Rudy Giuliani In Philadelphia: Cancel Culture Is Ruining The American Dream

 Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was in Philadelphia earlier this week for the launch of Italian Americans For Trump. He spoke to a group of supporters at a Trump campaign office in Northeast Philadelphia. 

He also wrote an op-ed that appeared today in The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

Our rights and liberties are under assault by the Democratic Party’s embrace of the radical left. Together, they are attacking our history, our society, and our shared values in the form of “cancel culture.” It is rapidly infecting the mainstream media, social media, and liberal elites in academia throughout America. 

Everyday patriotic Americans are branded by the radical left for their previous “insensitive” comments or statements, ostracized by their families and communities, fired by their employers, and shamed for alleged transgressions with no opportunity for explanation. If charged with such a violation you are seen as a pariah. For high-profile figures, this can mean that the public will stop supporting your work, as we’ve seen with people like Kevin D. Williamson, who was fired from the Atlantic in 2018 for his pro-life views after social media outrage from the radical left. It can happen to average citizens, too, if a “problematic” social media post from their past is discovered and publicized. 

In this toxic climate, Americans, especially young adults, are left wondering what their incentive is to dream, dare to be great, and fight for their American Dream. All around them, our children are seeing the heroes of our storied American history torn down, both literally and figuratively. Right here in Philadelphia, the city voted to remove the statue of Christopher Columbus in Marconi Plaza, which I visited on Monday. 

Why would today’s children endeavor for greatness or struggle to create positive change in the world, if posterity will simply demonize them for their flaws? Our history, while imperfect, is a story of hope, progress, and the creation of the most free and equal society in the history of the world. By erasing the figures that populate our textbooks and animate our collective national conscience, chaos and a lack of moral authority fill the void that is inevitably left. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/cancel-culture-trump-rudy-giuliani-20201014.html

Talking To Legendary Former FBI Profiler John Douglas, The Author Of 'MindHunter' And "The Killer's Shadow'

I had a long and most interesting telephone conversation this morning with John Douglas, the legendary former FBI profiler.

John Douglas is the author of The Killer's Shadow: The FBI's Hunt for a White Supremacist Serial Killer, and Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit. His career profiling and interviewing serial killers and other dangerous criminals is the basis for the outstanding Netflix series Mindhunter. 

John Douglas discussed his career, explained behavioral analysis and spoke of Joseph Paul Franklin (shown in the below photo), an expert sniper, avowed racist, serial murderer and the subject of his latest book, The Killer's Shadow.

  

My long-form Q&A with John Douglas will appear in the upcoming issue of Counterterrorism magazine. I'll post the Q&A here when the magazine comes out. 

American Contractor Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy To Steal Government Equipment From U.S. Military Base In Afghanistan

 The U.S. Justice Department released the below: 

An American military contractor pleaded guilty today to her role in a theft ring on a military installation in Kandahar, Afghanistan. 

Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Rabbit of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger of the Eastern District of Virginia, and Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F. Sopko made the announcement.

Varita V. Quincy, 35, of Snellville, Georgia pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Miller to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of making false official statements.  Sentencing is set for Feb. 23, 2021 before Judge Rebecca Beach Smith. 

Quincy admitted that, between April 2015 and July 2015, she, Larry J. Green of Chesapeake, Virginia, and others conspired to steal, and did steal, equipment and property of value to the United States while working for a government contractor operating on Kandahar Airfield, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.  Kandahar Airfield was used by U.S. military forces to support U.S. military missions throughout Afghanistan.  

Quincy was a supervisor in the office that issued security badges required for the movement of personnel and property on and off Kandahar Airfield.  Quincy admitted that as part of the conspiracy, Green identified items of value to steal, such as vehicles, generators, refrigerators, and other equipment. Green negotiated the sale of those items with persons outside of the installation.  Quincy then facilitated the thefts by creating false official documents, or instructing those she supervised to prepare such documents, to facilitate the entry of unknown and unvetted Afghan nationals and their vehicles on to the military installation to remove the stolen property. Quincy shared in the profits from this scheme.  The false documents she created, or directed others to create, were used to deceive security officers and gate guards and thereby compromised the security and safety of the military installation. 

Quincy’s co-conspirator Green pleaded guilty on July 8, 2020, to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and commit theft of property of value to the United States worth over $300,000, one count of theft of property of value to the United States; and one count of aiding and abetting the submission of false statements. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 19, 2020. 

SIGAR investigated the case with help from Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) and the 939th Military Police Detachment of the Indiana Army National Guard.  Trial Attorneys Sasha N. Rutizer of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, Rosaleen O’Gara of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Kosky of the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.

Babylon Bee: Democrats Hiss In Terror As ACB Pulls Out Crucifix

 The Babylon Bee takes a satirical shot at the Barrett confirmation hearings.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Amy Coney Barrett has eloquently defended herself through the Senate confirmation hearings this morning. But as Dems grew increasingly vicious, she was forced to turn to desperate measures.

