Steven Crowder confronts a vocal miscreant who’s openly called for the deaths of ICE agents and Betsy Devos.
(Read more from “CROWDER CONFRONTS: Violent Antifa ‘ICE’ Killer!” HERE)
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A downward rating trend among televised awards shows continued this week with the “MTV Video Music Awards.”
Despite a star-studded lineup, Rolling Stone reported the program set a new low for viewership numbers Monday night.
The trend follows a familiar trajectory, which has accelerated in recent years. In 2014, more than 10 million viewers tuned in. That number dwindled to just 5.23 million this year.
Whatever the cause, Nielsen Media Research found that this year’s ratings were the lowest for the awards show since tracking began 25 years ago.
Analysts note that the day of the week could have played some part in the lower ratings. In previous years the VMAs had been broadcast on Sunday nights.
Fox News reported that the average viewership for this year’s show was 2.25 million.
Year over year, that represents a 16 percent dip for the 2018 presentation, which was hosted by comedians Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish. The rate of decrease was slightly higher among viewers between 18 and 49, a coveted demographic for advertisers.
As The Western Journal previously reported, several presenters and performers tied their appearances to criticism of the Trump administration.
Hart took a few jabs at President Donald Trump’s stance on protests by NFL players, telling the audience Monday night that anyone watching would be “allowed to kneel” if they so desired.
“There’s no old white man that can stop you,” the host added.
He went on to rib the administration for its reputation for infighting and disorder among high-ranking staff.
Hart described the Video Music Awards as “basically like a typical day in the White House,” explaining that “beefs pop off, bad language, people run to the bathroom and send out crazy tweets.”
One of the program’s musical performers also attracted some attention for his Trump critique. Logic, a rapper whose real name is Robert Bryson Hall II, wore a shirt with the message “F— the Wall” during his performance.
MTV put a positive spin on the reports, citing a changing media landscape and the importance of digital viewership. In that arena, the network claimed success.
In a statement, MTV cited estimates of “some 141.6 million video streams of content related to the awards show for the past month,” or nearly twice the total reported in 2017.
With major developments breaking on the domestic and international stage on a daily basis, Rolling Stone noted that far more viewers opted to keep up with the news than the nominees of yet another award.
Both “World News Tonight” on ABC and “CBS Evening News” handily outperformed the Video Music Awards program, which was simulcast across the Viacom family of television networks. (For more from the author of “Ratings for Anti-Trump MTV Video Music Awards Plummet to Record Low” please click HERE)
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The New York Times sparked a social media ruckus when it reported Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to replace Obama-era coal plant regulations could lead to as many as 1,400 premature deaths a year from air pollution.
Liberal journalists went wild. “EPA admits Trump would sacrifice thousands of American lives to save a few coal plants,” ThinkProgress claimed. . .
At the end of the day, EPA is just estimating premature deaths based on current epidemiological studies that are still the subject of debate.
EPA’s regulatory analysis for the Affordable Clean Energy rule lays out three scenarios for how the agency expects coal-fired power plants to comply with more lenient regulations. In contrast to the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, new rules allow coal plants to increase heat-rate efficiency to cut emissions.
The New York Times reported that under the scenario that EPA “pegged as the most likely to occur, the health effects would be significant.” EPA “predicts its plan will see between 470 and 1,400 premature deaths annually by 2030 because of increased rates of microscopic airborne particulates known as PM 2.5,” The Times reported. (Read more from “NYT Claims Ditching Obama-Era Rules Could Kill 1,400 per Year, Leaves out Important Details” HERE)
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After police officials arrested and charged an illegal immigrant with first-degree murder in Mollie Tibbetts’ death, an “angel mom” asked “how many more” Americans have to die in order for the U.S. border to be secured.
“JUST HOW MANY MORE WILL IT TAKE FOR ALL OF AMERICA TO WAKE UP & GET BEHIND (President Donald Trump) 2 SECURE OUT BORDERS & CLEAN UP OUR COUNTRY,” angel mom Sabine Durden asked, according to Breitbart.
