News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.

In The News:

Man allegedly attacks 72-year-old disabled veteran over mask dispute — the vicious beating was caught on video

Police say that the veteran suffered a cornea abrasion and a broken jaw. He was also left unconscious by the attack.

Police identified the man as Cody P. Hansen, 35. They charged him with 2nd Degree Assault – Substantial bodily harm, and a felony warrant was issued for his arrest.

The police said that Hansen has a criminal history of nine arrests in Alaska. He also had a warrant from Alaska for Probation Violation/Dangerous Drugs.

Police are asking the public’s help in obtaining information about Hansen’s whereabouts, and Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound have offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

Group of teens brutally beat off-duty NYPD officer after he tells them he’s an officer: report

According to the outlet, the 33-year-old Ramos, who is reportedly assigned to the World Trade Center Command in Lower Manhattan, said the teens started off their attack by punching his backpack and trying to knock his baseball cap off of his head.

When Ramos told them he is a police officer, the group apparently decided to take the vicious attack to a new level.

The as-yet identified suspects then allegedly began punching the officer, and continuously kicked him until he fell to the ground.

While Ramos was down on the ground, the teens reportedly spit on him before running off.

Mississippi Meat Packing Managers Indicted in Illegal Worker Case

Two of the four individuals charged worked at A&B Inc. in Pelahatchie, Mississippi.

Salvador Delgado-Nieves, 57, and Iris Villalon, 44, were both indicted for harboring illegal aliens and making false statements to law enforcement officials, according to the DOJ.

Delgado-Nieves was additionally charged for assisting illegal aliens in falsely representing themselves to be U.S. citizens and assisting illegal aliens in obtaining false Social Security cards.

He faces up to 74 years in federal prison and $2.5 million in fines.

Villalon was also charged for causing false employer quarterly wage reports to be filed with fraudulent Social Security information.

She faces up to 20 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.

Day 70: Portland Woman Attacked as She Stands Up to Antifa Trying to Set Precinct on Fire

Portland Police reported that the woman stood in front of the East Precinct, apparently taking a stand against efforts to burn it.

They shrieked at the woman who protested, “This isn’t your world anymore!”

Several people responding to the video of the woman claimed she deserved it because she got in antifa’s way.

The black-bloc-clad mob later confronted a woman using a walker, who brought a fire extinguisher to put out a fire set by antifa thugs.

Antifa members ripped off notes and hearts on the East Precinct left by police supporters and set them on fire in an oil barrel next to the precinct.

Giants’ DeAndre Baker charged with four counts of armed robbery in Florida incident

Baker, 22, could face a minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison if he is convicted, the New York Daily News reported.

Quinton Dunbar, who was also arrested in the Miramar incident, was not charged due to “insufficient evidence,” according to Broward County prosecutors.

Baker and Dunbar were allegedly at a cookout on May 13 when a fight broke out and Baker purportedly pulled out a handgun, according to an arrest warrant.

Baker allegedly took part in the robbery of several valuable watches, including an $18,000 Rolex watch, a $25,000 Hublot and an Audemars Piguet, according to police.

NYC woman stabbed in midday attack in subway station, video shows

According to police, the 40-year-old was purchasing her subway fare at a ticket kiosk inside a station in Manhattan’s Upper West Side when the man approached her on Thursday before noon.

Video shows the man exiting through the turnstiles while holding what appears to be a sharp object in his right hand.

As he passes through, he turns right and lifts his right hand over his head.

Some Black Lives Matter activists in Salt Lake City face charges with potential life sentences over damage

The felony criminal mischief charges are more serious because they carry a gang enhancement.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that’s justified because the protesters worked together to cause thousands of dollars in damage, but watchdogs called the use of the 1990s-era law troubling, especially in the context of criminal justice reform and minority communities.

The Utah demonstrators are unlikely to serve prison time, said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. Though they’d get at least five years if convicted as charged, criminal cases often end with a plea to lesser counts.

Suspected rapist who was freed due to coronavirus kills his accuser in Virginia, police say

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Police in Virginia say that a rape suspect released from jail in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic went on to kill the woman who had accused him.

The Washington Post reports that Ibrahim E. Bouaichi was tracked down by authorities on Wednesday. But he shot himself and was in grave condition on Thursday.

