Sheriff David Clarke, outspoken Trump backer, resigns

(London Guardian) David Clarke, the outspoken Milwaukee County sheriff who built a following among conservatives nationally with his provocative social media presence and strong support of Donald Trump, has resigned.

The Milwaukee County clerk, George Christenson, said he had received a resignation letter from Clarke, but the letter did not say why the sheriff was leaving office more than a year before his term is up.

Sheriff David Clarke Jr: the black Democrat who is Trump’s favorite cop

Clarke’s office referred questions to an email address that he had provided. He did not immediately respond to an email seeking his reasons for leaving or what he planned to do next.

Clarke’s most recent Twitter post, from Thursday afternoon, showed him posing with law enforcement officers at the National Fraternal Order of Police convention in Nashville.

GOP senators: Comey began clearing Clinton before FBI interview

(Axios) Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham have written to FBI Director Christopher Wray claiming James Comey, Wray’s predecessor, began drafting a statement clearing Hillary Clinton of criminal charges two months before she was interviewed by the FBI, per Politico.

The source: The senators have obtained transcripts of interviews from the Office of the Special Counsel (OSC), a government watchdog, that was investigating Comey’s actions and whether they violated a law preventing government employees from engaging in political activity on duty.

In a hearing last September on Capitol Hill, Comey denied a decision had been made on Clinton’s status before the July 2 interview.

L.A. city council changes Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day

(Breitbart) The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to remove Columbus Day from the city calendar and replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day.

L.A. follows Seattle, Albuquerque, Denver, and other cities, in making this move.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, “a member of the Wyandotte Nation tribe in Oklahoma,” argued that the change to Indigenous People’s Day was part of a move toward “restorative justice.” He said, “We are not creating a racial conflict, we are ending one.”

Trump plays the Russia game

The Trump administration on Thursday ordered Russia to close down a consulate in San Francisco in addition to diplomatic annexes in Washington and New York, citing the move as a response to an earlier Russian call for the U.S. to reduce embassy staff in Moscow by 755 State Department employees.

The move is being billed as “retaliation” by much of the mainstream media. The Trump State Department’s choice of phrasing, however, was that the order came “in the spirit of parity.”

Either way, Russia is ordered to get out of the facilities by Saturday.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement that the U.S. expects full and timely cooperation.

“The United States has fully implemented the decision by the Government of the Russian Federation to reduce the size of our mission in Russia,” she said. “We believe this action was unwarranted and detrimental to the overall relationship between our countries.”

The Cold War throwback of a diplomatic diss signals that President Trump may be losing his argument that the U.S. should make a priority of improving relations with Russia.

As recently as Monday, the president expressed a desire for a more productive relationship: “I hope that we do have good relations with Russia. I say it loud and clear, I have been saying it for years. I think it’s a good thing if we have great relationships, or at least good relationships, with Russia. I believe someday that will happen.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for U.S. diplomatic reductions in Moscow came amid shrieks from the U.S. intelligence and media establishment regarding still unproven claims that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

Even with Trump’s apparent move to acquiesce anti-Russia members of the U.S. establishment with the diplomatic closures, some are arguing that the administration hasn’t gone far enough.

From The New York Times: 

Francisco is the oldest and most established consulate in the United States, according to administration officials, consisting of an office building and a residence. The two annexes housed Russian trade missions.

But the State Department’s response seemed calculated to avoid deepening the rift with Russia. The administration is not expelling any Russian diplomatic personnel from the United States, nor did it touch the staff at Russia’s main embassy in Washington.

“It is an important and needed response, but it is not proportionate,” said Michael A. McFaul, who served as ambassador to Moscow during the Obama administration. “The dismissal of 755 employees has a much greater impact on our diplomatic operations in Russia than this action has on Russian operations in the United States.”

The Trump administration’s announcement of the action also bore little resemblance to Russia’s move, which was announced by President Vladimir V. Putin himself in an interview with stare-run Russian television.

In other words, the political class that’s been jockeying for a Cold War revival since long before Trump took the White House (a revival that was all but promised given a Hillary Clinton victory) is dying to hear talk of “firte and fury” from the president on Russia. Hopefully that isn’t going to happen. But as Trump’s inner circle in the White House continues to change– and look more Washington-approved– it isn’t a stretch to believe Clinton-style foreign policy is about to become Trump’s newest international brand.

The post Trump plays the Russia game appeared first on Personal Liberty®.

Harvey and coming storms should get you in the prepper mindset… right now

The current disaster unfolding along the Gulf Coast is a jolting reminder that survival preparedness is something you should never put off. It’s easy to tell yourself that you’ll stock up on non-perishable food items, water and other basic necessities when you have the time and extra money sitting around– but for far too many Americans, too late comes too soon.

Harvey is winding down, leaving Texas residents to pick up the pieces. But this is only the beginning of what looks to be an extremely active hurricane season. Worse yet, while the national media shifted 24-7 focus to hurricane coverage (as it will certainly be forced to again in coming weeks), international stability has continued to quietly deteriorate.

The potential for danger to your life, financial security and family’s well-being is everywhere. That reality, of course, shouldn’t consume you… what a miserable life that would create.

But would it hurt to take some small steps to protect yourself and your loved ones against uncertainty? Of course not. The thought of the alternative– facing a real natural or man-made disaster totally unprepared– should cause much more heartburn than the idea of spending a few hours and a few dollars on a self-made insurance policy that could mean the difference between life and death.

Here are a few extremely valuable resources to help you get started today. The best part is that much of what you need, you probably already have on hand– it’s just a matter of situating your survival cache for quick access in the event of emergency. Other things can be picked up relatively cheaply. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Are You Prepared For Basic Survival?

You owe it to yourself to prepare for a hurricane or flooding

How to survive a hurricane

Survival plan should include finances, experts say

Investing In Survival

The big list of survival and homesteading tools

Finally, a printed copy of Bob Livingston’s How to Survive the Collapse of Civilization should have a place in every survival toolkit. It provides a compendium of the information above and a boatload of additional practical, actionable survival advice for all manner of disaster scenarios. Having the information in one place, in printed form is vital– because if you’ve ever had the misfortune of being involved in a mass disaster, you know that internet and cell phone connections will become overloaded or go offline altogether early on.

Get your copy of How to Survive the Collapse of Civilization at this link right now.

The post Harvey and coming storms should get you in the prepper mindset… right now appeared first on Personal Liberty®.

SPLC sends millions in cash overseas

(Free Beacon) – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a liberal, Alabama-based 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization that has gained prominence on the left for its “hate group” designations, pushes millions of dollars to offshore entities as part of its business dealings, records show.

Additionally, the nonprofit pays lucrative six-figure salaries to its top directors and key employees while spending little on legal services despite its stated intent of “fighting hate and bigotry” using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is perhaps best known for its “hate map,” a collection of organizations the nonprofit deems “domestic hate groups” that lists mainstream conservative organizations alongside racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and is often referenced in the media. A gunman opened fire at the Washington, D.C., offices of the conservative Family Research Council in 2012 after seeing it listed as an “anti-gay” group on SPLC’s website.

Leftists call for removal of 3 Army bases

(Daily Caller) — The Southern Poverty Law Center has declared three of America’s largest Army bases Confederate monuments “with the potential to unleash more turmoil and bloodshed” if activists don’t “take down” the Army bases.

The SPLC included Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Benning in Georgia on a list of 1,500 “Confederate monuments” that the SPLC claims could inspire more violence like what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia last month. All three bases are named after Confederate military leaders.

The list makes no mention of renaming namesakes of Confederate monuments; taking the monuments down is presented as the only option. The recent leftist campaign against Confederate namesakes and monuments has included a willingness among some far-left actors to destroy government property to accomplish their goals.

