Back in October of last year ABC was caught claiming footage from a gun range in Kentucky was actually video of Syria bombing the Kurds after Donald Trump pulled a couple of dozen troops from the country. This was a blatant attempt by the news outlet to paint a bleak picture due to a Trump policy.
Not to be outdone in trying to create a bleak picture which can be blamed on Donald Trump CBS was caught over the weekend using Italian hospital footage in a story about New York. CBS is claiming it was an “editing mistake.”
CBS News acknowledged it aired the wrong footage while reporting last week on New York hospitals and the ventilator shortage during the coronavirus outbreak.
Inquisitive social media users noticed that CBS This Morning aired footage on Wednesday during a report on Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s response to the coronavirus pandemic that looked to be the same as footage from a recent Sky News report about a hospital in Bergamo, Italy.
“It was an editing mistake,” a CBS spokesperson told the Washington Examiner when asked about the footage. “We took immediate steps to remove it from all platforms and shows.”
The footage of the Italy-based hospital was presented as imagery from a hospital in New York, but the same clip was seen during a Sky News segment on Italian hospitals and the COVID-19 virus on March 22.
This so-called “mistake” was caught by people on social media and yet we are supposed to believe that nobody in the editing department knew where the footage came from? Just like ABC and the gun range video from last October I do not believe this was done by mistake, somebody who works at CBS purposely slipped this footage into the story hoping that nobody would catch it. Somebody needs to lost his or her job over this.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Sunday, March 29th open thread: ‘Kiss Off’
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
Here is this week’s open thread. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
You can subscribe to America’s Watchtower to receive email updates and you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right.
Here is a very young looking Violent Femmes performing “Kiss Off” live in 1983:
One of the first actions California Governor Gavin Newsom took after declaring a state of emergency in California was to shut down the gun shops and now, according to this story, the NRA is suing. Here is more:
The National Rifle Association accused Governor Gavin Newsom in a lawsuit of taking away the right of Americans to access firearms by shutting gun stores during the coronavirus outbreak.
The nation’s leading gun-rights group filed the complaint Friday in Los Angeles federal court along with two individuals, retailer Gun World and three other firearms advocacy groups.
“The circumstances posed by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak are noteworthy, but do not excuse unlawful government infringements upon freedom,” the NRA said in the suit.
Firearm and ammunition retailers help Californians defend themselves, their loved ones and their property from potential dangers during the crisis, the group said.
It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out. The last chapter most likely will not be written until after the state of emergency is over anyway, but this is still important because now that the precedent has been set I expect to see multiple crises in the future used to take gun rights away.
But I would go further and say it is not only gun rights which have been infringed upon–and will also be in the future now that this precedent has been set–but just about every right which was supposed to be protected in the Constitution.
And the greatest threat to our rights is the fact that so many people did not adhere to Benjamin Franklin’s warning and were willing to trade their rights in for some perceived security. While I am on the subject, whatever happened to those 3%ers who were so vocal during the Obama years? I guess they were Summer soldiers and sunshine patriots…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Joe Biden accused of 1993 assault
According to this story a woman has come forward–or actually I should say she has been trying to come forward for many years but is finally being listened to–claiming that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her back in 1993. Here is more:
Tara Reade has been trying to tell her story since it happened in 1993, when she was working as a staff assistant for Joe Biden. She told part of her story– about how Biden would put his hands on her shoulders and run his fingers up and down her neck– in the spring of 2019 after Lucy Flores accused Biden of kissing the top of her head and smelling her hair inappropriately. But Reade didn’t tell her full story. As Ryan Grim reveals at The Intercept, Reade asked for help from Time’s Up, but the organization said it could not support her because a case taking on Biden would jeopardize their non-profit status. Tara is finally telling the story she’s been trying to tell for decades. While there were no witnesses to Biden’s alleged sexual assault of Tara Reade, her brother and close friend, both of whom I’ve spoken to, recall Reade telling them about it at the time.
I am not going to go into what she alleges Joe Biden did to her but you can listen to an interview with the victim by following the link above. She wanted to come forward before but nobody wanted to take on the powerful Biden family.
We can expect the left to defend the presumptive Democratic nominee by claiming these are unfounded accusations from many years ago but the left has taught us over the last four years that there is no statute of limitations when it comes to accusations such as these so they can no longer use this defense.
We saw the left take a crass locker room comment Donald Trump made decades ago and use it to claim he was unfit to be President because he actually acted out on his comment although there was no proof or accusations of any such behavior. The left then paraded out accusers who were all debunked one by one. (Oh, and this woman is accusing Joe Biden of actually doing what Donald Trump said in that infamous comment, and much more…)
But that was just the tip of the iceberg. We saw the way the left went after Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch and we also remember that the left said women who make accusations of sexual assault deserve to always be believed regardless of evidence or possible motivation. So, using the precedent they set by going after Republicans and Republican appointees they should be calling for Joe Biden to step out of the race.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
A couple of days ago it was reported that the Department of Justice was seeking extraordinary emergency powers which included the power to indefinitely detain Americans without a trial.
This naturally set off a firestorm with civil liberty advocates and today the Department of Justice “clarified” its position on this issue. Here is more:
A Justice Department spokesperson issued a clarification overnight regarding a recent “emergency powers” request to Congress involving prolonged pre-trial incarceration during the coronavirus crisis that drew a backlash on social media.
The DOJ claimed that there had been “confusion” after Politico and Rolling Stone wrote that the department was seeking new “emergency powers” for itself that would “suspend” certain rights in criminal matters. In reality, the spokeswoman said, judges would be the ones to determine whether a defendant could be held in custody for longer than normally permitted.
