Monday, September 6, 2021

Mother of US Marine Makes Her Way Onto ESPN, Gets in an Epic Message Before Anyone Can Censor Her By C. Douglas Golden September 6, 2021 at 6:48am

Mother of US Marine Makes Her Way Onto ESPN, Gets in an Epic Message Before Anyone Can Censor Her

By C. Douglas Golden September 6, 2021 at 6:48am

This Aug. 26 marked five years since then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first protested during the national anthem on the sidelines of a preseason NFL game. Things are so completely inverted now that players make news when they don’t kneel during the national anthem — or at other times.

In the bronze medal women’s soccer match at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, Carli Lloyd was the only player on the American squad to not take a symbolic knee on the field before the game. To some in the sports world, this Raised Serious Questions™.

“I think Carli Lloyd has spoken about why she doesn’t want to kneel during the national anthem,” tweeted Molly Hensley-Clancy of The Washington Post. “But I’m curious if anyone has asked her why she chose not to take a knee for a minute before kickoff along with every other American player, staff member, and referee.”

I’m curious why Molly Hensley-Clancy isn’t curious why “every other American player, staff member, and referee” took a knee. Are we to assume they’re all of the same mind regarding what’s become the go-to sign of left-wing political protest on the sports field? Or are they concerned the Hensley-Clancys of the blue-checkmark world will be coming for their scalps if they let their patriotism show?

In this environment, at least, we have one Marine mom to thank for getting an epic anti-kneeling message onto ESPN’s “College GameDay” on Saturday in North Carolina.

In the crowd behind the college football pregame show, she held a sign that contained the text “Proud Marine Mom,” “Love you, Ryan!” and “#Idon’tkneel,” along with the Marine Corps seal and what one assumes is her son’s photo. It was first noted by David Hookstead at the Daily Caller.

“This is the kind of pro-America attitude we love to see. Thank you for your son’s service and sacrifice,” Hookstead said in a tweet.

If you want to see the full video, fast forward to the 9:45 mark of the ESPN stream of the event:

This one must have slipped by the censors, given ESPN’s wokeness these days.

“College GameDay” was in Charlotte, where No. 3 Clemson and No. 5 Georgia were playing in the season opener. For what it’s worth, the Bulldogs came out ahead 10-3.

Fox News noted that while last year’s college football season generated some controversy when teams took a knee before games in protest of injustice, it was unclear whether that’d be happening again this season.

The video got plenty of plaudits from those who agreed with the mother’s message:

In his article at the Daily Caller, Hookstead concurred.

“This is the kind of pro-America attitude that I love to see. People seem to forget that America is by far the greatest country on the planet,” he wrote.

Do you agree with this mom's sign?

“Do we have some flaws? Without a doubt, but we’re still hands down the greatest thing that ever happened to this planet.”

It’s unclear who’ll be kneeling this year. Donald Trump is out of the White House and George Floyd is receding from memory. And yet, if the women’s soccer team at the Olympics was any gauge, this will still be a frequent occurrence this year.

How voluntary this was is debatable, however.

Former U.S. Women’s National Team goalie Hope Solo, who played on the team with star kneeler Megan Rapinoe until 2016, said in an interview with Goal.com that Rapinoe would “almost bully players into kneeling because she really wants to stand up for something in her particular way.”

Nevertheless, there are plenty of Rapinoes in locker rooms everywhere, along with blue-check journalists wondering why anyone wouldn’t kneel for the national anthem (or during any other anti-American political display).

So here’s to you, unnamed Marine mom. We salute your son for his service and stand behind your patriotic statement 100 percent — and more people than you know probably do, as well.

Some of them might even be on the playing field.

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American flag, Clemson Tigers, ESPN, football, Georgia Bulldogs, national anthem, patriotism, sports media, U.S. Marines, video

C. Douglas Golden

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.

@CillianZeal

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Libs Think This Guy's Rainbow Sign Is Great, Until They Take a Closer Look...By C. Douglas Golden September 5, 2021 at 10:45am

Libs Think This Guy's Rainbow Sign Is Great, Until They Take a Closer Look

By C. Douglas Golden September 5, 2021 at 10:45am

I thought there could be no piece of liberal ephemera triter than those “It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber” bumper stickers that were popular in the 1990s.

