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As a registered voter (Republican for 35 years and current Libertarian) and political observer for more than 40 years, there has been one political constant. Liberals (progressives, if you prefer) are never, ever satisfied with a political victory.

They never enjoy a political victory. Instead, they immediately seek out another cause du jour. It's always "one more" with the liberals. Oh, and there's this. Liberals are always upset that somewhere in these great United States of America, someone is enjoying life. That is simply unacceptable for the progressive mindset. Rally the troops for another protest and vandalism orgy.

This week, a suburban Cincinnati school district caved to the whining minority of spoiled children and voted to change the Anderson High School mascot, the "Redskins," during a special meeting on July 2.

According to a report in The Cincinnati Enquirer, board member Patty Taylor had the common sense that God gave a goose and voted against the motion.

Taylor said she would like to postpone the vote, stating she was against the "method" of changing the mascot without public discussion outside of emails.

"If I disagree, I'm not a racist, and I refuse to accept that," Taylor said. "Everyone has a right not to be offended. But if I do not agree with your narrative, then I'm the problem?"

No, Taylor is not the problem. The problem is the new national narrative of making everything and anything protest material by the largely uninformed and willfully uneducated.

Once Anderson High School and other schools acquiesce to the mini-mobsters on one issue, they must be prepared to acquiesce on more issues.

If the mini-mobsters find "Redskins" offensive, they also must find "Indians" offensive. "Cowboys" must be offensive, too. In Ross County, a school nickname is (or was) the Sherman Tanks, referencing William Tecumseh Sherman. Uh-oh.

Then, there are those insensitive Highland County public school animal nicknames like Lions, Tigers, Wildcats and Mustangs.

What if some precious child does not want to identify with a lion, a tiger, a wildcat or a mustang? What then? How about naming all schools donkeys? The left seems to embrace that braying beast of burden known also by a three-letter moniker.

Then, of course, we have those insensitive color nicknames.

The Cincinnati Reds (commies?) comes to mind. The St. Louis Blues (cool musicians?) also comes to mind. What about the Red Sox and White Sox in Major League Baseball? Aren't these potentially racist, pitting white against red? If people are offended by Redskins, wouldn't they be similarly offended by Red Sox?

Giving in to the mini-mobsters has to stop. Soon.

Today I was asked by a public official how long it would be until the Highland County Courthouse statue along High Street was vandalized. I did not have an adequate answer. But I do know this: There were acts of local vandalism during previously scheduled protests in Hillsboro.

When public officials insist that everything is peaceful, that's not always the case. If we, as law-abiding citizens, decide that local law enforcement is no longer necessary, we must live with the consequences. We need to let local law enforcement know they are appreciated. Think, for just a moment, where you might be without them.

And if we allow a rewriting of American history, we'll have to live with that as well.

As we celebrate Independence Day, please remember that those brave and noble 56 signers of our Declaration of Independence gave us a great republic if we can keep it.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press.

Read more:
The new national narrative of making everything and anything protest material - The Highland County Press

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MOSCOW (Reuters) Twenty-year-old Russians Yekaterina Mikhailova and Iya Barsegyan have only ever known life under President Vladimir Putin who rose to power in 1999, before they were even born.

The pair may be of the same generation, but politically they are worlds apart, a contrast that shows how the divisions created by Putins politics could last for years.

This week, Russians are taking part in a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms that would clear the way for Putin to remain in the Kremlin until 2036.

Mikhailova wants Putin out, and is fiercely opposed to the idea of letting him serve two more terms in the Kremlin, instead of stepping down in 2024, accusing him of persecuting his political opponents, stymying Russias development and ushering in an era of political stagnation.

The best thing for our country now would be a change of power, said Mikhailova, a member of Russias Libertarian Party, a small organisation with no representation in the national parliament. She plans to vote no at the seven-day vote ending on July 1.

I dont want him to stay there until the end of my life.

Barsegyan, on the other hand, sees no harm in voting in Putins favour on this point, one among the dozens of reforms being put to a simple yes or no vote ending on July 1.

The majority of the amendments are important and they should be of benefit to the whole country, Barsegyan told Reuters at a square in central Moscow.

She points to a proposed minimum wage guarantee and a constitutional pledge to defend the legacy of the Soviet World War Two effort against what some Russians believe are attempts by the West to skew history in its favour.

And while Barsegyan was skeptical of some of the more socially conservative reform proposals, such as changing the constitution to define wedlock as a union between a man and a woman only, she also said had no problem with changing the law to allow Putin to reset his count of terms served to zero.