Houston rescuer’s Confederate banner triggers ex-Hillary staffer

Logan Anderson

It didn’t take long for the politicization of the Texas floods to shift from First Lady Melania Trump’s high heels to the tried-and-true meme of the Confederate battle flag.

Logan Anderson, 24, a former digital strategist for the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, took to Twitter to vent over white men in an airboat rescuing black people trapped by Hurricane Harvey’s high water because the boat sported the “Southern Cross” – the battle flag of Confederate fighting men.

“Y’all, the Confederate flag crowd is helping black people evacuate in Houston,’ she tweeted, adding three skull emojis to her message.

Y’ALL, THE CONFEDERATE FLAG CROWD IS HELPING BLACK PEOPLE EVACUATE IN HOUSTON AND I CANT ??????#houstonflood http://pic.twitter.com/fYqENmaR0S

— Logan Anderson (@LoganD_Anderson) August 27, 2017

“I would absolutely get on that boat, by the way. And then, when they dropped me off, I’d tear off the flag and drop it into the flood,” she said in a second tweet.

If Anderson did try to “tear off the flag,” she’d probably be disappointed, as the banner is painted on the airboat’s large rudder.

“The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of American Left,” Dinesh D’Souza’s stunning new explanation of what makes the the leftists in America tick, is now available at the WND Superstore.

But Anderson wasn’t finished, intimating in a pair of tweets the white rescuers really had sinister, racist motives that put their unsuspecting black passengers in danger.

“Let’s be honest: The black people who are being rescued from the flood by good ol’ boys will probably end up in the sunken place … get it? Like … ‘sunken place’ because of the flood, but also like in get out? Huh? Anybody?”

This isn’t the first time Anderson has gone after the historic Confederate symbol. As a student at Louisiana State University, she attacked the tradition of flying a yellow and purple version of the flag at pre-game tailgate parties.

“It was two hours into tailgating when I saw a purple and gold Confederate flag flying high over the parade ground,” she wrote. “It stopped me in my tracks. A million questions ran through my head: How is it possible that, in the 21st century, this is still something that we as a community are allowing to happen?

“Purple and gold flags are actually a very popular item for the cross-section of people who happen to be fans of both Louisiana State University and slavery – a cross-section which is, sadly, very large.”

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Anderson joined the Hillary Clinton campaign after a picture of her in her LSU graduation gown sporting the Democrat’s campaign logo went viral. She took advantage of her instant popularity to tout her bachelor’s degree in mass communications and minor in political science and ask for a job, getting hired immediately and starting just four days later.

Now, thanks to her tweets, Anderson is doing a new kind of mass communication and has a new kind of instant popularity, and this time it’s not enhancing her resume.

Following her characterization of the white rescuers as being bent on harming the rescued blacks, Anderson passed it off as “terrible jokes [that] help me not panic,” most of those responding to her tweets were having none of it.

Among their messages were ones like these:

• Those are Texans taking care of Texans, selflessly. I don’t expect you to understand through your veil of hatred.

• All I see is people helping each other. Why y’all always gotta bring race into everything?

• He’s saving people…I’m not really sure what your problem is.

• Her problem is that she’s an ignorant racist in denial.

• She’s sick, racist, and entitled. Unfortunately that doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Ironically, Anderson’s own family – trapped on the second floor of their Texas home – had been rescued the previous day. No word on the race of the rescuers.

Nancy Pelosi denounces leftist Antifa, calls for prosecution

WASHINGTON – Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats denounced the far-left Antifa after its members attacked a conservative protest in Berkeley, California, even as some top Republicans justified their violence.

“Our democracy has no room for inciting violence or endangering the public, no matter the ideology of those who commit such acts,” Pelosi said in a statement. “The violent actions of people calling themselves antifa in Berkeley this weekend deserve unequivocal condemnation, and the perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted.”

“In California, as across all of our great nation, we have deep reverence for the Cconstitutional right to peaceful dissent and free speech,” Pelosi continued. “Non-violence is fundamental to that right. Let us use this sad event to reaffirm that we must never fight hate with hate, and to remember the values of peace, openness and justice that represent the best of America.”

Antifa terrorized a tiny, peaceful conservative rally in Berkeley over the weekend, prompting the denouncement.

“Wage the Battle: Putting America First in the Fight to Stop Globalist Politicians and Secure the Borders” is a call to action. It is the amazing story of how self-described “manufacturing guy” Paul Nehlen took on Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in one of the most closely followed congressional races in the nation. Nehlen’s run presaged the international movement against globalism which reached its climax with the election of President Donald Trump. It’s a firsthand look at the development of one of the original “Trump Republicans” and the populist message which is sending shockwaves through the Beltway Right.

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, a Democrat, also joined in to criticize Antifa, calling for authorities to label them a “gang.”

“I think we should classify them as a gang,” Arreguin said. “They come dressed in uniforms. They have weapons, almost like a militia and I think we need to think about that in terms of our law enforcement approach.

“I think we are going to have to think ‘big picture’ about what is the strategy for how we are going to deal with these violent elements on the left as well [as the right],” Arreguin added.

Arreguin previously refused to denounce the group and was even a member of By Any Means Necessary, an antifa group on Facebook, Breitbart reports.

Now that Antifa has been thoroughly denounced by both House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and the far-left mayor of Berkeley himself, conservative commentators are beginning to question why many top Republicans won’t weigh in.

WND reported previously on the Republicans who were silent or justified antifa violence, including Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan.

“Paul Ryan’s silence on the unhinged, violent alt-left group known as ‘Antifa’ is in my view, and in most American’s view, a tacit endorsement of the group and their tactics,” Paul Nehlen, a pro-Trump Republican candidate for Congress who is challenging Ryan in Wisconsin’s 1st district told WND.

“Paul Ryan went out of his way to call out violence from the right, and he has also gone out of his way to ignore violence on the left,” Nehlen added.

Wednesday, a day after Pelosi’s denouncement, Speaker Ryan’s spokeswoman AshLee Strong told the Daily Caller that Ryan “believes, as is obvious, these individuals are left-wing thugs, and those who are committing violence need to be arrested and prosecuted. Antifa is a scourge on our country.”

Ryan previously condemned President Trump’s “both sides” comment on the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, sparking criticism from some conservatives.

“We all need to make clear there is no moral relativism when it comes to neo-Nazis. We cannot allow the slightest ambiguity on such a fundamental question,” Ryan said.

Trump’s National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn praised Antifa, calling them “citizens standing up for equality and freedom.”

WND has reported on many of the times Antifa attacked people who disagree with them, including members of Black Lives Matter, highlighting their opposition to “freedom.”

Rush Limbaugh bashed Republicans who refuse to denounce the group, targeting Gary Cohn.

“Does [Gary Cohn] really not know that [Antifa] are a group that is devoted to violence, that they are a hate group?” Limbaugh asked on his show. “They are not devoted to equality and liberty and fairness. They are devoted to exactly the opposite.”

“We don’t need [Cohn] in this administration – put him in the Obama administration, but not this one,” Limbaugh continued. “We don’t need somebody who doesn’t see the threat of leftist violence, somebody who looks at a bunch of leftists and automatically concludes that they are devoted to equality and fairness.

“Trump doesn’t need people like this,” Limbaugh concluded.

“Wage the Battle: Putting America First in the Fight to Stop Globalist Politicians and Secure the Borders” is a call to action. It is the amazing story of how self-described “manufacturing guy” Paul Nehlen took on Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in one of the most closely followed congressional races in the nation. Nehlen’s run presaged the international movement against globalism which reached its climax with the election of President Donald Trump. It’s a firsthand look at the development of one of the original “Trump Republicans” and the populist message which is sending shockwaves through the Beltway Right.

 

Ex-cop: Giving police military surplus will ‘absolutely’ save lives

The image illustrating a recent Atlantic article about the far-left “antifa” activists perhaps says it best.