Bouaichi was indicted last year on charges that included rape, strangulation and abduction. He was jailed without bond in Alexandria.

Destructive protests resume in Portland after federal agents withdraw from city

The destructive demonstrations and clashes outside the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse temporarily stopped after an agreement between Democratic Gov. Kate Brown and the Department of Homeland Security that called for agents to start leaving the city’s downtown on July 30.

However, they have resumed nightly in other parts of the city.

Portland police, local sheriff’s deputies and state police troopers are now on the frontlines in the clashes with demonstrators demanding an end to police funding,

In Chicago, federal agents hit the streets as homicides spike

This isn’t the first time federal agents have been sent to Chicago, which has long struggled with illegal gun trafficking and street gangs.

Administrations of both parties have attempted to tackle the city’s crime problem for decades by deploying federal resources with mixed results.

The significantly larger surge under the Trump administration, called Operation Legend, shows the challenge federal and local officials will face in attempting to curb violent crime.

Justice Department officials have said they will gauge their success based on the number of cases they bring and on whether violent crime rates fall.

But they acknowledge the impact of programs like Operation Legend is difficult to gauge in cities like Chicago, where various law-enforcement initiatives and community-driven programs have affected shifting crime rates for years.

Gun-toting protesters descend upon neighborhood of cop who fatally shot a black man — then one resident pulls out gun of his own

While there wasn’t any violence at the Monday protest, the fact that some demonstrators were carrying guns didn’t sit well with a few residents.

KRDO said there was at least one confrontation between the armed protesters and several drivers in pickup trucks who were blocked by the crowd.

KRDO noted that one of the drivers in question retrieved a rifle and stood guard in his driveway while he called police.

Smuggling Tunnel To Mexico ‘Most Sophisticated In US History,’ Complete With Rail System, Authorities Say

The tunnel also includes a “ventilation system,” “extensive reinforcement” and “water lines,” federal officials said, according to the AP. Homeland Security Investigations discovered the tunnel in July, the AP reported.

Pictures depict the tunnel as around three feet wide and four feet high, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol news release said, according to the AP.

Portland mayor condemns rioters for ‘attempting to commit murder’

“When you commit arson with an accelerant in an attempt to burn down a building that is occupied by people who you have intentionally trapped inside, you are not demonstrating, you are attempting to commit murder,” Wheeler said in a news conference with Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell.

A riot was declared Wednesday evening when agitators descended upon the Portland Police Bureau’s East Precinct building, spray-painted over security cameras, broke a glass door with a 2×4, lit a fire using an accelerant and threw fireworks and other objects at officers, according to FOX 12 in Portland.

Police said that a truck also attempted to run over officers.

Politics:

We should open up the schools — and the voting booths — says … Dr. Fauci

In an interview with the Post’s “Power Up,” Fauci, the media’s favorite COVID expert whose opinions they often juxtapose with Trump’s, said the “default principle” should be to do whatever possible to get students — elementary, middle, high school, and even some colleges — back in school.

He added, of course, that the health and safety of the kids should be paramount.

Though Fauci was careful not to criticize voting by mail, knowing whatever he said would be used as a soundbite, he did appear to back opening up voting booths for in-person voting, noting that it can be done with practices that would make it as safe as shopping for groceries.

GOP senators accuse Pelosi, Schiff, Schumer of ‘disinformation’

“The fact that the press knew more about the content … than we did indicates that you are more interested in grabbing headlines and scoring political points than actually addressing and confronting the issue of foreign interference in our elections,” the GOP letter said.

Democrats, in fact, have pushed disinformation for years, much of it surrounding their claims that the 2016 Trump campaign “colluded” with Russia.

The review of facts by FBI special counsel Robert Mueller found that was not so, but even still, Schiff claims to have evidence of that collusion.

“As more and more information finally sees the light of day, we are learning just how wrong you were,” in the Trump-Russia collusion scandal, the senators explained.

“And not just wrong, but knowingly wrong; you pushed this false narrative even though, behind closed doors, you repeatedly saw and heard evidence to the contrary,” the letter said.

Alabama GOP lawmaker in KKK controversy charged with theft

State Rep. Will Dismukes of Prattville turned himself in to authorities and was charged with first-degree property theft after more than $2,500 was siphoned from a flooring company he worked for between 2016 and 2018, prosecutors said.

Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey announced the charge at a press conference Thursday and said a warrant was issued for Dismukes’ arrest earlier in the day.

The allegations were brought by the owners of Weiss Commercial Flooring Inc., where Dismukes worked as a project manager before he was elected to the Alabama state legislature, WSFA-TV 12 reported. Weiss declined to comment to Fox News.

House Ethics Committee Finds Rashida Tlaib Violated Campaign Finance Rules

The House Ethics Committee ordered her to pay $10,800 she drew as a salary from campaign funds after she won in 2018, ending a yearlong investigation.

She was not penalized further because it didn’t find evidence of “ill intent on her behalf,” according to the panel in a report .

The Ethics Committee report comes just two days after Tlaib won her Democratic primary challenge, beating Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones.

After her win, Tlaib declared that the left-wing portion of the Democratic party is growing larger.

California law would distribute grants to clinics offering transgender hormones to children

AB-2218, a bill passed by the California State Assembly in June and currently being reviewed by the state Senate, would establish a state-controlled “Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund” for the purpose of “funding grants, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to transgender-led … organizations and hospitals, health care clinics, and other medical providers that provide gender-conforming health care services,” according to the text of the law.

The law as originally written had allocated $15,000,000 to the “equity fund”; at some point in its pass through the assembly, that provision was crossed out, ultimately leaving the total amount to be distributed at the discretion of the legislature itself.

Blackburn, Rubio Blast NBA for Covering Up Chinese Training Center Abuse

“Recent investigations suggest that your organization has been aware of Chinese state-sanctioned abuse of children in its Xinjiang basketball training camps, but did not take action,” a Thursday letter from Blackburn and Rubio to NBA commissioner Adam Silver states.

“The Chinese Government and Communist Party are committing some of the worst human rights violations of our time. … History will not judge kindly those who remained silent or were complicit in the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses.”

Academy coaches also said young players in the training center suffered routine physical abuse by the league’s Chinese partners. A former employee compared the Xinjiang academy to “World War II Germany,” and one American coach said he was surveilled by the Chinese government and detained three times without cause.

How Big Business Exodus Will Destroy Big Cities (Pt. 3) | Newt Gingrich | POLITICS | Rubin Report

Commentary/Opinion:
Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to Newt Gingrich (Former Speaker of the House) about the mishandling of the COVID 19 crisis by state governments, the distorted worldview of Black Lives Matter, and the exodus of people and businesses out of America’s major cities.

Newt discusses the civil unrest overtaking America’s major cities. He is critical of Democratic Mayors that have allowed looting and riots to spread in their cities.

He worries that the decline of our major cities will only accelerate as businesses and people decide that leaving California for low tax states is the only sensible solution. Already we are seeing more people and businesses leaving NYC.

Newt fears that if Mayors don’t get control of the situation, it is not unlikely that someone like Jeff Bezos could decide that leaving Seattle is in Amazon’s best interest, a decision that could quickly turn Seattle into Detroit.

Newt also shares how Ronald Reagan flipped from being a Democrat to a Republican.

Tucker: America was a very different country 7 months ago

Commentary/Opinion:
U.S. leaders taking cues from communist China.

Gaetz: Why Is the DOJ Not in Federal Court Seeking an Injunction Against Social Media Companies to Stop Them from Election Interference?

Gaetz questioned the lack of action by the Department of Justice, arguing that the measures taken by the tech giants amounted to election interference.

“Why is the Department of Justice not in a federal court today seeking an injunction against these companies to stop them from this election interference?”

I mean, if they can disappear the President of the United States’ speech, think what they can do to the rest of us who are just offering a thought or a perspective or a piece of information we want to share with our fellow Americans?

What Twitter and Facebook are doing today is truly a greater threat to our democracy than any Russian troll farm under a ghost indictment oceans away.”

Ingraham: Gunning for your rights

Commentary/Opinion:
New York attorney general goes after NRA.

World News:

Australia experiencing critical shortage of antidepressants, contraceptives and HRT

Most of the shortages appear unrelated to coronavirus disruptions, although in the case of the popular antidepressant Prozac, the manufacturer, Eli Lilly, cites “unexpected increase in demand” during the crisis.

Other manufacturers refuse to detail reasons for the supply problems.