I see nothing bad in this. I doubt the current president will run for another term, she said.

Putins approval rating is at its lowest since 1999 when he was prime minister, the Levada pollster says, but at 59% it is still high, and reforms are likely to pass with ease.

Russian state opinion pollster said on Monday that its exit polls showed that 76% of Russians had so far voted to support reforms.

The Kremlins critics say the vote is rigged and describe it as a constitutional coup. Some young voters, like Alexander Kostyuk, 18, have decided to stage a boycott.

I abide by the law and Im not ready to participate in events that arent outlined by current legislation.

(Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

See the original post:
Generation Putin comes of age as Russians vote on extending his rule - Metro US

KINGSTON, N.Y. Primaries for several party lines in the Saugerties town justice race had yet to be decided Thursday as the Ulster County Board of Elections also was busy counting mail-in ballots in the contest for 11 county Democratic Committee seats from Saugerties.

There also was no declared winner yet in the Republican primary in New York's 19th Congressional District.

The counting is to resume Monday, July 6.

In the Saugerties justice primaries, incumbent Claudia Andreassen and challenger Stan ODell are vying to secure theDemocratic, Working Families, Independence, Libertarian and Green lines for the November election.

Primary Day was Tuesday, June 23, but mail-in voting also was allowed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mail-in ballots that were postmarked no later than June 23 and received by the Board of Elections no later than June 30 were to be included in the final tally.

Votes that were cast in person on Primary Day and during the early voting period gave Andreassen the lead for the Democratic and Green lines, and O'Dell the lead for the Working Families, Libertarian and Independence lines.

There so far is no Republican candidate for the judgeship. The party has until July 22 to hold a nominating caucus.

In the Republican primary in the 19th Congressional District, Kyle Van DeWater of Millbrook carried Ulster County with 1,856 votes to 1,406 for Ola Hawatmeh of Pleasant Valley.

But with some or all of 11 counties included in the district, a final result is not expected until sometime next week, a spokesperson for the state Board of Elections said Thursday.

The winner of the GOP primary will run against Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, in November.

Originally posted here:
No winners yet in congressional GOP or Saugerties judgeship primaries - The Daily Freeman

Late last month, Steven Carrillo pulled up in an unmarked van outside a federal courthouse in Oakland as protests against police violence raged in the city and opened fire on two security officers posted outside, leaving one of the men dead, according to federal prosecutors. A week later, prosecutors allege, Carrillo ambushed police who came to search his home, killing one and critically wounding another.

Carrillo appears to have been part of the Boogaloo movement, an extremist, right-leaning and libertarian, anti-government militia with online roots that is increasingly organizing attacks in the real world. As he ran from police, Carrillo used his own blood to scrawl Boogaloo slogans on a car he had stolenI became unreasonable, Boog, and Stop the duopoly. Carrillo was later found to be in possession of a Boogaloo patch circulated by one of the Boogaloo movements rapidly growing Facebook groups, the Thicc Boog Line, which was identified in a February Network Contagion Research Institute report.

The Boogaloo movement represents a new breed of self-organizing online militias that are using memes to incite violent insurrection and terror against the government and law enforcement. Their name is something of a joke: a reference to the 1984 movie Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo. In internet culture, the word boogaloo has become a catch-all for bad sequels, and the Boogaloo movement has adopted it as their own in a reference to what they see as the coming sequel to the American Civil War. The meme is frequently used by a number of extremist libertarians, gun enthusiasts, anarchists, and white nationalists, and the movements adherents are now showing up at real-world protests carrying weapons and dressed in colorful Hawaiian shirts.

In their willingness to carry out attacks against law enforcement personnel to incite what they consider an imminent civil war, the Boogaloo movement poses a serious threat to police. The movement has its origins online, and its adherents have skillfully used memes to incite violent insurrection and terror against the government and law enforcement.Especially widespread on Facebook and Instagram, Boogaloo enthusiasts share instructions for explosives and 3-D printed firearms, distribute illegal firearms modifications, lead users into encrypted messaging systems, distribute violent propaganda, and target their recruitment efforts towards active and former military personnel.The movement is a case study in how we still do not entirely understand how radicalization occurs in the digital domain.

Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches on hundreds of millions of comments across multiple web communities, a recent NCRI report analyzes the boogaloo meme, to chart how it has metastasized across both mainstream and subcultural online platforms. While the boogaloo initially emerged in response to concerns around the second amendment, NCRIs most recent report shows how the militia rapidly shifted its focus to state and federal restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a captive, stuck-at-home audience grew increasingly isolated and unemployed during this period, the Boogaloo movements popularity sharply grew across both fringe web communities, such as 4chan, and more mainstream ones. Increasingly, Boogaloo enthusiasts began appearing at real-world anti-lockdown protests carrying guns.

The Boogaloo movement has evolved an increasingly coherent shared narrative, complete with martyr mythology and a growing underlying network sharing violent memes and inside jokes that respond to real-world events, such as violent attacks against the police or armed rallies. Like an American version of the Islamic State, their mythology attempts to recapture a glorious revolutionary American past in a mythological confrontation. Its adherents have been accused of using IED and pipe bombs to target police, plotting bombings to spark an anti-government uprising in Las Vegas, live-streaming an attempt to ambush and execute a police officer, most recently, the attacks against law enforcement in Oakland and Santa Cruz. The Boogaloo movement seeks to co-opt grievances across the political and racial spectrum and funnel them into an anti-government mob with tactical and technological capacities that look a lot like an American version of the Islamic State or al Qaeda.

This last point especially bears careful consideration: The hope of these militants is to incite violence sufficient for society to betray the American civic tradition by forcing immense violence to protect it.

The Boogaloo movement has important lessons for U.S. authorities. Law enforcement and policymakers should consider that terrorism inspired by social media has evolved from lone-wolf threat actors to a meme-based insurgency that can coalesce in a short time period. Efforts to combat movements such as the Boogaloo should include projects to develop the capacity to share information centrally and the resources to develop real-time analytic tools to provide a window into threat actors in the cyber domain.

Additionally, by understanding the way the Boogaloo movement operates online, through memes and in-jokes, a strategy to counter their messaging online might be conceived. Use of Boogaloo memes is a possible indicator of radicalization, and it is the individuals who post them who need to be convinced that they have something to gain by participating in civil society instead of destroying it.

Alex Goldenberg is the lead intelligence analyst at the Network Contagion Research Institute.Joel Finkelstein is a visiting scholar at the James Madison Program at Princeton University.John Farmer Jr.is director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. He is a former assistant U.S. attorney, counsel to the governor of New Jersey, New Jersey attorney general, senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, dean of Rutgers Law School, and executive vice president and general counsel of Rutgers University.

See the article here:
How the Boogaloo movement is turning memes into violent action - Brookings Institution

Today is Election Day for Republican and Democrat primary races around the state.

Voters have until 7 p.m. tonight to drop off ballots.

A number of statewide, regional and county-level primaries will determine candidates for the Novembers general election.

The Mesa County commissioner race for the District 1 seat between state Sen. Ray Scott and Grand Valley businessman Cody Davis will determine the Republican candidate in the November election. Todays winner will face Democrat Kathryn Bedell in the November general election.

The District 1 seat is currently held by Commissioner John Justman, who is term-limited.

In District 3, the seat currently held by Commissioner Rose Pugliese who also is term-limited, former Republican county commissioner Janet Rowland is the only candidate named on the ballot, but Palisade businessman JJ Fletcher is registered as a write-in option.

The winner of that race will face Democrat Dave Edwards of Palisade.

The 3rd Congressional District has both Republican and Democrat primary races. On the Republican side, its between U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton and Rifle restaurant owner Lauren Boebert, while Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush of Steamboat Springs is running against Montroses James Iacino.

Mitsch Bush is looking for her second straight nomination.

She lost to Tipton in the 2018 general election.

The highest-level primary race in the state is for the U.S. Senate where, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is hoping to win the Democratic Party nomination against former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff.

The winner will face Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner in November.

The U.S. Senate race will also have a primary in the Libertarian Party with Routt County resident Gaylon Kent against Raymon Anthony Doane.

Kent was the Libertarian Party candidate in the 3rd CD in the 2016 and 2018 general elections, and Doane ran as a Republican in a failed bid for the Colorado Senate in 2016 and for Congress against U.S. Rep. Diane DeGette in 2018.

According to the Mesa County website elections page, the following ballot box locations are available:

Mesa County Central Services, 200 S Spruce St; Grand Valley Transit (West), 612 24 1/2 Road; Mesa County Human Services, 510 29 1/2 Road; Colorado Mesa University, 1100 North Avenue; Peach Tree Shopping Center, 3225 I-70 Business Loop, Unit A2, Clifton; Fruita Civic Center. 325 E Aspen Ave, Fruita.

Go here to read the rest:
Today is election day | Western Colorado - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel