealed that the Trump administration also encouraged its supporters to discount warnings about the coronavirus.

Republican leaders were poring over grim polling data that suggested Trump was lulling his followers into a false sense of security in the face of a lethal threat, said The Post. The poll showed that far more Republicans than Democrats were being influenced by Trumps dismissive depictions of the virus and the comparably scornful coverage on Fox News and other conservative networks. As a result, Republicans were in distressingly large numbers refusing to change travel plans, follow social distancing guidelines, stock up on supplies or otherwise take the coronavirus threat seriously.

But even today, after both FOX and Trump are trying to backtrack on the dangers of the coronavirus, many Trump supporters in red states still refuse to believe the disease is real.

Right now Louisiana currently has the fastest growth rate in coronavirus infections. And the governors of Mississipi and Alabama have both refused to shut down their states.

Read more:

Coulter Brawls With Black Boyfriend After She Tests ...

Actress Ann Coulter was born December 8, 1961, is an American Far Right Conservative social and political reporter, author, coordinated feature writer and legal counsellor. Conceived in New York City, Colter was born in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Ann Coulter began her essential examinations from well known New Canaan High School and afterwards went to Cornell University for her Bachelor of Arts concentrates in 1984, Coulter at that point went to University of Michigan Law School for Juris Doctor qualification. He extended his universality advantages while examining history at Cornell University, where he found The Cornell Review. Afterwards, as a vocal pundit of the Clinton organization, he made his vocation as a law assistant before developing conspicuously during the 1990s.

READ: Lia Marie Johnson Hot Photos

Ann Coulter at that point went to the University of Michigan Law School for her law degree. She began her vocation as a host for hardly any TV programs and made her introduction with MSNBC as a legitimate reporter and later recruited with Fox News and CNN.

Ann Coulter began her vocation as a law representative and afterwards chose to turn into an author. In 1996 she showed up for her presentation television jobs with celebrated arrangement named Lou Dobbs Tonight, The Sean Hannity Show, The View and American Morning. Sizzling hot Ann Coulter bikini pictures gallery & pics from movie release.

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Ann Coulter Hot Images (15 Hot Pics, Wallpapers 2020)