Hold my beer, 2020 said. Here’s the rainbow sign.

You’ve probably seen them. Usually using some variation on the good old pride flag, it’ll say something like, “In this house, we believe Black Lives Matter, women’s rights are human rights, no human is illegal, science is real, love is love, kindness is everything.” That treacly lawn placard is available on Amazon for $10. If you have a bit more cash to burn and want something sturdier, Signs of Justice has a $20 version that includes “water is life” and “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Never mind that this money would have exponentially more influence if it were donated to an actual campaign, say, than wasted a liberal virtue signal. Usually, all it does is demarcate a house where at least one strident bore lives. In York, Maine, it’s managed to go a bit further: It’s marked the town government as a hive of strident bores.

In June, the town made news when its Committee to Combat Racism and Bias launched what the Portsmouth Herald charitably called a “public art campaign” designed to “spread a welcoming message to all people who live in and travel to the community.”

Here’s the “public art” — a sign that says “York believes … welcome matters, action matters, systems matter, education matters, training matters, black lives matter.”

“When you drive through any environment, the things that you see around you communicate what’s important to wherever you’re visiting,” committee member Anne Bancroft said.

Do you agree with this resident's sign?

“We felt our task was to get the word out there that the proclamation exists … because it doesn’t really do much if nobody hears about the proclamation or sees it,” she added.

I’m sure there’s a Mrs. Robinson joke to be made here — except Bancroft comes across as a bit more humorless than the actress of the same name and there’s a high probability she’s a Ms. kind of woman, so it’ll remain unmade.

Just know this pro-wokeness sign took six months to complete and went through “many design iterations,” according to the Portsmouth Herald’s Camille Fine. I know amateur Photoshop fiddlers who’d be embarrassed if this took them more than 10 minutes.

Each of the lines represents one bullet point on a six-point town anti-bias proclamation. In other words, not only did they take half a year to come up with this, they already knew what was supposed to go on it.

If one ever needed proof that government has no self-awareness when it comes to its molasses-like efficiency, consider the words of select board Chair Todd Frederick when the final work was presented: “Your committee has done a remarkable job in a very short amount of time.” If that’s really his impression, I tremble to think what road work in York, Maine, must be like.

No word on how much the design cost, but they spent $3,000 in total producing it. I’m not sure how much York resident Charlie Black II spent on his rejoinder, but it certainly wasn’t $3,000 and it made roughly as much news as the original:

Liberals may think this sign is great until they take a second look and realize it’s an inversion on the usual trope: “We believe liberty matters, free speech matters, veterans matter, police matter, peace matters, life matters.”

According to an Aug. 5 Portsmouth Herald report, Black said he’s received a positive reaction to his sign.

“We put out our own sign with a message that we felt more comfortable with, and many people have voiced their support and asked where they can get a similar sign,” he wrote in an online forum.

The sign is free — although there’s a suggested $15 donation with the money going to more signs or, if there’s not enough interest, to help a local lobsterman and firefighter who’s battling cancer.

Black had previously courted controversy with the town’s liberals when he hung a “Thin Blue Line” flag outside his house in honor of his father, a Maine State Trooper shot and killed by bank robbers in 1964.

“The flag became a point of contention in discussions around racism, police brutality and diversity within the town, and Black said the recent signs created by the anti-bias committee brought back hurtful memories for him and his mother, Mary Black Andrews,” Fine reported in the Portsmouth Herald.

Black had spoken at a town meeting in July, where dozens of individuals registered their concerns with the signage. In particular, he took issue with the anti-bias committee’s claim that the phrase “Black Lives Matter” had nothing to do with the avowedly Marxist organization but instead with marginalized black individuals.

“What makes the name, which was originally just a hashtag, so clever is that one can’t write or utter the term ‘Black Lives Matter’ and at the same time separate the political group from the concept,” Black said in July.

“Nobody I know would argue that black lives don’t matter, but it shouldn’t be the first thing that a person sees when venturing to our town’s website.”

The anti-bias committee tried to spin Black’s sign in a positive light, penning a letter to the editor published in The York Weekly which said they were “excited to see the creation of additional signs affirming the values of liberty and free speech, that veterans matter as do police, not least peace and life in general.”

