Author: J.P. Knowles

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is facing calls to resign because Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House Democrats can’t take a joke.

During a dinner with members of Tennessee’s Republican congressional delegation, which included speakers Governor Bill Lee and Senators Marsh Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, McCarthy spoke about Republicans retaking the house in 2022. Later he was gifted an oversized gavel engraved with the words “Fire Pelosi.”

According to reports, McCarthy said, “It will be hard not to hit her with it but I will bang it down.”

Democrats descended on McCarthy crying foul over the reported joke and some demanded his immediate resignation.

Representative Eric Swalwell really milked the situation by tweeting, “America has suffered enough violence around politics. @GOPLeader McCarthy is now a would-be assailant of @SpeakerPelosi. He needs to resign.”

It didn’t end there. More thin-skinned Dems chimed in to shame McCarthy’s innocent comment.

“Dear @GOPLeader McCarthy,” tweeted Rep. Ted Lieu. “Don’t you think America has had enough political violence? You should never be encouraging or threatening or joking about causing violence to anyone, including the Speaker of the House. You need to apologize for your statement, or resign.”

“Who else thinks Kevin McCarthy must resign for ‘joking’ about assaulting Speaker Pelosi?” tweeted Democratic Coalition co-founder Scott Dworkin.

The reported statement comes after Pelosi referred to the minority leader as “such a moron” last week for his opposition of the renewed mask mandate in the House.

Heptathlete Yana Maksimava, a Belarusian athlete, vowed Tuesday with an announcement on Instagram that she will not return to the country amid crackdowns on government criticism and will remain in Germany with her husband, Andrey Krauchanka, who won a silver medal in the decathlon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and their daughter.

“I’m not planning to return home after all the events that happened in Belarus,” said Maksimava.

“You can lose not just your freedom, but also your life,” she added

Incredible courage on the part of Yana #Maksimava and Andrey #Krauchanka, given the Lukashenka regime's obvious willingness to use threats and violence against defectors. I hope Germany will do everything possible to protect their family from retribution. https://t.co/g4tAJlIZJU

— Mike Abramowitz (@abramowitz) August 4, 2021

Just on Monday Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya also refused to return to Belarus after the reported murder of an exiled Belarusian government critic. Belarus team officials attempted to force Tsimanouskaya on a plane back to Belarus on Monday after she publicly criticized the national team coaches. She was able to flee to the Polish embassy in Japan for help after refusing to board the flight.

“I was just afraid for my life, afraid to go to jail,” Tsimanouskaya told the WSJ on Tuesday. “I don’t think I can ever go back to Belarus.”

Belarus officials “made it clear upon return home, I would definitely face some form of punishment,” Tsimanouskaya told the Associated Press. “There were also thinly disguised hints that more would await me.”

Tsimanouskaya landed in Austria on Wednesday, and her husband has fled to Ukraine, the AP reported. The two plan to meet in Warsaw.

Vitaly Shishov, a Belarusian activist living in exile in Ukraine, was found hanging from a tree in a park on Tuesday. The 26-year-old led a group that helped Belrusians flee persecution.

The left may have taken things too far when Kate Coyne-McCoy, the chief strategist of the Rhode Island Democratic Party, posted a tweet that seemed to suggest she wanted Senator Lindsey Graham to die from his recently diagnosed COVID.

The Democrats proved earlier this week that they have zero sense of humor when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made a comment about hitting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with an oversized gavel and they responded by calling for his destination. One thing they need to remember is if you can’t stand the heat stay out of the kitchen.

https://twitter.com/MatthewFoldi/status/1422392849383968768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1422392849383968768%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fpolitics%2Fdem-strategists-tweet-about-lindsey-grahams-covid-diagnosis-panned

Even at a time when the political divide in the country seems like it could not get any deeper, posts hinting at the death of a political opponent seem to cross an imaginary line of civility. But individuals who tweet out these posts have often weighed the risks and have determined that they play to their base.

In March, Rhode Island Public Radio called the hiring of Coyne-McCoy, a registered lobbyist, a “clear signal” that the state’s Democratic Party was intent on moving to the left. The report said that while she is not the party’s executive director, she “will be the person responsible for leading the party’s political efforts.”

