It’s Monday, May 11th, 2020…but before we kick things off, we take a moment to wish all mothers in general, and TLJ in particular, a very happy and blessed…though belated…Mother’s Day:

And to our own dear, departed mother…

…Tickie, we miss you.

Now, here’s The Gouge!

We lead off the Monday edition with a question: are we the only one suspicious of the circumstances surrounding the death of Ahmaud Arbery?  First and foremost, we must stress, not being privy to every piece of evidence, we are not assuming guilt or innocence on the part of either party; only observing that, the reporting thus far having been so haphazard and incomplete, neither is anyone else.

Exhibit “A”: consider this article from the U.K.’s Daily Mail on the arrest of Greg and Travis McMichael, the Georgia father and son arrested for Arbery’s murder and tell us what’s missing.

If the location and purported value of the alleged killers’ home is germane to the article, why is the same information regarding the victim’s NOT?  After all, would it not be helpful to know how far Arbery lived from the McMichaels, particularly when his mother “believes” her son was jogging, making the distance from the victim’s home to the assailants’ (i.e., within reasonable running distance) of some significance.  Is it unreasonable to expect some enterprising reporter would have thought to ask that question.  (In fact, in a subsequent article, USA Today reported Arbery lived “about two miles” from the crime scene, but nothing more specific.  Judging from the fact runs honoring Arbery are 2.23 miles in length, we’ll assume for the time this figure is accurate.)

Exhibit “B”: another FOX article referred to Satilla Shores, the unincorporated neighborhood in which Arbery was shot in the middle of the day as a “small segregated town near Brunswick in southeast Georgia”.

“Segregated”…really?  In 2020…with a local, operating chapter of the NAACP?!?

Then there’s Exhibit “C”, another recent article on the FOX News website which states:

“…The new video, which appears to be home security footage, shows a man — whom the Arbery family’s lawyers say was the victim — walking down the street the afternoon Arbery was killed. The man walks into the garage of a house under construction. He walks around the back of the house and leaves within a few minutes, most of the time out of view of the camera. He isn’t seen taking anything.

After he enters the property, another man across the street can be seen watching the scene. The man said to be Arbery then comes out of the front door of the house and runs down the street.

Soon after, a witness called the police to report a man at a construction site, according to the Journal-Constitution…

…Only one burglary had been reported in the neighborhood between the start of the year and when Arbery was killed — when a pistol was stolen from a truck parked in front of McMichael’s house, according to the Washington Post…”

Forgetting for the moment even though trespassing on a construction site is in fact a misdemeanor in Georgia, it’s hardly cause for an armed confrontation.  But if Arbery was jogging, why was he walking down the street prior to entering and walking through a construction site?

This case begs so many other questions news hounds have had two months to answer but didn’t, such as: (1). Did Arbery have a criminal record or any priors for burglary?; (2). Did he jog regularly?; (3). Do either of the accused have a history of racial bigotry or animosity?; and, (4). Does the police record/work history of the elder McMichael indicate any bias against Blacks?  Aren’t these aspects of the case any diligent reporter would want to explore?

Meanwhile, there’s Exhibit “D”, in which Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vic Reynolds knocked the performance of local law enforcement:

“…I can’t answer what another agency did or didn’t see but I can tell you that, based on our involvement in this case, considering the fact that we hit the ground running Wednesday morning and within 36 hours, we had secured warrants for two individuals for felony murder. I think that speaks volumes for itself and that probable cause was clear to our agents pretty quickly,” he said during a press conference…”

It certainly speaks volumes, but about what we’re uncertain, as it’s a very real possibility Georgia authorities wanted the McMichaels arrested post haste so as to avoid another Ferguson.

Also, we might have believed Reynolds had we not just experienced three years of a conspiracy to unseat a duly elected Chief Executive at the highest levels of the federal government and law enforcement.  That the GBI would proactively arrest two individuals to placate a growing mob based on a single video doesn’t seem so far-fetched.

Again, we’re not saying the McMichaels are innocent or guilty, or that Arbery was out for a run or casing the scene of his next crime; but the more race-baiting demogogues like Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms compare the shooting death of Arbery to lynchings in the Jim Crow-era South and say President Trump’s rhetoric give racists “permission to do it in an overt way”, the more Arbery’s death reminds us of the Trayvon Martin fiasco.

P.S. South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott linking Arbery’s death to the lynchings of Emmitt Till and James Byrd is also well beyond the realm of reality.  Seriously, while both heinous and tragic, Till was murdered in 1955 and Byrd in 1998; which, assuming the McMichaels similarly set out to slay Arbery, puts 23 and 22 years respectively between the three crimes…hardly the makings of a pattern of endemic racism.

Since we’re on the subject of jaundiced journalism masquerading as unbiased reporting, watch as much of Katherine Herridge’s interview with Bill Barr as you want, but it’s Norah O’Donnell’s appallingly slanted introduction that caught our attention, as she not-so-subtly hints the only reason charges against Flynn were dropped was Conservative pressure, when everyone on the planet now knows Flynn was illegally targeted and entrapped.  It’s almost as if the documents detailing this deliberate Dimocratic deception, organized at the highest levels of the Obama Administration, were never released.

The transcript is a typical Herridge interview, but the post-interview editing is vintage CBS.

As contributor James Nichols reminded us, remember while reading the complete transcript (not the selectively edited snippets they want you to hear), this could have been you…and what would have been your chances if you had to go up against the FBI?

For those interested, here’s Andy McCarthy’s latest on the subject, along with a concise timeline of what transpired from The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway forwarded by Balls Cotton.

Next up, Townhall.com‘s Bronson Stocking informs us California Governor Gavin…

Newsom Orders Vote-By-Mail for 2020 Presidential Election

Over to you, GOP.  Here’s the juice: if, come November, Trump’s defeated by such blatant forms of Dimocratic deception and voter fraud, it WILL be time for a second American revolution.

Speaking of revolting, writing at his Morning Jolt, after first wondering whether public mass transit systems can remain viable after COVID-19…

“…The inability to get around the city safely will be one more factor driving the exodus from New York, and perhaps other large American cities. All the hassles of owning a car in the city will become much more tolerable if the alternative of public transportation might kill you. With Uber, Lyft, or a cab, you’re running the risk of being exposed to one driver and the possibility of a virus left behind the previous passengers — bad, but still not as many people as the subway at almost any time of the day.

And beyond the question of whether public transportation will have enough riders to remain financially viable, contemplate whether large metropolitan public transportation systems will be able to find workers…”

…Jim Geraghty dryly observes…

As New York Goes, So Goes the Country

“But you don’t have to live in or close to New York City to be affected by the bad decisions of the city’s leaders:

New York City’s coronavirus outbreak grew so large by early March that the city became the primary source of new infections in the United States, new research reveals, as thousands of infected people traveled from the city and seeded outbreaks around the country.

The research indicates that a wave of infections swept from New York City through much of the country before the city began setting social distancing limits to stop the growth. That helped to fuel outbreaks in Louisiana, Texas, Arizona and as far away as the West Coast.

The findings are drawn from geneticists’ tracking signature mutations of the virus, travel histories of infected people and models of the outbreak by infectious disease experts.

“We now have enough data to feel pretty confident that New York was the primary gateway for the rest of the country,” said Nathan Grubaugh, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health.

Yesterday I noted that there’s a lot of frustration and anger in the country about the way the virus has disrupted, interrupted, and in far too many cases, ended lives, all looking for a target. From where I sit, if you want human beings to blame, the Chinese government is the entity that deserves the most blame, by a wide margin.

But if you absolutely must blame some Americans, Bill de Blasio and his team (Including Fredo’s older brother Sonny) look like the fairest choice. No doubt, President Trump made all kinds of inane, inaccurate, unrealistic, and wildly overoptimistic comments in the first months of this outbreak. But at least he didn’t literally encourage people to keep spending time in one of the most contagious spots.

For those interested in seeing just how much Bill de Blasio’s inaction skewed America’s Wuhan virus numbers, Mark Tapscott forwarded this insightful summary from PJ Media’s Tyler O’Neil.  Prepare to be shocked…and angry.

For more on the Wuhan virus, Victor Davis Hanson offers his piercing insight in this NRO article detailing the inherent conflict between experience and credentials.

Moving on, we present the latest Progressive #MeToo hypocrite, as California’s late octogenarian (as in age 86, NOT deceased…though we’d offer no argument were she the latter!)…

Sen. Feinstein Rips Tara Reade and Defends Biden: ‘Where Has She Been All These Years?’

“…In the Fall of 2018, during the blisteringly partisan confirmation hearings for then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Sen. Feinstein was a driving force behind the smear campaign against the well-qualified jurist’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. Sen. Feinstein and her Democratic colleagues used allegations of misconduct as an avenue to derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation, but refuse to give Reade’s allegations against Biden any consideration.

When asked, plainly, Sen. Feinstein confirmed that she stands by the former vice president. “No, I do not,” she said when asked if she believes Reade’s claims.

…Despite her dismissal of Reade’s allegations, without hearing her story in full, Sen. Feinstein previously claimed that Republicans were discouraging women from coming forward with misconduct claims:

Sen. Feinstein had no [similar] “message of support” for Tara Reade.“

Color us nonplussed.

Then, courtesy of Townhall.com, there’s the latest from Larry O’Connor, who defines…

Reckoning.

reck·on·ing (noun) – the avenging or punishing of past mistakes or misdeeds.

“…President Barack Obama is at the center of all of this. Indeed, Obama oversaw it all, from the start.

The investigation of Flynn. The surveillance of Carter Page and George Papadopolous. The Steele Dossier infection of the FISA courts. The Kangaroo Court hearings. The Special Counsel investigation built on known fictions.

None of it happens without Obama.

Over the past few years, most of the enterprising journalists and commentators who have strayed from the lockstep march of establishment media and politicians by challenging the lazy Trump/Russia collusion hoax have been asking a basic question related to the enormous political scandal: What did Obama know, and when did he know it?

It’s political scandal journalism 101, yet the Pulitzer-prize winning elites at CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post are not in any way interested. Curious.

…Are we meant to believe that Lynch, Comey, Yates, Clapper and Brennan all went rogue and conducted this historic, unprecedented and obviously improper investigation without any authorization from the Oval Office?

If Obama knew about these matters, we deserve to know to what extent he was directly involved and whether he authorized and even directed this corrupt operation. If he didn’t know about it, we deserve to challenge the lack of competence and accountability inherent to the Obama Administration where individuals felt empowered and protected to wield the power of the surveillance and investigative tools designed to protect our nation against terrorists for the purpose of harassing and criminalizing domestic political behavior.

Either way, Obama has some explaining to do.

Let the reckoning, finally, begin.“

In other words, the…

And the Dear Misleader’s in it up to his oversized ears.

Which provides the perfect lead-in to The Lighter Side:

Then there’s these forwards from Balls Cotton…

…along with four more from our sister-in-law Amy…

…another from Speed Mach…

…one from our buddy Tom…

…and, if you’ll pardon his French, a final one from Fielding Cocke:

By the way, Fielding only forwarded it: he isn’t responsible for the spelling.

Finally, having kicked things off with a question, it’s only fitting we close with one: referring back to our sister-in-law Amy’s alligator meme, does anyone on the planet actually miss Shep Smith?!?

Magoo