JUST HOW MANY MORE WILL IT TAKE FOR ALL OF AMERICA TO WAKE UP 🤬🤬& GET BEHIND @POTUS 2 SECURE OUR BORDERS &CLEAN UP OUR COUNTRY. RIP Mollie 💔. My prayers go out 2 her family/ friends 😢https://t.co/1fdLk24JlP
— ❌Sabine ❌ (@sabine_durden) August 21, 2018
Durden’s son Dominic was killed by an illegal immigrant who turned the wrong way in an unlicensed truck and hit Dominic’s motorcycle in 2012. The driver had two felonies and two DUIs at the time of the crash. He was jailed for 35 days for the accident.
Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts’ body was found on August 21 after the girl had been missing since July 18.
Christhian Rivera, a Mexican national, told police that he followed Tibbetts in his car while she was jogging, Fox News reported. After Rivera started to jog with her, Tibbetts threatened to call the police, which made Rivera mad. Over a month later, Rivera led police to her body but said he could not remember many details of the incident in which she was killed.
Another angel mom, Mary Ann Mendoza, also responded to the news and asked, “What’s it going to take for our politicians to care about Americans safety?”
Mendoza’s son Brandon was killed in 2014 by an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk the wrong way on a highway, according to Breitbart.
Rest In Peace sweet Molly. We will take it from here and fight for your memory and for Justice. Your beautiful smile will never be forgotten #MollysLifeMatters @AngelFamilies pic.twitter.com/NXWcXenb8Y
— Angel Mom Mary Ann Mendoza (@mamendoza480) August 22, 2018
During a rally in West Virginia, Trump said that the incident “should have never happened,” Fox News reported.
“You heard about today with the illegal alien coming in, very sadly, from Mexico and you saw what happened to that incredible, beautiful young woman?” Trump said. “Should have never happened. Illegally in our country.”
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds responded to the tragedy on Twitter. “As Iowans, we are heartbroken, and we are angry. We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community, and we will do all we can bring justice to Mollie’s killer.”
As Iowans, we are heartbroken, and we are angry. We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community, and we will do all we can bring justice to Mollie’s killer.
— Gov. Kim Reynolds (@IAGovernor) August 21, 2018
During the last spark in the immigration debate in June, angel moms joined Trump at the White House to talk about the permanent separation that takes place when illegal immigrants commit deadly crimes.
“We don’t owe illegal aliens anything,” angel mom Agnes Gibboney said at the event. “We need to take care of our own. We have military. We have homeless people. We have children living in poverty. We need to take care of our own.”
Her son, Ronald da Silva, was slain in 2002 by an illegal immigrant who was part of a gang.
“The media doesn’t report truthfully what separation of families really is,” Gibboney said on Fox News. She held up a picture of her son’s tombstone and continued, “I would like to show what real separation of families is. This is what separates my son and myself … a coffin and six feet of dirt.” (For more from the author of “Angel Mom: How Many More Have to Die?” please click HERE)
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Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia was evacuated Wednesday morning after officials received a bomb threat.
Bomb technicians were sweeping cars at the cemetery in a search for explosives, according to WTOP-TV in Washington.
The Washington Post reported that evacuation of the facilities and grounds started around 9:30 Eastern time.
Arlington officials said an emergency services team from nearby Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall was on the scene investigating the threat.
“All families, visitors and employees were evacuated safely from all public buildings and work areas while the threat is being investigated,” cemetery officials announced in a tweet just before 11 a.m.
#UPDATE: As of 11:30 a.m., the cemetery is temporarily closed to the general public but is open for conducting funeral services.
We will continue to post updates as they become available. https://t.co/gU5XSGeXVg
— Arlington National Cemetery (@ArlingtonNatl) August 22, 2018
At noon, the cemetery announced that it would be closed to the public for the rest of the day.
Eleven funerals were scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, according to WTOP.
Arlington spokeswoman Barbara Lewandrowski told The Post that the threat was made to the cemetery as a whole and not to one specific area.
She said officials were checking “every single part of the grounds and facilities.”
Crews responding to bomb threat at Arlington Cemetery https://t.co/6DCHh8qoNv pic.twitter.com/l1JQ7BQw4v
— WUSA9 (@wusa9) August 22, 2018
There was no immediate word on how the threat had been made.
The cemetery conducts 27 to 30 funerals each weekday, according to its official website.
“Arlington National Cemetery is the final resting place for more than 400,000 active duty service members, veterans and their families,” it says. “Service to country is the common thread that binds all who are remembered and honored at Arlington.”
The site is also home to the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery, where more than 14,000 veterans — many from the Civil War — are buried. (For more from the author of “National Cemetery Evacuated Over Bomb Threat” please click HERE)
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In light of yesterday’s conviction of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and lawyer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea, Democrats are losing their minds.
A number of Democratic Senators cancelled their meetings with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh today, citing President Trump’s ties to Manafort and Cohen as the reason why. Then, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took things a step further a declared Kavanaugh’s nomination should be halted indefinetely.
Judge Kavanaugh’s refusal to say a POTUS must comply w a duly issued subpoena & Mr Cohen’s implication of POTUS in a federal crime make the danger of Kavanaugh's nomination to the SCOTUS abundantly clear.
It's a game changer & Chairman Grassley should delay confirmation hearings
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) August 22, 2018
At this moment in our nation's history, the Senate should not confirm a man to the bench who believes presidents are virtually beyond accountability, even in criminal cases; that they are essentially above the law and only Congress can check a president's power. #WhatsAtStake
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) August 22, 2018
.@SenSchumer: "In my view, the Senate Judiciary Committee should immediately pause the consideration of the Kavanaugh nomination." #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/gGYhwAVzwD
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 22, 2018
(Read more from “It’s Getting Dumber: Chuck Schumer Desperately Tries to Block Judge Kavanaugh Because of Michael Cohen” HERE)
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Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and his wife, Margaret, were indicted on Tuesday for misusing $250,000 worth of campaign funds for personal expenses and filing false campaign finance records, CNN reported.
“The charges of wire fraud, falsifying records, campaign finance violations and conspiracy were the culmination of a Department of Justice investigation that has stretched for more than a year, during which the Republican congressman from California has maintained his innocence,” CNN reported.
Unusual charges on Hunter’s credit card included “an Italian vacation, dental work, purchases at a surf shop, and huge tabs at bars in restaurants in the San Diego and Washington, DC, areas.” One of the strangest charges was for a flight for their pet rabbit which one of Hunter’s aides said was charged to the wrong credit card.
Hunter said wrongful spending did occur but it wasn’t by him. He blames his wife, who was also his campaign manager, for charging the campaign’s credit card. (Read more from “GOP Congressman, Wife Indicted for Multiple Campaign Finance Violations” HERE)
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An instructor at the University of Utah is facing massive backlash after she created a “Second Amendment zone” in her classroom. Students who legally carried were forced to stand in a corner of the room that was roped off just for them, Campus Reform reported.
The instructor provided her “weapons policy” to students, which stated:
Concealed carry is protected under your second amendment rights! However, because the University of Utah reserves the right to restrict elements of the first amendment on campus to specifically sanctioned ‘free speech zones’ I am reserving the right to restrict elements of the second amendment in my own classroom.
If you feel that it is somehow at all appropriate to bring a gun to class (hint: it is not—this is absurd, antisocial, and frightening behavior), you are restricted to spending your time in class in my “second amendment zone” a 3×3 taped square on the floor in the very back of the classroom, that will be shared with all other gun carriers. This zone also does not include a desk, because desks are reserved for students who respect the personal and psychological safety of their classmates and instructor.
. . .
One University of Utah instructor wanted concealed carriers to stand in this 3×3 taped area in the classroom. But that's not bias? pic.twitter.com/CsYmTEreZ8
— Beth Baumann (@eb454) August 22, 2018
Students on the University of Utah campus are allowed to carry firearms on campus as long as they have a license to do so. (Read more from “A College Instructor Comes Under Fire for Segregating Concealed Carriers in Her Class” HERE)
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As of yesterday, no reasonable person should remain convinced that the People control America. Three different activists were the targets of severe legal persecution solely because of their support for President Trump.
One of three – the President’s ex-campaign chair, Paul Manafort – was convicted of a series of felonies that amount to child’s play compared to the sins of the insider-trading-bastards who fill the halls of Congress. What gives? He dared help elect a populist to the presidency.
Also yesterday, Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, copped a plea to a series of felonies. He “confessed” – under threat of extensive jail time – that he conspired to assist then-candidate Donald Trump in committing criminal campaign finance violations. Of course, the pay-offs he pled guilty to were nothing close to the criminal actions of the Establishment in numerous US elections, including mine in Alaska where federal contractors actually used millions of federal dollars to actively campaign against me and reelect (by fraud) one of the Establishment’s favorite senators, Lisa Murkowski. In fact, numerous felonies were committed for Murkowski to retain her seat in the Senate. But, as we all know, normally only those who fight for the People get prosecuted.
And just when you thought yesterday’s news couldn’t get any worse, the MSM blasts out the indictment of Duncan Hunter. Hunter, one of the first Congressmen to endorse candidate Trump, was not-so-surprisingly also indicted for campaign finance violations. The Congressman – probably the poorest member of Congress and certainly one of the more outspoken ones – supposedly used campaign donations to pay his personal expenses, according to a federal informant. He may end up joining Congressman Steve Stockman later this year in the federal pen. Steve was convicted of similar violations after he spoke out against Obama and then had the nerve(!) to run against Establishment-pawn John Cornyn in Texas.
We the People must wake up to what’s going on in America. From shutting down our speech on social media, to prosecuting those of us who’d dare help elect someone who confronts the oligarchs, the pattern is undeniable: do anything to restore liberty and prepare to be squashed.
And never forget: the People do not control their government. Call it the Oligarchs, the Deep State, the Establishment, or whatever, it’s something other than us. It’s time to wake up and prepare to defend your liberties.
A federal jury in Northern Virginia on Tuesday reached a guilty verdict in 8 of the 18 counts of bank and tax fraud brought against former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
CNBC reported that the jury found Manafort guilty of five counts of tax fraud.
Paul Manafort found guilty of 5 counts of tax fraud. Stay tuned for more…
— Julia E. Ainsley (@JuliaEAinsley) August 21, 2018
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s legal team called 27 witnesses in the trial, including Manafort’s former business associate Rick Gates, who also worked on President Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016.
Gates entered a plea agreement earlier this year admitting to conspiracy and making false statements to federal investigators.
He has not yet been sentenced.
All the charges brought against Manafort and Gates are not related to their work on the Trump campaign, but they are connected to consulting work they did for Ukraine and other matters.
Fox News reported earlier on Tuesday that the 12 member jury had passed a note to presiding Judge T.S. Ellis asking, “If we cannot come to consensus on a single count…what does that mean for the final verdict?”
In the last hour:
Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort found guilty on 5 tax fraud charges, 1 charge of hiding foreign bank accounts, 2 counts bank fraud.
Mistrial declared for other 10 charges.
1/
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 21, 2018
The judge responded that this would not be “exceptional” and said the jury could reach a “partial verdict.”
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy told Fox News that Mueller’s team could retry Manafort on the counts to which the jury was not able to reach a verdict.
But, he added, “It’s always good news for the defense if the jury can’t resolve the case.”
In May, Ellis upbraided Mueller’s prosecutors suggesting they lied about the scope of the Russia investigation, and the true purpose of the criminal case against Manafort, which is to bring down Trump.
“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort,” Ellis said. “You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever.”
Renowned legal scholar Alan Dershowitz argued last month that Mueller is squeezing Manafort in hopes of making him “sing” or even “compose” against Trump.
“I used to teach my first year criminal law students that if you commit a crime in America always commit a crime with someone more important than you are so you can flip on them and they can’t flip on you. That’s what’s going on here,” Dershowitz said.
Manafort also faces charges in federal court in Washington, D.C., regarding failing to register as a foreign agent.
That trial is slated to start next month. (For more from the author of “Jury Reaches Verdict in Manafort Case” please click HERE)
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