California Governor Gavin Newsom launched a series of ads in Florida this week urging residents to relocate from the Sunshine to the Golden State.

“This is hilarious. Florida leadership has kicked California’s ass in every conceivable governance metric over the last 2 years, but Newsom, like his supporters, is delusional,” posted Buck Sexton on Twitter.

From the NY Post.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a Golden State ground attack in Florida on Monday, releasing an ad urging Sunshine State residents fed up with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to pack their flip-flops and head west.

Newsom bought $105,000 worth of spots that began airing on Fox News in Florida, spurring chatter about a potential 2024 presidential run — especially if Joe Biden opts not to seek a second term. 

The ads also cranked up the temperature on the nation’s fiercest gubernatorial rivalry.

While the 30-second spot doesn’t mention DeSantis by name, Newsom takes aim at several of the Florida conservative’s signature legislative accomplishments.

“It’s Independence Day,” Newsom tells the camera while clad in a white dress shirt and standing in a lushly landscaped backyard. “So let’s talk about what’s going on in America.”

Robert Crimo was the shooter who killed six people in a rooftop sniper attack in Highland Park, Illinois on Independence Day. Police say that Crimo, 22, obtained a “high-powered rifle” that was legally obtained, but so far, the exact type of gun has not been specified. Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said that Crimo obtained the gun legally. Crimo was reportedly not known to police before yesterday.

Crimo posted violent videos and images online prior to the attack. CNN reports that two videos released under the name, “Awake the Rapper,” apparently depicted a shooting spree and a police response.

Despite this, Paul Crimo, the suspect’s uncle, told CNN that he had never seen Robert act violently, calling him “a lonely, quiet person [who] keeps everything to himself.”

Paul Crimo also could not shed light on Robert’s political leanings. The shooter’s political affiliation may or may not have a bearing on the attack, but there have been claims that he was both a leftist and a right-winger. Photos of Crimo at a 2020 MAGA rally and wearing a Trump flag as a cape do appear to be authentic, but the extent to which he might have been a MAGA supporter is uncertain. The claims that he was a leftist or Antifa member are also unverified at this point.

This is speculative, but his nom de rap, “Awake,” makes me think of Libertarians who frequently talk about “sheeple” and tell people to wake up. This is distinct and different from being “woke.” Personally, I think it’s likely that he was a disturbed individual with no deep political ideology.

I have advocated red flag laws and this is another case where the perpetrator seems to have exhibited warning signs prior to his attack. Illinois has had a red flag law since 2019 yet Crimo seems to have fallen through the cracks. Why that happened remains to be seen, but it seems possible that he kept his disturbed online persona separate from his offline relationships with family and friends.

“There were no signs of trouble. I saw no signs of trouble. If I did see signs, I would have said something,” Paul Crimo told the Union-Bulletin.

In addition to red flag laws, it’s also fair to point out that Illinois has some of the strictest gun laws in the country and is rated sixth strongest in the nation by Everytown for Gun Safety. These include a Highland Park ban on “assault rifles” that was the subject of a Supreme Court case (another reason to suspect that the legally-obtained rifle was not an AR-style gun) and state laws that require licensing, background checks for all sales including private transactions, and minimum age of 21.

There will be more information coming out about the murders, but on the surface at least, the Highland Park massacre seems to be yet another case of a mentally disturbed individual who obtained a gun and went on a killing spree. It also seems that few proposed laws would have prevented the tragedy.

The First TV contributor network is a place for vibrant thought and ideas. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of The First or The First TV. We want to foster dialogue, create conversation, and debate ideas. See something you like or don’t like? Reach out to the author or to us at ideas@thefirsttv.com. 

Follow David Thornton on Twitter (@captainkudzu) and Facebook

Former President Donald Trump hopped on TRUTH Social to blast Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and the Jan. 6 Committee over the holiday weekend; he says Cheney is a “despicable human being” and a warmonger.

“Warmongering and despicable human being Liz Cheney, who is hated by the great people of Wyoming (down 35!), keeps saying, over and over again, that HER Fake Unselect Committee may recommend CRIMINAL CHARGES against a President of the United States who got more votes than any sitting President in history,” Trump said in his post.

“Even the Dems didn’t know what she was talking about! Why doesn’t she press charges instead against those that cheated on the Election, or those that didn’t properly protect the Capitol?…..” Trump added.

From the Independent Journal Review:

Trump’s frustration with Cheney stemmed from comments made by the lawmaker on Sunday during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”

The Wyoming Republican said that following the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, the committee is faced with a decision of whether to make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice. 