Last year, when former President Donald Trump was diagnoses with COVID-19, many Democrats expressed their concern and wished him well. However, some of his more critical colleagues saw the infection as a political weakness during the 2020 election and framed him as reckless.

New images from Donna, Texas, show just how things have become in the migrant detention center. Photos and videos reveal that conditions in which migrants are being held are unacceptable.

The holding pods are overflowing with bodies, some of them holding over 4,000 people. Thousands of children left abandoned have been transferred to HHS and hundreds more are coming in every day.

Since March, the facility has expanded and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has put greater emphasis on more quickly processing the migrant families and unaccompanied children who are kept in its facilities into the U.S. Numbers initially went down to the hundreds in April and May.

Unaccompanied children are quickly moved into Health and Human Services (HHS) custody, where more than 14,000 children and teenagers are currently in care, before they are released to parents or guardians already in the country.

On Thursday, more than 800 children were apprehended at the border, while 612 were released into HHS care. Overall, there was an 8% increase in UAC encounters between May and June, and a 25% increase of migrant family encounters.

Meanwhile, migrant families are being either expelled via Title 42 public health protections or processed into the U.S., often with just a notice to report to their local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office when they arrive at their destination.

The Biden administration continues to blame things like poverty, violence, and climate change as the root causes for the extreme surge. Last week the White House announced a plan to tackle each of those causes and directed funding toward measures to combat violence and crime in Northern Triangle countries.

One of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s assistants is now accusing him of groping her while they snapped a selfie together. The assistant has filed a criminal complaint against the already disgraced governor with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office.

The victim of this particular incident, who is being identified as “Executive Assistant #1,” in AG Letitia James’ sexual harassment report, met with sheriff’s officials to file the complaint who then immediately contacted James. Sheriff Craig Apple told media there’s a good chance the governor would be arrested if the allegations are true.

“The end result could either be it sounds substantiated and an arrest is made and it would be up to the DA to prosecute the arrest,” he said.

“Just because of who it is we are not going to rush it or delay it,” he added.

This most recent victim may have reported the most serious accusation against the governor yet, alleging he pulled her in for a hug but instead reached under her shirt and grabbed one of her breasts.

“I mean it was—he was like cupping my breast. He cupped my breast,” the woman told investigators on AG James’ team.

“I have to tell you it was—at the moment I was in such shock that I could just tell you that I just remember looking down seeing his hand, seeing the top of my bra and I remember it was like a little even the cup—the kind of bra that I had to the point I could tell you doesn’t really fit me properly, it was a little loose, I just remember seeing exactly that,” she added, according to the report.

The victim also alleged that Cuomo groped her again after asking her to take a couple of selfies while alone inside his office at the Executive Mansion on Dec. 31, 2019.

Capitol Police were ordered to arrest staff and visitors who refuse to follow the new mask mandate issued by the CDC last week on the House side of the Capitol complex, according to a leaked police memo issued by the new USCP Chief Thomas Manger.

Members of Congress were not subjected to this mandate after Police were “advised” to not arrest members for refusing to wear masks but instead be subjected to fines starting at $500 for skirting mask rules.

Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., got a copy of the memo distributed at Thursday’s morning roll call from an unnamed police officer, she told Fox News.

In today’s edition of Pelosi’s abuse of power, Capitol Police have been directed to arrest staff and visitors to comply with her mask mandate for vaccinated individuals.

For Members, they advise not arresting but “reporting Members to SAA for their failure to comply.”

1/2 pic.twitter.com/MtgGUndSIO

— Rep. Cammack Press Office (@RepKatCammack) July 29, 2021

“This is such an overstep of Speaker Pelosi’s authority to basically make our Capitol Police arrest staff members and report on members [of Congress],” Cammack told Fox News Thursday. “It’s absolutely unconscionable that this is where we’re at.”

“I cannot comply with this tyrannical order,” Cammack said. “This is the people’s house, not Nancy Pelosi’s house.”

To be clear: Pelosi is directing police to ARREST vaccinated people who aren’t wearing masks.

