Tuesday, August 25, 2020
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary Bauer
More Riots
Rioting continued in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last night. It's the same script we've seen before in Baltimore, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, Seattle and Washington, D.C., just in a new place.
Feral mobs, using the excuse of excess force between police and someone they were trying to arrest, decided to burn cars, destroy businesses, attack police and take their rage into otherwise quiet neighborhoods.
Sadly, left-wing politicians in Wisconsin are fueling the flames with their irresponsible rhetoric. They prejudged what happened well before they had even a small inkling of the facts.
We now know from a British media source, not American media, that there is a second video. In that video, before you see Jacob Blake walking to his car, he fought with police officers and was wrestled to the ground. Then he gets up and tries to get into his car.
One witness said he heard officers yelling, "Drop the knife! Drop the knife!'"
There will be a thorough investigation. But nothing justifies the rioting that has taken place since this confrontation. Burnings cars and furniture stores, destroying innocent people's livelihoods is not justice. Inflicting more pain and suffering on the community is not justice.
Speaking of unjustified violence, the chaos in Portland is making parts of the city unlivable and causing many businesses to flee. The civic leader warned city officials that the number of companies leaving Portland is "like nothing I have seen in 42 years of doing business in downtown."
The War On Faith
The left's war on faith is reaching critical mass in California.
- Pastor Rob McCoy has been fined $3,000 by Ventura County for holding worship services earlier this month. You can protest in California, but you can't go to church.
- In Santa Clara County, local officials reportedly sent undercover agents to spy on area church services. North Valley Baptist Church was hit with a $10,000 fine for illegal singing.
- Pastor John MacArthur has been in court four times fighting "nonsensical" restrictions.
Yes, my friends, our religious liberty is at stake.
Summer Sizzle
It was a hot July – especially for home sales. As we reported last week, existing home sales soared nearly 25% last month for the biggest monthly gain since 1968.
Today, we learned that new home sales in July surged 14% from June and 36% annually for the biggest monthly gain since 2006.
Housing construction is a critical component of the economy as it also generates a lot of additional economic activity when you factor everything that goes into a new home, from the lumber, the labor, the furniture and the appliances.
More Encouraging News
Did you hear the latest Covid statistics? You didn't? Well, I'm not surprised because they are going down. Once again, this news comes to us courtesy of the British press, not the American press, which is emotionally invested in keeping us all cowering in our basements.
According to the Daily Mail, coronavirus cases in the United States "have now declined for the fifth straight week." The country is now averaging the lowest rate of new daily infections since June. New infections are down 17% and 35 states show declining new cases.
Hospitalizations are down significantly. And the number of daily deaths is also at its lowest level in a month, less than half of what it was at its peak.
An Effective Evening
There were many effective speeches during the first night of the Republican National Convention, especially from Senator Tim Scott, who rejected the left's claim of "systemic racism" by noting that his family went from the cotton fields to Congress in one generation.
Rep. Steve Scalise talked about how the left's efforts to defund the police were personal to him because the police saved his life after a crazed leftist opened fire on Republican congressmen who were playing baseball.
Some of the most poignant remarks were delivered by average Americans.
Andrew Pollack, whose daughter, Meadow, was killed in the Parkland school shooting, blasted left-wing policies for allowing dangerous kids to stay in our schools.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who had the audacity to defend their own home, warned us about the other side of social justice. Nobody in the mob of Marxist revolutionaries who tore down the gates to their community and threatened the McCloskeys has faced any charges. But Mark and Patricia are being prosecuted by left-wing politicians.
Cuban American Maximo Alvarez choked up describing his love for America. He said that when he sees the rewriting of our history and sees the rioting in the streets of Portland, he is reminded of what he and his family fled in communist Cuba.
Left-wing Extremism
The left's extremism is on full display lately. We've seen it in the streets of Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland and Seattle, and now it is even evident among high-profile figures.
Yesterday Speaker Nancy Pelosi called President Trump and congressional conservatives "domestic enemies" and "enemies of the state." Those are specific legal terms, as Pelosi even noted, accusing someone of being an enemy of our country. Her remarks are an invitation for some deranged person to try to harm these "enemies" in the White House and Congress.
On the same day, Hillary Clinton urged Joe Biden to "not concede [on election night] under any circumstances."
So here you have the speaker of the House, who is second in the presidential line of succession, declaring the president to be an enemy of the state and the previous Democrat presidential candidate urging her party's nominee not to concede regardless of how big the margin of his defeat may be.
I can easily see how someone might conclude that liberal leaders are scheming to try to seize power this November if they lose the election.
Rep. Steve Scalise condemned Pelosi's "hypercharged language," saying it was that kind of rhetoric that led a deranged Bernie Sanders supporter to open fire on a baseball field, nearly killing him and other Republican congressmen.