“Bottom line: The proposed legislative text confers powers upon judges. It does not confer new powers upon the executive branch,” said a statement posted by DOJ spokeswoman Kerri Kupec early Monday morning. “These provisions are designed to empower the courts to ensure the fair and effective administration of justice.”
There you have it, the Department of Justice is not seeking the power to detain Americans indefinitely but rather is seeking to give the judges the power to do so. The bottom line is the Justice Department does want the government to have this power, does this make it any better in your eyes? It does not make me feel any better…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Homeland Security denies rumor of national shutdown
There have been some pretty scary rumors out there about a totalitarian national lockdown but the Department of Homeland Security is denying that this is something under consideration by Donald Trump and his administration.
Here is more:
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Saturday shot down rumors of a potential national lockdown because of the coronavirus, saying that there are no such plans and that such rumors are “disinformation.”
“It’s simply not true,” Wolf said on Fox & Friends. “What we see is a lot of disinformation campaigns via text, via social media, so we want to make sure we refute those, knock those down… a lot of this information is just that: disinformation.”
“We want to make sure that individuals are getting information from trusted sources, so those are your state and federal officials, and we’re asking them not to spread this information around,” he said.
“So we have no plans for a national lockdown or a national quarantine, and again it’s just that — its disinformation.”
It is up to you to determine for yourself if you think you can believe the Federal Government, I for one stopped many years ago, but do not forget the Department of Justice is not denying the report that it is seeking broad emergency powers which include the indefinite detention of Americans during this and any following crises like say, oh I don’t know, a gun violence crisis when a Democrat takes over the Presidency in January.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Sunday, March 22nd open thread: ‘Soul Meets Body’
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
Here is this week’s open thread. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
You can subscribe to America’s Watchtower to receive email updates and you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right.
Here is Death Cab for Cutie performing “Soul Meets Body” live:
Department of Justice seeks new emergency powers
According to this story Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is seeking new emergency powers, among which would be the power to detain American citizens indefinitely. Here is more:
The Justice Department has quietly asked Congress for the ability to ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies — part of a push for new powers that comes as the coronavirus spreads through the United States.
Documents reviewed by POLITICO detail the department’s requests to lawmakers on a host of topics, including the statute of limitations, asylum and the way court hearings are conducted.
The move has tapped into a broader fear among civil liberties advocates and Donald Trump’s critics — that the president will use a moment of crisis to push for controversial policy changes.
In one of the documents, the department proposed that Congress grant the attorney general power to ask the chief judge of any district court to pause court proceedings “whenever the district court is fully or partially closed by virtue of any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation.”
The proposal would also grant those top judges broad authority to pause court proceedings during emergencies. It would apply to “any statutes or rules of procedure otherwise affecting pre-arrest, post-arrest, pre-trial, trial, and post-trial procedures in criminal and juvenile proceedings and all civil process and proceedings,” according to draft legislative language the department shared with Congress.
The request raised eyebrows because of its potential implications for habeas corpus –– the constitutional right to appear before a judge after arrest and seek release.
“Not only would it be a violation of that, but it says ‘affecting pre-arrest,’” said Norman L. Reimer, the executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “So that means you could be arrested and never brought before a judge until they decide that the emergency or the civil disobedience is over. I find it absolutely terrifying. Especially in a time of emergency, we should be very careful about granting new powers to the government.”
Of course the President has already declared a national emergency and there are rumors he is considering a national quarantine using the National Guard to patrol the streets of America so this would be in addition to that. If any or all of these rumors are true we are entering very dangerous and scary times as once-free Americans.
It is hard to imagine the Democratic controlled House of Representatives giving Donald Trump this power, although there is a chance because this will doom his chances of reelection and the Democratic President who follows him would love to have this power when he or she declares a National Emergency on gun violence…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
COVID-19, the Boston Marathon bombing, and Martial Law
With the American people in a frenzy and shrinking in the face of some “invisible menace” I thought now would be a great time to look back at a couple of excerpts from a post I wrote in 2013 after the Boston Marathon bombing.
We are now seeing whole States shut down (as of this writing there are four) and ordering the residents to stay in their houses, and it was after the Boston Marathon bombing that I remember hearing the term “shelter in place” for the first time. And it was also the first time that I saw Americans willingly neglecting the infamous words Ben Franklin said about liberty and security.
And the irony of it happening in what was once called the cradle of liberty was not lost on me…
Most of the original post is not relevant to today’s topic, but then again maybe it is, you can check it out here if for no other reason than to verify the date of my prediction. Here goes:
We need look no further than earlier this year in Boston. After the marathon bombing we saw defacto Martial Law declared and a militarized police force roaming the streets and forcibly (in some cases) violating the Constitutional rights of American citizens by illegally entering their homes without a warrant.
Boston was a test run and the government must be more than pleased with the results, after all, there was nary a negative word about the Constitutional violations during the manhunt even though it was an average American citizen who found the bomber and not the militarized police.
Boston allowed these violations to take place and now we are going to see more and more of this type police action in the future for our own good. Boston Strong?
Flash forward seven years and look at what is happening around you. Even if your state is not under lock down–yet–can you live your daily life normally and uninterrupted with the exception of going to and from work? Slowly but surely we are again seeing defacto Martial Law creeping across the nation and I see very few people standing up and questioning what is happening.
Personally what I find far more frightening than this virus is to learn how easy it is for the government to step in and halt daily life and take away its citizen’s means of earning a living, and I find it equally troubling how many Americans are just laying down and taking it without question.
And this is still mostly being done on the state level, what happens when the Federal government decides to step in and put us under a national lock down? There is already talk Donald Trump is considering it and it will include the National Guard on the streets of America patrolling to keep Americans in line.
These colors don’t run? Well, only because the government will not let us out to run…
As always, I end my post with the Latin phrase malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium and it seems more relevant to this post than any other.
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