This isn’t about science—it’s about power and control. https://t.co/XMXxI0Dw2D

— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) July 29, 2021

“To be clear: Pelosi is directing police to ARREST vaccinated people who aren’t wearing masks,” Scalise tweeted. “This isn’t about science—it’s about power and control.”

The two-page guidance dated Wednesday was issued by the new police chief, Manger, who took over on Friday to lead the Capitol Police force, which is still reeling from the Jan. 6 riot and Good Friday attack at the Capitol.

The memo advises that officers must wear masks at all times while indoors. It says the police who work on the House side of the Capitol “shall enforce this mask policy on all staff and visitors” in “House Office Buildings, the Hall of the House, and House Committee meetings.”

If a visitor or staff member fails to wear a mask, they will not be allowed entry. “Any person who fails to either comply or to leave the premises after being asked to do so would be subject to an arrest for Unlawful Entry,” the memo says.

But police are advised not to arrest members of Congress directly, since the constitution says lawmakers are privileged from some arrests, such as unlawful entry, according to the USCP.

“Although this applies to the Members of Congress, officers should not arrest any Member for failure to wear a mask or to comply with the mask mandate,” the guidance states. “Any Member who fails to comply with a request to wear a mask should be reported to the House Sergeant at Arm’s office.”

Crime in big cities has spiraled out of control with gun violence, homicides, and robberies becoming an everyday occurrence. While these acts of crime are just part of the norm it’s still shocking to see something like this photo out of San Francisco depicting what looks like an action-packed scene from a movie.

The photo shows a woman hanging out of the passenger side window of a moving vehicle while holding what appears to be an AK47 ready to fire. 

“During an illegal exhibition of speed event at Barneveld & McKinnon, a passenger leaned out of a Cadi holding an AK47; see photo. SFPD Traffic Company personnel worked up a case, and seized this particular vehicle today,” the San Francisco Police Department wrote on Twitter, accompanied by photos.

The Cadillac was found by authorities and towed on Wednesday.

The photo was taken after police reported a rise in shootings and assaults in the city during the first half of 2021.

“We’re almost double where we were in the last two years, and that is a huge concern,” Police Chief Bill Scott told reporters during a mid-year report last month.

He added at the time that robberies were down in the city despite viral videos showing people brazenly shoplifting from stores in the city.

In one incident last month, 10 people were seen taking designer handbags from a Nieman Marcus in Union Square and leaving the scene in vehicles that were waiting for them outside.

According to the Council on Criminal Justice’s pandemic crime report, there were 119 shootings reported in San Franciso during the first 6 months of this year compared to just 58 at the same time last year, and murders in major cities across the country have increased by over 16% in the same time frame.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said congressional Democrats “stand ready” to work together with the presidential administration to “find ways” to extend the eviction moratorium that expired over the weekend.

In June, The Supreme Court allowed the CDC and Prevention to maintain its eviction moratorium through July 31st. It was also ruled that Congress would have to approve any further extension.

On Tuesday Pelosi said “the crisis of families being evicted and put on the streets is a challenge to the conscience of the country. She further stated that the Democrats stay committed to “immediately helping renters and landlords, saying it a “priority that unites our caucus.”

Pelosi stated, “House Democrats have galvanized a national movement around the eviction emergency,” further saying that she is “pleased to salute Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters for her leadership in proposing and fighting for the moratorium and the funding for tenants and landlords in our legislation from the start”

“I also salute Congresswoman Cori Bush for her powerful action to keep people in their homes” Pelosi added.

Bush, over the weekend, slept overnight on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to protest the House adjourning for August recess without passing an extension to extend the moratorium and as they urged states and localities to spend the 46.5 billion that Congress allocated.” She added: “Our sole focus must be keeping people housed and we must do so with the urgency this moment deserves.”

On Monday the White House put pressure on states that have been “too slow disbursing the billions of dollars in assistance to renters facing eviction, saying it lacked the legal authority to extend the federal moratorium on evictions that expired this past weekend.

Citing the Supreme Court’s decision in June, the White House said that President Biden would have “strongly supported” a decision to extend the moratorium.