Records and medical professionals suggest most of these shortages are about money and highlight difficulties of holding big pharmaceutical companies to account.

Dystopian Deeds: How China’s top-notch mass surveillance system threatens global freedoms

“The Chinese Communist Party is committed to the production and use of technology that controls and surveils its population,”

“The decision to use these tools of repression is politically motivated to sustain the Party.”

And what happens in China does not stay in China.

Surveillance — or simply spying — has become a booming business in the world’s most populated country with scores of tech start-ups moving in to meet the market demand with the government’s encouragement.

But human rights activists say that the enterprise has quickly become a critical apparatus for suppression and abuses, especially on minority groups.

Air India flight skids off runway, splits in 2 while landing in southern India; 16 dead, more than 120 hurt

The repatriation flight, carrying Indian citizens who’d been stranded abroad due to the coronavirus, was landing in Kozhikode, in southern India, from Dubai when the incident unfolded.

Rajiv Jain, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Ministry, said that despite the Boeing 737 aircraft breaking apart, there was no fire reported.

“There are 174 passengers, 10 infants, two pilots and five cabin crew onboard the aircraft. As per initial reports, rescue operations are on and passengers are being taken to hospital,” Jain said, according to reports by India TV News.

Israel bombs Gaza over terror; Turkey to confront Egypt-Greece accord – TV7 Israel News 07.08.20

1) Palestinian Islamists in the Gaza Strip unleashed several clusters of balloons attached to both incendiary and explosive devices causing blazes in southern Israel – consequently prompting a retaliatory bombardment against a Hamas subterranean installation.

2) A political crisis in Jerusalem over the state budget is seemingly threatening the Israeli unity government’s stability.

3) Egypt and Greece sign a maritime exclusive economic zone in the Eastern Mediterranean – drawing Turkish vows to contest the accord by all means at its disposal.

Hong Kong: Joshua Wong among 24 charged over Tiananmen vigil

Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong was among those charged with “taking part in an unauthorised assembly”.

Hong Kong has long been the only place on Chinese soil where a commemoration of the crackdown is allowed.

But it was banned this year, with authorities citing coronavirus fears.

It came weeks before a controversial national security law came into force, criminalising acts of anti-Beijing protest which could see Hong Kong residents sent to mainland China for trial.

Wesley Streete jailed for life for rape and murder of Keeley Bunker

Wesley Streete promised to take 20-year-old Keeley Bunker home safely after a night out, but raped and murdered her in a local park before trying to conceal her body with branches on 19 September last year.

He was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 29 years at Stafford crown court on Friday, after Mr Justice Jeremy Baker criticised the “carefully crafted” scheme of lies he tailored to fit the evidence.

Streete was also found guilty of a series of rapes and assaults dating back to 2015, when he raped and sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl.

He also sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl in 2017 and raped another 20-year-old woman in 2019, four months before he murdered Bunker.

Commentary/Opinion:

Here’s why the FULL George Floyd body cam video might prove Keith Ellison WANTS the cops to go free

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in June he didn’t want to release the body cam video showing the arrest of George Floyd because he didn’t want it to potentially help the defense’s case.

But now the Daily Mail released the footage and it’s becomes clear why Ellison doesn’t want YOU to see it…because, after watching it, it’s clear the prosecution is going to have a very hard time proving the cops — ASIDE from the one who kneeled on Floyd’s neck — did much wrong.

So, did Ellison overcharge the officers involved for a reason? Does he WANT them to go free, because he knows their release surely would lead to more riots and chaos in the streets right before an election?

How Cancel Culture Violates Intellectual Freedom

“An open society is a place that has a lot of intellectual pluralism,” says Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of the landmark 1993 book Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought.

“Canceling comes from the universe of propaganda…it’s about making an idea or a person socially radioactive.”

In this short video essay, Rauch explains why canceling is different from criticism.

The open society “is the most successful social principle ever invented” because it allows individuals to make errors as they seek out the truth.

How Do You Judge America? Left vs. Right #3

Is the United States an exceptional country that has played a uniquely good role in history?

Or is it a typical country, perhaps even a uniquely bad one considering the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow?

On this, the Left and Right do not agree.

But there are two other questions about slavery that must be asked in order to make a moral judgment about America: