‘We have not done enough to listen — especially to our players…’
Megan Rapinoe / IMAGE: coconut juice x via Youtube
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) U.S. Soccer’s board of directors caved to pressure from leftist players, such as women’s soccer all-star Megan Rapinoe, and repealed its policy requiring players to stand during the national anthem.
Rapinoe and the rest of the Women’s Soccer team had demanded that the board apologize for its 2017 policy, which it passed after Rapinoe began kneeling during games, and allow players to protest “racial inequality.”
“All persons representing a Federation national team shall stand respectfully during the playing of national anthems at any event in which the Federation is represented,” the 2017 policy stated.
On Wednesday, the board acquiesced to the team’s demands and overturned the rule at the urging of U.S. Soccer Federation President Cindy Parlow Cone, according to the Washington Post.
“We have not done enough to listen — especially to our players — to understand and acknowledge the very real and meaningful experiences of Black and other minority communities in our country. We apologize to our players — especially our Black players — staff, fans, and all who support eradicating racism,” U.S. Soccer said in a statement.
By forbidding kneeling, the U.S. Soccer Federation pushed “misconceptions and fear that clouded the true meaning and significance of Colin Kaepernick, Megan Rapinoe and other athletes taking a knee,” the U.S. women’s soccer team said in a statement.
To rectify these misconceptions, the female players also demanded that the board of directors release a plan “on how it will now support the message and movement that it tried to silence four years ago.”
“This is everybody’s responsibility, including this union and its members,” the U.S. Women’s Soccer team said.
Rapinoe began kneeling during games in 2016 to express solidarity with failed NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
The NFL similarly apologized “for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
‘We felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible…’
Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara and Hattie McDaniel as Mammy in 1939’s “Gone with the Wind” / IMAGE: screenshot from The View via YouTube
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) HBO Max pulled Gone with the Wind from its library of films because of its depiction of race and slavery.
The streaming service announced on Tuesday that users will no longer be able to access the classic film, which also happens to be one of the most popular films ever made.
But because the film “depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society,” HBO Max said it would be “irresponsible” to continue showing it.
“These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible,” a spokesperson for HBO Max told CNN.
The spokesperson added that Gone with the Wind will likely be made available again at a later date, but it will be accompanied by a “discussion” about the consequences of its portrayal of slavery.
The movie will still be presented “as it was originally created,” though, “because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.”
The movie, released in 1939, won 10 Academy Awards. Among them was best supporting actress Hattie McDaniel, who became the first black person to win an Academy Award for her portrayal of “Mammy,” a domestic servant.
HBO Max’s decision to pull the film comes amid heightened racial tensions, as thousands protest the death of George Floyd.
For the same reasons, Paramount Network also pulled one of its shows, Cops. The long-running reality show followed the on-duty lives of various law-enforcement officers from around the world, but was canceled this week over concerns that the show “glorified” police officers.
In a statement about Paramount’s decision not to renew Cops, civil rights group Colors of Change blasted the show as “a profit model” built “around distorted and dehumanizing portrayals of black Americans and the criminal justice system.”
‘He doesn’t like the rules that he makes everybody else live by, so he breaks them. Then he doesn’t like to be called out for breaking his own rules so he changes them…’
Phil Murphy/Photo by PhilMurphyNJ (CC)
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy finally lifted restrictions on church services on Tuesday, but only after he was criticized for hypocritically participating in a large Black Lives Matter protest.
Churches were not allowed to host services with more than 10 people up until Tuesday.
At the same time, Murphy allowed a massive protest over the death of George Floyd to take place in the state, and he even joined in on Sunday.
This double-standard drew criticism from many churchgoers worried that Murphy was unfairly restricting their constitutional right to worship.
After he was called out, Murphy revised his order, allowing churches to host services of up to 25% of their buildings’ capacity. And outdoor services can now host 100 people.
Murphy’s updated order, however, hasn’t done much to satisfy New Jersey Republicans who see Murphy’s hypocrisy as a failure of leadership.
“He doesn’t like the rules that he makes everybody else live by, so he breaks them. Then he doesn’t like to be called out for breaking his own rules so he changes them,” state Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-Morris, said, according to North Jersey.
“I’m glad people in New Jersey have a little more freedom this afternoon but they deserve a lot more,” Webber said. “The governor’s behavior is just erratic.”
Murphy, however, said he doesn’t regret joining Sunday’s protest and claimed that he has always been “consistent.”
“We have to allow folks to get out there and rightfully and peacefully but angrily protest and express themselves, and we have to do it in a way that is consistent with the law,” he said.
Murphy’s coronavirus restrictions were some of the strictest in the country, especially in regards to churches and other religious organizations.
When asked back in April why he wasn’t concerned about citizens’ First Amendment right to worship, Murphy admitted that he “wasn’t thinking” about the Bill of Rights when he banned church services.
“That’s above my pay grade,” Murphy said at the time.
‘Despite 3 ½ years of phony Witch Hunts, we are winning, and will close it out on November 3rd!’
President Donald Trump / PHOTO: Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines
(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) President Donald Trump posted an explanation on Facebook about his low poll numbers, arguing that they are “suppression polls” that the corporate media uses to “dampen enthusiasm.”
He attached a letter from John McLaughlin, CEO of McLaughlin & Associates, a political research and strategy company, that explains how the media artificially lowers Trump’s approval rating and election polls.
The Real Clear Politics polling avergage for the 2020 presidential election shows former Vice President Joe Biden up 8 points over Trump.
“The latest skewed media polls must be intentional,” McLaughlin wrote. “It’s clear that NBC, ABC and CNN who have Democrat operatives like Chuck Todd, George Stephanopoulos and other Democrats in their news operations are consistently under-polling Republicans and therefore, reporting biased polls.”
McLaughlin said there are two primary problems with the media’s polls.
The media polls adults and registered voters, instead of likely voters.
“For, example, the CNN poll out today is another skewed anti-Trump poll of only 25% Republican. It’s a poll of 1,259 adults—not even registered voters, let alone likely voters,” he wrote. “It appears that the CNN poll is biased in both sample and questionnaire design to manufacture an anti-Trump outcome.”
This leads to a decrease in the number of registered Republicans that they poll.
“So instead of the 33% Republican turnout which actually happened in 2016, they are reporting polls on only 26%, 25% or even 24% Republicans,” McLaughlin wrote.
For every one percent the media’s polls reduce Republican turnout, Trump’s poll numbers sink almost one percent, since about 90 percent of Republicans vote for the Republican’s presidential candidate.
Trump predicted that his supporters will prove the polls wrong on election day, as they did in 2016.
“Despite 3 ½ years of phony Witch Hunts, we are winning, and will close it out on November 3rd!” Trump wrote.
‘It’s hard for the vice president to break through…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Clinton crony Terry McAuliffe argued that presidential candidate Joe Biden should keep campaigning from his basement, where he has been quarantining due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a “monthly breakfast” meeting of the Norfolk City Democratic Committee, McAuliffe, the former Virginia governor, said Democrats shouldn’t want to put Biden in front of the cameras right now, because doing so would make him even more of a liability.
“It’s hard for the vice president to break through,” McAuliffe claimed, according to an audio recording obtained by Fox News.
“You’ve got the COVID crisis. He’s not a governor, doesn’t have the National Guard. He’s not the president, doesn’t have the briefing room. He needs to come out strategically. And when he says something like he did on race relations two days ago, it needs to have a big impact—thoughtful, and that’s what we’re preferring that he actually do at the time.”
McAuliffe was presumably referencing remarks Biden made in a virtual town hall, during which he accused Trump of dividing the country in response to a question about race relations (ignoring the even greater divisiveness of Obama-era race riots) and asked, “Is this really as good as we think we can be as a nation?”
In the same breath, however, Biden promptly stuck his foot in his mouth with a “deplorables moment,” in which he estimated, “There are probably anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the people out there that are just not very good people.”
Although McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chair, pointedly sidestepped the presumptive nominee’s long history of blunders and troublesome track record with racial issues, the fears of a major gaffe seem to be the prime reason his campaign handlers have kept him on script and in controlled settings as much as possible.
Only days before the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis triggered the latest round of racial uprisings, Biden had, himself, been panned by many in the African–American community for declaring that those who support Trump “ain’t black.”
Trump’s campaign has capitalized on his campaign rival’s weakness, frequently raising questions about his deteriorating cognitive state.
“I’d love to see him get out of the basement so he can speak,” Trump joked last month.
Covering for Clinton
Terry McAuliffe and Hillary Clinton / IMAGE: Michael Hudson via YouTube
McAuliffe—who launched his political career as a campaign fundraiser for former President Bill Clinton, with a special knack for securing Chinese investors—also laid cover for his friend and longtime boss Hillary Clinton.
During the breakfast, he repeated a false talking point from Clinton’s campaign that blamed her failure on the last-minute interference of disgraced FBI Director James Comey.
Clinton was plagued throughout the campaign over the mishandling of classified emails using an illicit server from her home in New York to avoid public information requests and subpoenas.
Comey drew heat from Democrats for reopening an investigation, which he had prematurely dropped earlier that year, after new evidence was discovered on the laptop of convicted felon Anthony Weiner.
McAuliffe assured the audience that there would be no repeat.
“We’re not gonna have crazy Jim Comey coming out 12 days before the election with that ridiculous thing he did,” he said.
However, it later was revealed that biased, partisan investigators, led by agent Peter Strzok, had actively tried to suppress the evidence and lie about the new break in the case in order to avoid damaging Clinton.
Comey was forced to disclose the truth only after a field agent in the New York office threatened to go “rogue” with the bombshell information, which the FBI director appropriately feared would tarnish the bureau’s image and undermine confidence in the election.
An ongoing criminal investigation by the Justice Department is looking into the role that Comey, Strzok and other corrupt members of the Obama intelligence community played in efforts to spy on the Trump campaign and later smear the new president with false claims of Russian collusion.
Among the many questions raised is why then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who was overseeing the investigations into both Clinton and Trump, failed to recuse himself in the politically charged cases despite the fact that his wife, Jill, had received nearly half a million dollars from a McAuliffe-run PAC for a Virginia state senate campaign.
Liberty Headlines’ Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
‘Even in a global pandemic where we have had to take unprecedented measures to protect public health, the economy is already returning…’
Donald Trump and George P. Bush / IMAGE: ABC13 Houston via YouTube
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) After mainstream reports hyped the fact that former President George W. Bush, once again, will not publicly back President Donald Trump’s campaign, at least one Bush family member stepped up to reaffirm his support.
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush—the son of former Florida governor and failed presidential candidate Jeb Bush—made it clear that he will vote for Trump in November, no matter what.
The president was “only thing standing between American and socialism,” the younger Bush told the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday.
In spite of the sustained, coordinated efforts from left-wing operatives to inflict pain and suffering with one nation-rending crisis after another, Bush said it was clear that Trump’s policies were working.
“Even in a global pandemic where we have had to take unprecedented measures to protect public health, the economy is already returning,” he said. “It’s clear, America and Texas will continue to be stronger than ever.”
The New York Times reported over the weekend that George Prescott’s uncle, 43rd president George W. Bush, would not back Trump. A spokesman for the former president, however, pushed back on the report and said it was “completely made up.”
“President Bush is retired from presidential politics and has not indicated how he will vote,” Freddy Ford said.
George P. Bush and Trump, however, have been on good terms since the younger Bush endorsed him in 2016.
“From Team Bush, it’s a bitter pill to swallow,” Bush told supporters during a speech in 2016 after his father, the once favored front-runner, exited the Republican primary. “But you know what? You get back up and you help the man that won, and you make sure that we stop Hillary Clinton.”
Nonetheless, Trump’s criticisms of George W. and Jeb Bush during the campaign struck a nerve with the older generations. George P.’s grandfather, the late 41st President George H. W. Bush, openly supported Clinton, even though her husband, Bill, had deprived him of a second term.