It’s a fire extinguisher throwing out flames and smoke.

And it illustrates the violence and threats of violence that some opponents of President Trump have inflicted on the nation.

“On Inauguration Day, a masked activist punched the white-supremacist leader Richard Spencer. In February, protesters violently disrupted UC Berkeley’s plans to host a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos, a former Breitbart,com editor. In March, protesters pushed and shoved the controversial conservative political scientist Charles Murray when he spoke at Middlebury College, in Vermont,” the report said.

The activists demand the banning speech with which they disagree, warning that if allowed to proceed, they will react with violence.

The Atlantic noted some of these actions are spilling blood.

“Since antifa is heavily composed of anarchists, its activists place little faith in the state, which they consider complicit in fascism and racism. They prefer direct action.”

It’s never been tougher to be one of the men in blue. Get “The War On Police: How the Ferguson Effect Is Making America Unsafe” now at the WND Superstore

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has announced it is eliminating Obama-era restrictions on the distribution of surplus military gear by the Defense Department to local police departments.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions explained the policy change in a Monday speech to the Fraternal Order of Police in Nashville.

Trump’s executive order “will ensure that you can get the lifesaving gear that you need to do your job and send a strong message that we will not allow criminal activity, violence, and lawlessness to become the new normal,” Sessions told the assembled officers, according to NBC News.

Jeff Roorda, a retired police officer and current business manager for the St. Louis Police Officers Association, said it was “absolutely” the right move by the Trump administration. He said military equipment gives police better control over an unruly crowd.

“It keeps police officers safe and it keeps the crowd safer,” Roorda told WND. “When law enforcement is unable to respond safely, then people who get caught in the madness of these protests can be in real danger.”

The Defense Department has been allowed, since 1990, to transfer surplus military equipment and supplies to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies through what is known as the “1033 program.” Originally intended for counter-drug operations, the program was later expanded to include all police missions.

The secondhand gear includes equipment the police agencies would typically be unable to afford. More than $5.4 billion worth of gear has been transferred under the program since the 1990s, according to CNN.

However, Obama’s Justice Department concluded police use of military-style equipment inflamed tensions and created fear among demonstrators during the violent street protests in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. Obama forbade law enforcement from receiving certain types of gear from DoD, including armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers, high-caliber weapons and camouflage uniforms.

“We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like there’s an occupying force as opposed to a force that’s part of the community that’s protecting them and serving them,” Obama said in 2015. “It can alienate and intimidate local residents and send the wrong message.”

But Roorda, who lives and works in the St. Louis area, where Ferguson is located, said military-style equipment was critical to the success of the police during the Ferguson riots.

“It absolutely saved lives,” said Roorda, author of “The War on Police: How the Ferguson Effect is Making America Unsafe.” “I mean, you’re talking about the difference between police officers dying and police officers not dying.”

In rescinding Obama’s policy, the Trump Justice Department cited two studies by economists that found the use of military-style equipment can have positive effects, reducing assaults on officers and complaints by citizens.

A Trump administration document describing the executive order says it “sends the message that we care more about public safety than about how a piece of equipment looks, especially when that equipment has been shown to reduce crime, reduce complaints against and assaults on police, and make officers more effective.”

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund opposed the decision, calling it “exceptionally dangerous and irresponsible.”

Janai Nelson, associate director counsel for the group, said the executive order “puts more firepower in the hands of police departments that remain largely untrained on matters of racial bias and endangers the public. Inviting the use of military weaponry against our domestic population is nothing short of recasting the public as an enemy.”

Roorda insists it’s “not offensive equipment, it’s defensive equipment,.”

“Officers shouldn’t be asked to place themselves in harm’s way and respond to civil disturbances that we’ve seen in Ferguson and elsewhere that quickly turn violent without the proper means to protect themselves and to bring that violence under control,” the former cop said.

It’s never been tougher to be one of the men in blue. Get “The War On Police: How the Ferguson Effect Is Making America Unsafe” now at the WND Superstore