So, How's That Summer of Love Going out in Seattle?

Summer Taylor

Not so well: Another in Stacy McCain's continuing series of Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes

Death by “social justice” on the Fourth of July:

A woman hit by a car while she and others were blocking a highway in Seattle died, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Harborview Medical Center told news outlets that Summer Taylor, a 24-year-old local, died late Saturday. The Washington State Patrol confirmed the death.
Taylor was one of two women hit by a man driving a white Jaguar around 1:36 a.m. on July 4.
Police had closed down a portion of the highway, I-5, just before midnight on Friday. Seattle police said in a report that the driver, 27-year-old Dawit Kelete, entered on an exit ramp before turning onto the highway to go in the correct direction.
The driver was approaching vehicles that were parked across the highway by protesters to block it when he “made a sharp left turn entering the right lane and struck two pedestrians,” police wrote.
Video footage showed the impact flinging the two women into the air. Photographs of the Jaguar showed damage consistent with a crash, Washington State Patrol Capt. Ron Mead told reporters at a press conference near the scene of the incident.

Diaz Love

The other protester hit was identified as Diaz Love, 32. She remains hospitalized in serious condition. Love was filming the protest in a video broadcast on Facebook Live that showed a group of a few dozen milling about on the highway. Just before the video ended, people began shouting “car.” The impact of the car striking the women can be heard as the broadcast ends.
Both she and and Taylor suffered broken bones and lacerations from the impact, according to the police report.
Kelete was taken into custody after passing sobriety tests. He was described as reserved and sullen. At one point, he asked if the two people that were hit were okay.
Kelete was booked on vehicular assault charges, according to jail records. Bail was denied. It wasn’t clear if the man had an attorney.
Protesters blocked I-5 for 18 straight days leading up to July 4, law enforcement officials said. Mead told the reporters that blocking the highway is illegal and a criminal act.
“We’ve said since May 30th, the freeway is not a safe place for pedestrians to be. Whether they’re protesters, whether they’re homeless, whether they’re broken down motorists, the freeway is simply not a safe place for pedestrians,” he said.
The state patrol said later Saturday that officers would arrest any protesters who tried to enter I-5.
According to Love’s social media accounts, she participated in other protests blocking the freeway in recent days. The Black Lives Matter supporter was recently at the so-called autonomous zone that protesters created in Seattle.

The video is just horrific.

My mother taught me not to play on freeways.

The dead woman was a militant #BlackLivesMatter supporter and also identified as “non-binary.” The driver of the car was a black man, apparently an immigrant from Ethiopia.

So . . . white women blocking a freeway to protest on behalf of #BlackLivesMatter were hit by a black man driving a white Jaguar.

Didn't he know they were protesting for him. Not exactly a Buggaloo Boy. Narrative fail. Vicky Taft. PJ Media, Cops Re-Thinking Protest Rules After Car Driven by Black Man Kills White Seattle BLM Freeway Blocker

OK, so idiots block the freeway.

Agreed, they’re idiots.

Yeah, but they were Black Lives Matter idiots blocking the freeway, so it must be OK.

Right.

But, a white chick was involved in the Black Lives Matter idiots blocking the freeway.

Sure, OK.

A man drove a car hitting a white woman in the Black Lives Matter protest.

Are you sure it was a white chick?

Yes, dude sent her to the hospital and she died.

What? Kill him!

But the white chick was killed.

And she was apparently killed by a black man, Dawit Kelete.

Wait, the driver was black?

Yeah, the driver was black who killed the white chick.

Free Dawit Kelete!

Wait, why did the cops let anyone go on the freeway?

Because they were Black Lives Matter.

Defund the police!

Barely Any Russiagate

Not lot. From Carrie Sheffield at JTN, In new poll most don't know Obama, Biden had role in overseeing FBI probe of Trump campaign. Most people don't pay a lot of attention to the details in the news, and with the majority of the MSM blockading any news unfavorable to the Democrats, it's hard to get it out.

Most voters don't know evidence shows that Barack Obama and Joe Biden when in the White House were involved in managing the FBI investigation of the Trump 2016 campaign, according to a new Just the News Daily Poll with Scott Rasmussen.

As Just the News reported last month, the belated discovery of disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok’s January 2017 notes suggests then-Vice President Biden raised the issue of using the Logan Act — an obscure, centuries-old law — as a possible avenue for continuing to investigate Michael Flynn.

Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, was a campaign surrogate, then became President Trump's national security adviser. Flynn agreed to plead guilty in the FBI's probe into whether the campaign colluded with Russia. But evidence showing the mishandling of the probe recently led the Justice Department to move to drop the case.

Biden once claimed he had no knowledge of the Flynn probe.

And Strzok appears to quote Obama as suggesting the FBI assign “the right people” to pursue the case, according to recently released Strzok notes.

The new Rasmussen poll shows a plurality of U.S. voters (38%) don’t know whether the statement is true or false and the rest are evenly divided.

"Poll numbers show that the latest information on the investigations has not penetrated the public discussion," said Rasmussen, a veteran pollster. "Naturally, there is a partisan tone to the results. Sixty-three percent (63%) of Republicans believe it’s true while 56% of Democrats don’t."

Sundance at CTH has an Important Bill Barr Interview Segment With Maria Bartiromo: “This is the closest we have ever come to an organized effort to push a president out of office”…. There maybe something new in it, but most of it felt old to me:

This morning Maria Bartiromo released a previous segment of her interview with AG Bill Barr that was not originally broadcast. It is a very insightful segment. AG Barr begins by acknowledging a very key and foundational point: President Donald Trump was indeed targeted by various entities in a concerted effort to remove him from office. Do not let the importance of just that statement alone sit without its appropriate weight.

Second, another key aspect from the attorney general perspective is highlighted at 03:30 to 03:53 where he notes the role and responsibility of media. The importance of a distinction Barr makes is subtle for most, but for CTH it’s important because of THIS.

Your Monday Morning Motivator

Beach Report 7/5/20

An almost brutally hot day at the beach, with both temperatures and humidity in the upper 80s or lower 90s, lots of sun, and no breeze to speak of. And despite last night's demonstration, the beach was clean. Damn Tea Partiers!

 Well, except for this left over.

Not really good weather for huskies, Skye insisted on a rest in the little streams coming out onto the beach, all three of them, both coming and going.

Here's where one of them comes down out of the woods above Matoaka. The only two arrowheads we've ever found at the beach came from near this stream. Makes you wonder.

 Looking north from there. A long empty beach.

Both Long Beach and Calvert Beach were all but deserted. Hangovers? But Matoaka had a decent crowd for "Hispanic Sunday", as someone who works there calls it. Apparently, Sunday is the only day many of them take off (although Spanish can be heard there on weekdays too). It's become very popular with the Hispanic community, through word of mouth I'd guess, and it's about the only beach open to people from out of the county.

Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

Da Sun, Christopher Columbus statue near Little Italy brought down, tossed into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Police stood by.

A crowd of shouting protesters yanked down the Christopher Columbus statue near Little Italy, dragged it to the edge of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and rolled it with a splash into the water as fireworks went off around the city on the night of the Fourth of July.

Dedicated in 1984, the statue is the latest monument in the U.S. to fall this year during the national reckoning over racism and police violence that also has toppled statues of Confederate figures and enslavers around the country.
. . .
The torn-down Columbus statue is part of a “re-examination taking place nationally and globally around some of these monuments and statues that may represent different things to different people,” said Lester Davis, a spokesman for Democratic Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, on Saturday night.

“We understand the dynamics that are playing out in Baltimore are part of a national narrative,” Davis said. “We understand the frustrations. What the city wants to do is serve as a national model, particularly with how we’ve done with protesting. We’ve seen people who have taken to the streets, we have supported them. We are going to continue to support it. That’s a full stop.”

So the Democratic Mayor of Baltimore supports the destruction of city property? Good know. If I lived in Baltimore I'd be reluctant to help pay for any more.

The Columbus statue was dragged down as people marched across the city Saturday demanding reallocation of funds from the police department to social services, a reassessment of the public education system, reparations for Black people, housing for the homeless, and the removal of all statues “honoring white supremacists, owners of enslaved people, perpetrators of genocide, and colonizers,” according to a flyer.
. . .
Davis said he did not know whether police officers were ordered to allow the statue to be torn down. But he made clear that protecting statues was not a priority of the city police department in the face of homicides and other violent crime.

“Our officers in Baltimore City, who are some of the finest in country, they are principally concerned with the preservation of life,” the mayor’s spokesman said. “That is sacrosanct. Everything else falls secondary to that, including statues.”

City Council President Brandon Scott issued a statement Saturday night saying he suggested former Mayor Catherine Pugh remove the Columbus statue in 2017 when she ordered the removal of several Confederate monuments in the city following a violent conflict in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“I support Baltimore’s Italian-American community and Baltimore’s indigenous community. I cannot, however, support Columbus,” Scott said.

Huh?

Police maintained distance for much of the protest, which included a march through Fells Point and Harbor East as restaurant patrons dined outdoors on a busy Saturday night. The group stopped briefly outside restaurant Ouzo Bay, which has been come under criticism following a June incident in which Black mother Marcia Grant and her 9-year-old son, Dallas, were denied service at the restaurant. Protesters cheered and applauded patrons who walked out of the eatery in response to their presence.

Weaving among modern apartment buildings and upscale grocery stores, chanting “Black people used to live here,” the group made its way back to the vacant pedestal where the Columbus statue had stood just an hour earlier and applauded their work to take it down.

“This is the only way we can stop hatred,” an organizer bellowed across the crowd.

Huh?

Carved in Italian Carrara marble, the toppled statue was owned by the city and dedicated on Oct. 8, 1984 by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan.

The Dregs of Russiagate

A little popped up yesterday; nothing really exciting, but, at least it keeps it going:

Chuck Ross at Da Caller finds Grassley Presses Pentagon Think Tank Over Relationship With ‘Spygate’ Professor

Sen. Chuck Grassley pressed the Pentagon’s internal think tank, the Office of Net Assessment (ONA), on Thursday for details about its relationship with Stefan Halper, the former professor who served as a confidential source for the FBI during its probe of the Trump campaign. “When I began to review Stefan Halper’s contracting work for ONA, something didn’t look right,” Grassley, the president pro tempore, said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Grassley began asking ONA in 2019 to explain its relationship with Halper, a former University of Cambridge professor who worked alongside the former head of MI6 at the storied British college. Grassley’s inquiry spurred the Defense Department’s inspector general to audit Halper’s work for ONA, which produces reports about long-term military strategy in hotspots across the globe.

Records uncovered by The Daily Caller News Foundation in March 2018 showed that ONA paid Halper more than $1 million from 2012 through 2017, a period which spanned Halper’s undercover work for the FBI. During the 2016 campaign, an FBI confidential human source identified as Halper met with and secretly recorded Trump campaign aides Carter Page, George Papadopoulos and Sam Clovis.

Halper contacted Papadopoulos in September 2016 with an offer to fly the Trump aide to London and to pay him $3,000 to write a report on energy issues in the Middle East. Papadopoulos and some supporters of President Trump have questioned whether ONA’s payments to Halper were used as cover for his work for the FBI. No evidence has been produced to confirm that theory, but the Trump supporters have noted the similarities between Halper’s offer to Papadopoulos and other research projects Halper did for ONA.

So, basically, the DOD paid Halper to help set up Trump associates, including Gen. Flynn, Carter Page and George Papadopoulos so the FBI could investigate them on behalf of the Clinton campaign. Got it.

From Rusty Weiss And Jeff Dunetz at Da Lid, Chicken munching House Democrat Submits Resolution to Impeach Attorney General Bill Barr. They have the votes. So they will. Dan Chaitin at WaEx, 'They're afraid': Jim Jordan says Democrats want to impeach Barr because John Durham will find 'spying' We've already found the spying, now we need Durham to try somebody for it

Democrats may be trying to hinder U.S. Attorney John Durham's inquiry into the Russia investigation, according to a top House Republican.

Rep. Jim Jordan, the ranking member on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, said that a resolution signed by Rep. Eric Swalwell and dozens of other Democrats seeking an investigation into whether Attorney General William Barr should be impeached is a byproduct of their fear of what Durham may find.

"The thing that scares [Swalwell] about Bill Barr is this investigation he has tasked John Durham to complete," Jordan told Fox News this week. "And Mr. Barr said it is going to be done sometime this summer."

The Ohio Republican said that Democrats first got spooked when Barr testified to Congress in April 2019 and said he believes "" on President Trump's 2016 campaign.

"They're afraid of what that might show, mainly the spying that took place. And that's what set these folks off," Jordan said. "When Bill Barr first testified, Martha, after he was confirmed, he used the word 'spying,' and the Democrats went crazy. But he used that word because that's exactly what they did."

You know your over the target when your catching flak as Politico whines ‘Like yelling squirrel': White House goes after media over Russia bounty story

Yahoo! Epstein accusers praise prosecutor who stepped in after Trump sacked predecessor Berman and the rest of SDNY didn't seem to willing to spend the time trying to get to the bottom of the Epstein/Clinton matter when they could chase Trump instead.

Geoffrey Berman, the outgoing US attorney for the Southern District of New York, had presided over a long inquiry which had seen him make a series of high profile public statements about the Duke of York, including that the duke was offering "zero co-operation".

On June 20, Mr Trump ejected Mr Berman and Ms Strauss, 72, his deputy, took over his cases.

Her decision to move quickly in the Jeffrey Epstein case drew plaudits from women who have accused the late financier, and questions over why the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell had not happened sooner.

Maria Farmer, who made the first criminal complaint against Epstein in 1996, wrote on Twitter: "Strauss is doing what Berman wouldn't, his job!" When asked about the timing of the arrest, Ms Strauss said: "That was when we were able and prepared to move to arrest her."

And while Roger Stone is getting ready to get tossed in jail for lying to Congress, Russiagate alum Michael Cohen is enjoying his respite thanks to the WuFlu, Chuck Ross, Michael Cohen, Who Was Released To House Arrest Over COVID Fears, Is Spotted Dining At NYC Restaurant and NYPo, Michael Cohen caught at NYC restaurant — and it could land him back in prison 

Michael Cohen could soon be back to chowing down in a prison cafeteria.
The recently sprung jailbird was caught by The Post dining out on Manhattan’s Upper East Side — and the meal may cost him his freedom, legal experts said Friday.

Exclusive photos show President Trump’s former personal lawyer seated at a sidewalk table outside Le Bilboquet, a French restaurant around the corner from his Park Avenue apartment, on Thursday night.

Cohen, his wife, Laura, and another couple spent about an hour chatting before they became the last patrons to leave around 11:30 p.m.

At the time, staffers were preparing to close the eatery, where the “signature” dish of Cajun chicken costs $36 and a “New York Prime” steak is $55.

Palm Sunday - July 4 Holiday Edition

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links.