“None of these values are exclusive of the ones committed to in the Proclamation, or vice versa,” the letter continued. “York is strong and resilient enough for all, and like our welcome card assures everyone, ‘We’re glad you’re here!'”

I bet.

Black’s sign wasn’t the only pushback on the Committee to Combat Racism and Bias’ “public art” campaign. City employees expressed discomfort that the committee would place the signage at town facilities, as well.

\In an email, town manager Steve Burns said it wasn’t his intention “to make any of you uncomfortable,” then used a whole lot of language meant to specifically discomfit anyone in political opposition to the sign.

“Silence is, in fact, support of a status quo that for centuries has disadvantaged many communities of people,” he wrote in the July 20 email.

“We need more dialogue,” Burns added. “We need to educate ourselves. We need to be respectful of each other’s beliefs and perspectives, even if we don’t always understand or agree … we need to be willing to forgive others who stumble, and rest assured each of us is likely to stumble from time to time.”

Interesting question, then: If the people of York, Maine “need to be respectful of each other’s beliefs and perspectives,” will Burns and the town be ordering some of Black’s signage and putting it on town property?

Given that “York is strong and resilient enough for all,” surely they can find some space for it. And I bet Black can do it all for a lot less than $3,000.

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anti-woke, Black Lives Matter, conservatism and conservatives, LGBT, Maine, US news, wokeness

C. Douglas Golden

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Man Finds Himself in Jail After Listening to Mike Lindell Online By Jack Davis September 5, 2021 at 6:57pm A federal judge last week handed down what has been called an “Orwellian” ruling against an Iowa man who participated in the Capitol incursion.

Man Finds Himself in Jail After Listening to Mike Lindell Online

By Jack Davis September 5, 2021 at 6:57pm

A federal judge last week handed down what has been called an “Orwellian” ruling against an Iowa man who participated in the Capitol incursion.

Doug Jensen, 42, of Des Moines, was ordered to jail on Thursday because he watched snippets of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s cyber symposium on the 2020 election, according to The Associated Press.

Jensen had previously spent six months in prison for his role as one of the leaders in the rioting at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly released Jensen from jail in July but banned him from using the internet or a cellphone.

Last month, a federal officer making the first unannounced home visit since Jensen’s release found that he was using an iPhone to watch the news on a right-wing streaming service.

Things got even worse when Jensen admitted he had watched part of Lindell’s cyber symposium, in which the conservative entrepreneur discussed theories that the 2020 presidential election was marred by fraud and other malfeasance.

Jensen’s attorney, Christopher Davis, said Jensen deserved another chance to avoid jail, noting that he had compiled with other conditions of his release.

“At first glance, it sounds a bit Orwellian. A man sitting in his garage streaming the news over the internet … now the government wants to jail him,” Davis said, according to CNN.

But that was exactly what Kelly did.

Are the Capitol rioters being punished too harshly?

“It’s now clear that [Jensen] has not experienced a transformation and that he continues to seek out those conspiracy theories that led to his dangerous conduct on Jan. 6,” Kelly said. “I don’t see any reason to believe that he has had the wakeup call that he needs.”

Kelly rejected the idea that Jensen was just idly listening to the news.

“I think it’s probably a logical inference … that there are no conditions that will assure Mr. Jensen will not pose a danger to the safety of the community,” he said.

Davis said Jensen acknowledges he broke the rules on Jan. 6.

“He was wrong, and he’s not denying that,” Davis said.

David likened Jensen’s interest in the famous QAnon conspiracy theory to “an addiction.”

“Why else would anyone incarcerated in D.C. jail for six months and just released do this?” he said, according to The Washington Post. “I don’t have a good answer for this. I don’t think he does either.”

Jensen is “in therapy, but what that is going to do, I don’t know,” Davis said. “I almost liken it to a compulsion. It just doesn’t add up. This is an intelligent man. … He is not a bumbling idiot, in any sense of the word. He understands.”

“There are no additional conditions this court could impose to ensure that Mr. Jensen does not return to the habits that led him to the Capitol,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Hava Mirell said in court.

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Capitol incursion, conservatives, Court, Iowa, prison, US news

Jack Davis

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Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

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Monday, September 6, 2021