After several hours of hearings, Barrett pulled out a large crucifix and held it aloft. A light shone from the heavens, and the Democrats knew they were defeated.

They shrunk back and began to hiss. "Noooo!" cried Senator Richard Blumenthal. "It burns us! Take it away!" He dove under his desk to hide from its light.

"Agggghhhh!!!" screamed Senator Cory Booker, his skin sizzling at the sight of Jesus on the cross. "I'll get you one day, Barrett!"

You can read the rest of the humor piece via the below link:

https://babylonbee.com/news/democrats-hiss-in-terror-as-acb-pulls-out-crucifix 

Happy Birthday To The U.S. Navy: 245 Years Of Protecting America

 Happy 245th birthday to the United States Navy.

Born in Philadelphia in 1775, the U.S. Navy has protected America throughout our history.

As the son of a WWII U.S. Navy chief and UDT frogman, and a former U.S. Navy enlisted sailor who served on an aircraft carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk, during the Vietnam War, I'm proud of our U.S. Navy history.

I'm also thankful for the diligence and sacrifice of our current U.S. Navy sailors who are "on watch" around the world.

Note: Above is a photo of me and below in the center of the photo of UDT 5 is my late father, Edward M. Davis.

Alternative Journalism, Indeed: A classic Philadelphia Leftist Newsweekly Shocks The City By Moving Rightward.

 Tom Nickels at the City Journal offers a piece on the Philadelphia Weekly changing course and becoming a conservative newspaper. 

Philadelphia Weekly, one of the city’s most venerable leftist “alternative” newsweeklies, has rocked the local journalism scene with its announcement that, starting next year, it will provide Philly readers with a different kind of alternative: it will change its editorial outlook from hard-liberal to conservative. The news that PW’s chairman and publisher, Dan McDonough, Jr., was doing a 180-degree reversal of its editorial direction struck most Philadelphians as a fantasy straight out of The Onion. I received several emails from fellow journalists, asking, “Is this real?”

 

… In recent years, PW’s cover stories and columns have pushed wokeness so aggressively that the paper sometimes resembled an Antifa broadside. Writers branded “conservative” found it hard to get published there.

 

Ironically, PW was no longer an alternative weekly in the sense of being different from any other newspaper in the city, because its views mirrored many of the left-wing arguments found in The Philadelphia Inquirer and elsewhere. PW just pushed harder.

 

“We have always been the alternative voice in Philadelphia,” says McDonough now, regarding his decision to rebrand the paper. “That audience has changed over the years, and, in 2020, conservatives and people who are angry and fed up with an inept city government don’t really have a voice here. To continue our mission, we had to change.” PW’s chief revenue officer, Ed Lynes, told Philadelphia Magazine that, in the city, it is “conservatives who no longer have a voice. If you oppose a socialist and intrusive government, your views are rejected by the city’s mainstream media.”

 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.city-journal.org/leftist-philadelphia-weekly-moves-right 

Trump Stands Up For Columbus

 Jennifer Harper, who writes the Inside the Beltway column at the Washington Times, offers her take on Columbus Day: 

Columbus Day has been around for a while. The first recorded celebration of Columbus Day in the U.S. took place on Oct. 12, 1792, and was organized by the New York City-based Society of St. Tammany — also known as the Columbian Order — to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Christopher Columbus‘ landing in the Americas. 

So says the Library of Congress, which notes that the first official Columbus Day holiday took place in 1892, set forth in a proclamation by President Benjamin Harrison, who called Columbus “a pioneer of progress and enlightenment.” 

In the next two decades, the Knights of Columbus, an international Roman Catholic fraternal society, lobbied state legislatures to declare Oct. 12 a legal holiday. Colorado was the first state to do so in 1907, followed by New York in 1909. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt designated Columbus Day a national holiday in 1934. In keeping with such traditions, President Trump has issued his own proclamation which praises both Columbus and Americans with Italian heritage. 

But Mr. Trump took his statement further. 

“For our beautiful Italian American communities — and Americans of every background — Columbus remains a legendary figure. Sadly, in recent years, radical activists have sought to undermine Christopher Columbus’s legacy. These extremists seek to replace discussion of his vast contributions with talk of failings, his discoveries with atrocities, and his achievements with transgressions. Rather than learn from our history, this radical ideology and its adherents seek to revise it, deprive it of any splendor, and mark it as inherently sinister,” Mr. Trump said.

“They seek to squash any dissent from their orthodoxy. We must not give in to these tactics or consent to such a bleak view of our history. We must teach future generations about our storied heritage, starting with the protection of monuments to our intrepid heroes like Columbus,” the president said. 

“On this Columbus Day, we embrace the same optimism that led Christopher Columbus to discover the New World. We inherit that optimism, along with the legacy of American heroes who blazed the trails, settled a continent, tamed the wilderness, and built the single-greatest nation the world has ever seen.”