“I think we may well as a committee have a view on that, and if you just think about it from the perspective of what kind of man knows that a mob is armed and sends the mob to attack the Capitol and further incites that mob when his own vice president is under threat, when the Congress is under threat,” Cheney said, according to CBS News. 

Socialist filmmaker Michael Moore celebrated the Fourth of July this weekend by saying he can no longer be a “full citizen” of the United States.

He posted the “Declaration” on his personal webpage.

I, Michael Moore, standing up for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, and being completely fed up with recent events that have upset my tranquility, herby declare the following on this Fourth of July, 2022:

1.  I refuse to live in a country threatened by white supremacy — and I’m not leaving.So we‘ve got a problem. 

2.  I cannot in good conscience continue to receive the privileges of “full citizenship” in this land when all of its women and girls have now been, by Court decree, declared official second-class citizens with no rights to their own bodies and conscripted to a life of Forced Birth should they fall pregnant and not want to be. 

3.  I demand an end to the mass incarceration of Black Americans, an end to police shooting Black people, and I demand that reparations be made to the Black community for all they currently have to suffer and endure.

4. I insist we remove every single Republican from office in November. The Republican Party has dismantled itself and its remaining rogue elements now exist purely to overturn legitimate election results and overthrow the elected will of the vast majority of the American people. This must be halted without delay or equivocation. 

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra confirmed over the weekend that the Biden administration is “exploring” the use of federal lands to create free-access abortion clinics.

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling for temporary abortion clinics on federal land. Let the courts say ‘no.’ Did you guys look into this?” asked NBC’s Chuck Todd.

“We’re continuing to explore everything that’s out there… We want to make sure we can put things into practice. Right now, you have people who are in need of abortion care services,” said the HHS Boss.

Watch the revealing exchange above.

Residents in New York City witnessed another bloody weekend with at least 13 people shot during the 4^th of July holiday break.

From the NY POST:

One person was killed and at least 12 others were injured in a spate of shootings across New York City during a bloody nine-hour period on Independence Day, police said.

Only the borough of Staten Island was spared from the stretch of violence that began at around 3:10 p.m. in Queens, when a gunman opened fire at a man in his 30s. 

The victim was found in the middle of the street in Cambria Heights with a gunshot wound to his hip. He was rushed to Long Island Jewish Hospital in critical but stable condition, the NYPD said. 

About two hours later, the boyfriend of an NYPD employee was shot and wounded in Soho as he sat in a gray Honda sedan in front of a high-end Dior shop, law enforcement sources said. 

The 27-year-old was shot in the right underarm and was rushed to a nearby hospital by his girlfriend. He is expected to live, police said.

According to reports from multiple outlets, two police officers were shot Monday night during Philadelphia’s July Fourth celebration, Party on the Parkway. The shooting happened shortly after the fireworks started, around 10:00 PM.

From Fox News…

A manhunt is underway for a suspect who shot two police officers at a Fourth of July gathering in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Monday before fleeing the scene, officials said.

The shooting took place shortly before 10 p.m. near the Parkway Welcome America Festival on the Ben Franklin Parkway.

A Philadelphia Police Highway Patrol officer suffered a graze wound to the head. The other officer was shot in the shoulder and was with the Montgomery County Bomb Unit, according to Fox 29 of Philadelphia. Both officers are in stable condition.

The Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management (OEM) tweeted, “There is a security incident on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Please follow public safety instructions and avoid area. Details to follow.”

An onlooker captured footage of the chaos:

Pennsylvania Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D), who represents northern Philadelphia’s 181st District, responded to the shooting on Twitter.

“We shouldn’t have to live like this. Family after family and community after community forced to live with the gut wrenching pain of gun violence. I’m absolutely gutted by the reports of a shooting tonight in the Philadelphia Art Museum area during the July 4th concert,” he said.

Read more over at Fox News:

Former President Donald Trump continues to rail against Jan. 6 Committee witness and former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson for her testimony; Trump says “Lyin’ Cassidy Hutchinson” once called the committee “BS.”

“Lyin’ Cassidy Hutchinson, who the Fake News Media refuses to properly reveal, recently called the January 6 Unselect Committee ‘B.S.’ Gee, that wasn’t reported by LameStream!” Trump posted Monday on his Truth Social page. 

From The New York Post…

The 45th president was referencing a Sunday Daily Caller report which alleged that on Feb. 1, Hutchinson — a former top assistant to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows — sought assistance from the American Conservative Union’s First Amendment Fund after being subpoenaed by the panel. 

“Hey (redacted)! This is Cassidy Hutchinson. Kind of a random question, but do you still work for the Schlapp’s [sic] at the ACU?” the first text reportedly from Hutchinson reads. 