George P.’s grandmother, Barbara, also was revealed, after her 2018 passing, to have written harsh words about Trump in her diary—even renouncing the Republican Party that her family had so long embodied.
Trump has jokingly referred to George P. Bush as “the only Bush that likes me” and “the Bush that got it right.” And in return, Trump endorsed Bush’s reelection bid in 2018.
Texas LC George P. Bush backed me when it wasn’t the politically correct thing to do, and I back him now. Also, AC Sid Miller has been with me from the beginning, he is “Trump’s Man in Texas.” Also support Comptroller Glenn Hegar, and Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick.
‘We are hiring in Florida. Lower taxes, no spineless leadership, or dumb mayors rambling on at press conferences… Plus… we got your back!’
Wayne Ivey / IMAGE: NRATV via YouTube
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) The president of a Florida police union has been suspended with pay after the union offered to hire police officers who had been fired in other cities for efforts to maintain order during recent race-riots.
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey announced that Bert Gamin had been suspended and is now facing an internal investigation because of the Facebook posts from the account of the Brevard County Fraternal Order of Police.
“Yesterday afternoon I authorized an internal investigation into [Gamin’s] actions. He has been suspended, pending the outcome,” Ivey said, according to USA Today.
The posts said the Florida police department it was seeking to hire the “Buffalo 57,” referring to the 57 officers in Buffalo, New York, who recently resigned from the department’s emergency response team.
The officers quit in support of two colleagues who had been fired over an altercation with a 75-year-old Antifa agitator.
The two officers were accused of using excessive force against Martin Gugino, an elderly protester who was intentionally looking for a confrontation, according to recent evidence uncovered byThe Conservative Treehouse.
The union’s Facebook post also referred to the “Atlanta 6,” which is most likely a reference to the six Georgia police officers facing charges after a video surfaced in which they dragged two young adults out of a car during a protest. Two of the officers involved have been fired, and all six are facing felony charges.
“Hey Buffalo 57…and Atlanta 6…we are hiring in Florida. Lower taxes, no spineless leadership, or dumb mayors rambling on at press conferences… Plus… we got your back!” the police union wrote.
The union also appealed to Minneapolis officers who could be out of a job if the city council successfully dismantles the city’s police department.
“Minneapolis officers… we will not disband our agencies or give in… we are hiring in Florida,” the group said.
Before announcing the punishment for Gamin, Ivey had slammed the now-deleted posts in a statement on Monday, calling them were “despicable” and “disgusting” and “extremely distasteful and insensitive.”
He also clarified in a Facebook post that the group was not officially authorized to hire any of the officers.
“To be clear, the ‘Brevard County F.O.P.’ page and organization has no official affiliation with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office and was not authorized in any capacity by me or our agency to recruit or comment on our behalf!!”
‘According to what was reported to me, that individual was a key major instigator of people engaging in those activities…’
(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) President Donald Trump was excoriated by the mainstream press and hordes of disapproving social media commenters on Tuesday for suggesting that a 75-year-old man who was pushed by police officers was in fact an Antifa operative.
But as it turns out, Trump may have been correct.
Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?
Martin Gugino became a celebrated victim of alleged police brutality when a video surfaced online showing him falling to the ground after two policemen repelled his unusual attempt to obstruct a line of officers from clearing a city street in Buffalo, New York.
The video purports to confirm yet another incident amid widespread allegations of abuse of power by law enforcement in the wake of the George Floyd killing.
However, Gugino’s blog, his social media posts and an ongoing police investigation tell a very different story.
Gugino, who lives in the town of Amherst just northeast of Buffalo, previously maintained an address in Berkeley, California, according to online records.
On his blog “Persistent Vegetative State,” he brags about the number of times he’s been arrested and escaped prosecution.
His Twitter account is overtly anti-police, though it’s been blocked from public view since the controversy erupted. The account has 13,400 followers. A picture of teenage, Antifa-supporting climate-change activist Greta Thunberg sits atop his timeline.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, who is black, said Gugino is a known, dangerous provocateur.
“There has been vandalism, there have been fires set, there have been stores broken into and looted. According to what was reported to me, that individual was a key major instigator of people engaging in those activities,” Brown said in a press conference.
Brown refused to dismiss the two officers involved in the pushing incident at that time.
Despite the brazen insistence of mainstream media outlets that deny any wrongdoing on Gugino’s part, footage shows him clearly agitating police officers in a manner meant to provoke a response.
According to one protestor, he was “acting like an asshole” and “trying to get punched in the face.”
Gugino also appears to attempt to capture the police officers’ radio frequency through a process known as “skimming.” The 75-year-old moves his phone in a suspicious manner from one officer’s chest-mounted radio mic to anothers officer’s radio communications belt just prior to being shoved.
Skimming is reportedly an Antifa tactic to monitor police movements and conversations.
As of Wednesday morning, Buffalo city leadership buckled to political pressure and arrested and fired the two offending police officers. They pleaded not guilty and were released without bail as a crowd of hundreds of supporters gathered outside the city’s courthouse to cheer them.
File frame from video provided by Darnella Frazier, a Minneapolis officer kneels on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed man who was pleading that he could not breathe./Darnella Frazier via AP
(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) George Floyd and Derek Chauvin, the police officer who has been charged with murder in Floyd’s death, “bumped heads” when they were security guards at a nightclub, a former co-worker of theirs said.
David Pinney said of Chauvin and Floyd, “not only did they know each other, but they had a history of friction,” CBS News reported.
“It has a lot to do with Derek being extremely aggressive within the club with some of the patrons, which was an issue,” Pinney said.
When asked if he had any doubts about a previous relationship between Chauvin and Floyd, Pinney said “No. He knew him.”
He said they knew each other “pretty well.”
Floyd’s family and attorney said the state should pursue first-degree murder charges against Chauvin because they “believe [Chauvin] knew who George Floyd was.”
Arsonists burned down the nightclub, El Nuevo Rodeo, that Chauvin and Floyd worked at.
Maya Santamaria, who owns the burned-down nightclub, said she had paid Chauvin to sit in his car outside the club for 17 years, while she hired Floyd to work as a security guard inside the club.
She said Chauvin and Floyd both worked at the club on Tuesday nights.
Santamaria said she thinks Chauvin “was afraid and intimidated” by black people.
As the nation learns more about the circumstances surrounding Floyd’s death, the Minneapolis City Council approved a plan to begin eliminating the Minneapolis Police Department.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who kneeled and apologized to BLM activists after they supported looting, arson, and mayhem in his city, said he will fight the city council to prevent them from abolishing the police.
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) At George Floyd’s funeral on Tuesday, Rev. Al Sharpton demanded that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell give failed quarterback Colin Kaepernick “his job back.”
Goodell apologized in a statement last week for not listening to NFL players who kneeled during the national anthem.
But Sharpton argued that if the NFL really wants to start listening, it should rehire Kaepernick, who was phased out of the league due to poor performance.
“Some people change their mind,” Sharpton said, according to NBC News. “The head of the NFL said: ‘Yeah, maybe we was wrong. Football players, maybe they did have the right to peacefully protest.’ Well, don’t apologize. Give Colin Kaepernick a job back.”
Sharpton accused the NFL of “minimizing” the “value of our lives” and stripping Kaepernick “of his talents.”
“You sorry? Then repay the damage you did to the career you stood down ’cause when Colin took a knee, he took it for the families in this building. And we don’t want an apology. We want him repaired,” he said.
Kaepernick has had several opportunities to rejoin the NFL since he was dropped from the San Francisco 49ers.
But at the last minute, Kaepernick backed out, claiming he disagreed with the NFL’s decision to prohibit media attendance.
As a result, few teams attended the workout, and none of them are interested in signing Kaepernick.
“This was about creating an opportunity,” Goodell said back in December. “We created that opportunity. It was a unique opportunity, a credible opportunity and he chose not to take it. I understand that. We’ve moved on.”
Even Kaepernick’s allies, including rapper Jay-Z, blasted him for turning a “legitimate” opportunity into a “publicity stunt.”
Kaepernick, however, has continued to insist that the NFL is at fault for “blocking” him from the league.