According to press secretary Jen Psaki, the administration is asking individual states to put in place or extend evictions moratoria for at minimum two months further “challenging every landlord to hold off evictions for the next 30 days. In a White House press briefing Monday, Gene Sperling who oversees the President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, that Biden is “double, triple and quadruple” checking the administration’s authority to extend the eviction moratorium.

Violence has once more risen in Afghanistan from the 5,000 Taliban prisoners that the United States urged Afghanistan to release earlier this year that is now terrorizing the region once again.

The United States currently is seeking to end its two-decade-long war in the region against terrorism. For the past several months, Taliban forces have been able to seize the country once more and execute any of the Afghan military members who aided American troops in the region.

Terrorism made headlines earlier this Tuesday after a suicide attack targeted the residence of acting Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi. Gunmen exchanged fire after the explosion in the secure, upscale area of Kabul that is home to several other government officials.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that many Taliban insurgents were once prisoners of the American-backed Afghan government:

The Taliban commander overseeing an assault on the key southern city of Lashkargah is one of 5,000 former prisoners released by the Afghan government last year under pressure from the U.S., Afghan and Western officials say.

The commander, Mawlavi Talib, is one of the thousands of former prisoners freed to further peace talks who have returned to the battlefield to join the Taliban onslaught against cities around the country, Afghan officials say. The presence of the Taliban fighters is a fresh strain in relations between Washington and Kabul, as the U.S.-backed government struggles to fend off Taliban attacks throughout the country.

Under Mr. Talib’s command, hundreds of Taliban have pushed toward the city center over the past week. On Tuesday they launched an attack on Lashkargah’s prison in a bid to release more inmates and recruit them into the fight.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday to “reiterate the strong and enduring U.S. commitment to Afghanistan.” Both leaders “condemned the ongoing Taliban attacks, which show little regard for human life and human rights, and deplored the loss of innocent Afghan lives and displacement of the civilian population.”

Montez T. Lee Jr., a 26-year-old Minnesota man has admitted to setting a local pawn shop on fire while participating in the BLM riots that lasted throughout 2020 to protest the death of George Floyd and many others.

However, the young man denied any responsibility for the death of the 30-year-old man found inside the burned-down shop.

Last week, Lee admitted in U.S. District Court in St. Paul to one count of arson in connection with the fire that engulfed the Max It Pawn store on May 28, 2020, the Star Tribune reported Tuesday.

“Surveillance video footage showed Lee pouring an accelerant around the shop and lighting it. A second video captured Lee standing in front of the burning business and saying that they were going to burn it down,” the report added. Oscar Lee Stewart Jr.’s dead body was recovered about two months later inside the burned pawnshop.

“An autopsy conducted by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that Stewart died of smoke inhalation and excessive burns,” the Star Tribune report noted.

Bruce Rivers, Lee’s defense attorney, claims that Lee isn’t at fault for the death of Steward. Rivers claimed that he has “a competing medical examination” that denies any involvement of Lee’s action in Steward’s death.

Rivers also said his client “prior to lighting the fire looked through the building to make sure no one was there.”

“He feels terrible,” Rivers added.

Lee, thus far, has not been charged directly with Stewart’s death; instead, prosecution “is going to push for a harsher sentence because the arson resulted in a death,” said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Tasha Zerna.

“Prosecutors are contending that federal sentencing guidelines call for Lee to receive a prison term ranging from 17½ to 20 years,” the Star Tribune reported. “The defense calculates a term of five years.”

As noted by The Daily Wire, retired St. Louis police captain David Dorn was killed while defending his friend’s pawnshop from rioters:

In a video that has since been removed, Dorn, 77, can be seen defending the business during his last moments of life. Dorn was killed by looters and rioters who broke into Lee’s Pawn & Jewelry; his body was found on the sidewalk outside around 2:30 a.m. [June 2, 2020]. …

Dorn’s wife, St. Louis police Sgt. Ann Marie Dorn told the St. Louis Dispatch that her husband was friends with the owner of the pawnshop and regularly came to the owner’s aid whenever alarms went off.

“Our highest respect to the family of David Dorn, a Great Police Captain from St. Louis, who was viciously shot and killed by despicable looters last night,” then-President Donald Trump honored Dorn at the time. “We honor our police officers, perhaps more than ever before. Thank you!”