The recipient, which the outlet identified only as a “conservative activist,” responded with, “Hi, Yes!” 

“Do you happen to know a First Amendment fund POC [point of contact] I could reach out to?” a second Hutchinson text read. “I was subpoenaed in early Nov., but the committee waited to serve me until last week …”

“I had to accept service because the U.S. Marshalls [sic] came to my apartment last Wednesday, but I haven’t made contact with the Committee,” a third one read. “I’m just on a tight timeline and just trying to figure out what my options are to deal with this bs.” 

Shortly after Hutchinson’s testimony June 28, ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp wrote on Twitter that she had reached out for assistance — and added he was “pleased” the organization did not assist her. 

“Ms. Hutchinson approached @CPAC for help through our First Amendment Fund which has helped J6 political victims defend themselves,” Schlapp wrote. “I am pleased we did not assist her performance today. Relaying WH hallway gossip as fact does not qualify as first person testimony.”

Read more over at The New York Post:

At least 6 are dead and 30 hospitalized after a mass shooting during Monday’s Independence Day parade celebration in Highland Park, IL. Authorities have arrested 22-year old suspect and amateur rapper Robert “Bobby” E. Crimo III, who fired on the parade from a rooftop.

According to the New York Post, “[t]he gunman had turned the parade route filled with families into a ‘battle zone’ within seconds — picking off the innocent Independence Day revelers with a ‘high-powered rifle’ pumping out rapid-fire shots shortly after 10 a.m., authorities and witnesses said.”

 “He was very military-style, methodical in the way he was crouched and shooting,’’ a parade-goer told WGN-TV.

“Footage from the scene showed hundreds of parade-goers — some visibly bloodied — fleeing the route as the gunshots rang out just 10 minutes after the event began,” the Post report adds.

“I grabbed my dad and started running,” Zoe Pawelczak told CNN of the moment she realized something was wrong.

“I looked back, probably 20 feet away from me, I saw a girl shot and killed. Saw her die. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“This was very random, very intentional, and a very sad day,” said Sgt. Christopher Covelli, of the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, during a press update.

“According to reports, the suspect had a YouTube page under the handle ‘Awake the Rapper.’ One video that has raised Twitter users’ eyebrows shows a pencil drawing of a person gunning down a crowd in between a montage of shots featuring the suspect backed by cinematic-like music,” the Daily Wire reports.

Read more over at The Daily Wire:

I want to focus on two stories that highlight the media’s obsession with negative space. Here’s the first example.

America’s July 4th festivities were pierced by a horrible act of violence as a rooftop shooter opened fire at a parade in Highland Park, Illinois. Six were killed and about two dozen were wounded; the 22-year-old suspected killer was taken into custody by police. News reports describe the weapon, which was recovered, as a “high-powered rifle.”

There seems to be not a week goes by without some kind of random, sick killer taking lives in “soft target” situations like public gatherings, parties, and—yes—schools. It’s troubling that our country has become such a fountain of bloody violence. I do not wish to detract from the seriousness of this trend, and the good that government could do if it focused on solutions to this problem, rather than political polemic.

But the reference here is too obvious to ignore. I am convinced almost to the point of certainty that the killer’s rifle was not an AR-15 or derivative. If it were, we would all have heard and read the term “assault rifle” used. The use of the term “high-powered rifle” conjures up the Kennedy assassination: a bolt-action hunting rifle with a scope. Those are not the rifles Democrats are trying to ban, so the specific kind of rifle or the ammunition it fires—30-06, .308 caliber, 7.62mm for example—is irrelevant to the conversation. Of course, all rifles are deadly, even the .22LR Remington we plink at targets; but a .22LR is not a “high-powered” rifle. And only an AR-15 would be termed as an “assault rifle,” though it fires .223 (or NATO 5.56mm) caliber ammunition.

The purpose of the rifle is not directly joined to the ammunition it fires, unless you are shooting at a grizzly bear, an elephant (you’re a monster if you do), or a charging rhinoceros. A sick, angry killer shooting at 8-year-olds and 85-year-olds from a rooftop need not worry about choosing the “appropriate” weapon for the task. They are all sufficiently deadly, and if used with skill, deadly accurate.

It’s possible that the police simply haven’t disclosed the kind of rifle they recovered. However, I have a very hard time believing reporters didn’t ask if the rifle was an AR-15. I find it far more likely that they’d report an “assault rifle” if the police indicated it was, and if the police refused to answer except to say a “high-powered rifle,” this would have also been indicated. I think reporters asked, and were told exactly what model rifle was recovered, and not knowing what it was, asked how to report it.

I may be wrong here. But this is how the press has reported every single shooting of this kind over the past five years or more. It would be a deviation from the norm if it were to be any different this time.

Many times, it’s the news that’s left out, or reported between the lines, which is most important to the story.

Another example is the spate of monkeypox stories.

Monkeypox has a vaccine. It’s manufactured by Bavarian Nordic, a Danish company, which has a current capacity of around seven million doses for the remainder of 2022, according to a report in the New York Times.

Also, monkeypox is not spread the way COVID-19 is spread. It takes direct physical contact with an infected person (more than just a casual touch), or with clothing they wore in contact with the sores that the virus produces to contract monkeypox. It’s not particularly easy to become infected with monkeypox if you mind your own business and are careful about who you are physical around.

Additionally, there are only about 400 confirmed monkeypox cases in the U.S. right now, though worldwide, the total is about 5,500 according to WHO. Monkeypox is not a great danger—or even a statistical concern—to just about every American.

Except for one group.

The outbreak has largely been concentrated among men who have sex with men. An estimated six million men who have sex with men live in the United States alone.

Based on this, the U.S. has ordered 2.5 million doses of “bulk” vaccine that can eventually produce up to 15 million total doses. It’s appropriate for every sexually active gay man to get the monkeypox vaccine. If you fall into that category, I urge you to get it, and until you do, to be very careful about choosing partners.

But that’s not what is being reported. Yes, they’re reporting that sexually active gay men are at risk, but they’re skipping the part about being selective about partners. The Boston Globe’s editors were more concerned with “stigma” to the gay community.

“This is not a gay disease,” said Dr. Ken Mayer, the medical research director of the Fenway Institute, a Boston-based research center focused on sexual minority health and HIV/AIDS.

“It’s bad luck,” said Dr. Mary Montgomery, an infectious disease expert who focuses on LGBTQ health care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Many of these people who focus their practice on the LGBTQ community would have everyone in the country get monkeypox vaccine if it were available to all in order to remove the stigma of it being considered a “gay disease.” They cite the stigma of HIV and AIDS from the 1980s as their justification.

In the 1980s, AIDS did not have an effective treatment. It was very much spread through the bathhouse culture of gay men. I would agree that more could have, and should have, been done by the U.S. government during that time, and that President Reagan’s personal views, shared by many Republicans and Christian leaders, tended to give AIDS research a somewhat lower priority than it deserved.

But even today, the majority of new HIV infections occur within the gay and bisexual male community, according to the government-run hiv.gov website. Treatments are available, though expensive, and paid by private insurance or Obamacare. If there were a vaccine for HIV, it’s unlikely we’d hear a call for nationwide vaccination.

Monkeypox already has a vaccine. And to avoid the stigma of being categorized along with AIDS as a “gay disease” many stories tend to gloss over the part that would indicate that monkeypox isn’t something most people should worry too much about. Kudos to NPR for taking it on a bit more directly, albeit in a very short conversation. Here’s the transcript:

HUANG: But McQuiston says monkeypox is not spreading in the same ways as COVID.

MCQUISTON: Monkeypox is very different. It’s not spread easily. It requires direct, close contact. And most of the cases that we’re aware of are associated with intimate contact and even sexual contacts.

HUANG: The current monkeypox outbreak is concentrated among men who have sex with men with multiple partners and have been somewhere monkeypox is known to be spreading. McQuiston says this is actually dramatically different from the way monkeypox has historically spread. Outbreaks of the virus have been common in parts of Central and West Africa, where it typically spreads from animals, with limited human-to-human transmission. This week, the government rolled out its monkeypox vaccination campaign, making tens of thousands of doses available to people who might have been exposed.

Monkeypox might be bad luck if you’re the unfortunate soul who contracted it from contact with an infected animal in Central and West Africa. But in the U.S., really the primary way to get infected is intimate (read: sexual) contact with multiple partners, in a group where partners are shared. And the community where that tends to happen, just like it did (and does) with HIV, is the with gay and bisexual men.

The media is monkeywashing the entire issue to avoid the stigma for a group of people who really just need to be more responsible until they get vaccinated. It’s no different than telling people to stay away from crowds and wear masks until receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, except it’s only for one group that the media is extra-careful to avoid stigmatizing.

Follow Steve on Twitter @stevengberman.

The First TV contributor network is a place for vibrant thought and ideas. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of The First or The First TV. We want to foster dialogue, create conversation, and debate ideas. See something you like or don’t like? Reach out to the author or to us at ideas@thefirsttv.com.