...And to Them, You Are the Problem.

Herbert Marcuse and his gang of radical leftist/humanist pseudo-intellectuals knew exactly what they were doing. They knew you could not overthrow a free society by convincing the adults of their day to surrender their status quo and habits. So, they decided to invest in the children through education, media, and entertainment. Then, when the children became adults, they would reject the world of their parents and upend society for the radicals themselves. I give you the result:

The left is now living in some crazy high fantasy novel, where women have d**ks and pregnant men are on maternity leave from Victoria's Secret. The earth is to end in ten years, countries don't have borders, cops are villains and terrorist are religious scholars.

~ Thank You Larwyn's Linx@ Doug Ross Journal for the Linkage! ~

It's Official.....

Jussie and Sister Jurnee. 

The way in which he did it is worse than the hoax itself, IMHO: to attempt to throw dynamite on a bonfire of the Democrat-Left-Media complex's own making, which is the disgusting blood libel of America as an unjust, racist nation with its illegitimately-elected President hoping to restore and revive the injustice and racism that undergirded its illegitimate founding. Interesting to note how the Chicago Police looked at this because of the nature of Chicago ethnic-driven politics combined with the fear of the city turning into the next Ferguson, MO.

The whole thing was so patently fraudulent and ineptly executed, to the extent that the closed circuit security camera that Smollett thought would capture the incident was pointed in the wrong direction. And that there is a massive bullet that was dodged. Even with the confirmation of this as a hoax, that video would no doubt have joined the pantheon of racialist fraud memes alongside "Hands-Up-Don't-Shoot!," "I Can't Breathe!" and the innocent-as-the-day-he-was-born graduation photo of Trayvon Martin (not the one of him flashing Flava-Flav dentures and gang hand signs). - J.J. Sefton

_______________________________________

The media . . . they go along with things like this in their publish-or-perish, never-let-a-rumor-go-to-waste, the-bigger-the-lie,-the-easier-it-is-to-sell total abandonment of their own journalistic standards. Their problem is that they so desperately WANT the Smollett claims and Kavanaugh rumors and Phillips accusations to be true so they can discredit Trump that they attack his supporters just because of their hats.

Smollett and his fake hate-crime report took overworked detectives away from real cases in Chicago, one of the country’s most crime-ridden cities with severely undermanned police forces. What happened to ABC and NBC and Robin Roberts and several US senators who wannabe PotUS, along with the Speaker of the House and so many others is that they got manipulated because they’re so desperate to discredit Trump that they’ll jump on any bandwagon that happens by, and if they can’t get him personally because of lack of evidence of collusion or misogyny or racism, they’ll go after people who voted for or support him by wearing MAGA hats.

They could TASTE the sweet, intoxicating vengeance in redirecting blame to DJT for the “hate crime” against the innocent black sweetheart victim. It wasn’t so much that they wanted it to be true; they NEEDED it to be true after the Covington kids’ fiasco and the Mueller collusion collapse.

Same Maoist, Different Wardrobe

Some have yet to realize they are trapped in a Reeducation Camp.  It's been another week reading and hearing the bizarre stories in the media of caustic politics and the cultural decline of contemporary America. The once respected media has firmly taken the lead from academia and hollywood intellectuals to tell us in their "unbiased" presentations that we are wrong, racist, misogynist, sexist, stupid. Like in the movie “Groundhog Day” we wake up, realize the day is going just like yesterday, try to have the right responses to change the situation only to wake up the next day and everything is exactly like it was the day before. We see the same things, hear the same messages, get accused of the same crimes against humanity.

It hits me that the repetitive lunacy is not a bug, it’s a feature. Actually THE feature. We’re in a reeducation camp, except the Mao’s running this operation boldly enacted an improvement. Instead of rounding us up and bringing us in for our reeducation, they send out the reeducation to us. At school. At work. In our “news”. In our sports pages. In our music. In commercials. In our movies. All the great soul-breaking repetition of the evil messages, without the need to cover room and board. Genius. In the end there is a good long list of truths you had better accept, and you are just not “getting the message.” Their demonic plan is to hit you with this repeatedly until you absorb it and believe it, or die off shunned and mocked. Sadly, the latest generation is already owned.

According to our betters: 

Some people are really smart, you are not one of them. The smart people are a subset of leftists (by definition). They should be empowered to run things.  You should stand down like an obedient citizen for your own good and for the good of those around you. 

There is no God, or if there is, he is a leftist (by definition) a female, or gay, or black, or all three. We humans don’t need one in any case because we are really awesome! People are basically good, especially when we “tell truth to power". And so She wants us to decide what is true and what is not and to question any authority outside ourselves. But not the authority of ourselves and to follow our hearts. 

Everybody has a right to stuff. Lots of it. Except people who have stuff. Women are better than men. Men are so “last millenium”. They are also evil and lazy, and stupid, unless they are men who dress up and pretend to be women, or are submissive to their betters (women). 

Police are evil. Government is good. Where government has a problem it is that they don’t have enough funding, so it’s patriotic to tax tax tax, because they have to fight against neanderthals like you. There are so many of you. 

The more that you are seen or heard on TV, the wiser you are. Your betters should be judged within the context of all the good that they do.  You should be judged “guilty“. The 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States is an opinion of paranoid racist xenophobe haters. You should give up food other than “Bio Spooge” to save the planet. You should give up water, heat, cars, and any concept of personal space to save the planet.

Citizens, you must do your part and “get with this program.”

(Diaries)
(Crazy Cousin Olivia)

Popular Dating Site Says Avoiding Anyone With Different Political Views Is Now More Important Than Not Having Cooties

Never used an online dating site, and never would. From what I know of them, the whole thought to me is scary.  But I found this little story kinda interesting, and a microcosm of our time.

“Great sex” has been the widely favored reply since dating app OkCupid first started asking its users this question in 2003 ― until now. For the first time in the app’s 15-year history, users in major cities like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles have tipped the scale in favor of compatible politics, OkCupid told HuffPost. 

The overall number of women prioritizing politics over sex doubled from 2016 to 2018, and the percentage increased from 27 percent to 42 percent across the country. Over the same period, the app has seen a 1,000 percent increase in political terms on people’s profiles ― reflecting a major shift in values that its executives have been watching closely since Donald Trump’s election. 

Summers Eve Finkelman - OKCupid User

“It’s truly, truly unprecedented the change in how people are using politics as a signal in dating,” said Melissa Hobley, chief marketing officer of OkCupid and a professional matchmaker. “Without a doubt, the recent presidential election and current administration have driven young women in particular, but millennials of both genders, to say, ‘Swipe left if you support Trump,’ or ‘I don’t even want to see you as a match if you don’t vote.’ 

The sudden rise in dating political divides OkCupid has witnessed, particularly over the past two years, reflects the polarization of politics under Trump and the growing rage of his opponents ― particularly women. OkCupid is in a unique position to track that trend, as it is one of the few dating apps that requires its users to answer at least 15 questions about sex, politics and other values....."

I'm sorry, but I personally can't stop equating online dating sites with sleazy used car lots.

~ Thank You MJA@IOTWReport for the Linkage! ~

The New York Times Doubles Down on Covington: Racism, Toxic Masculinity & Whiteness

COVINGTON, Ky. — On Friday night, all anyone at Covington Catholic High School was talking about was that their star Colonels basketball team had unexpectedly lost to the rival St. Xavier Bombers, 55-45. For the “Colonel Crazies,” as locals call them, identity is wrapped in state championship titles, and their all-male brotherhood.

But by Saturday afternoon, the Northern Kentucky school off the Dixie Highway had been ripped out of its overwhelmingly white, heavily Catholic, and largely Republican world and thrust into a national firestorm that touched seemingly every raw nerve in this polarized country — race, President Trump and the behavior of young white men. - Read More

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Some personalities on social media have suggest that the school needs to be burned to the ground with the children still inside (post that have still not been taken down) and many on the Left are refusing to back down from their attacks against these kids.  Instead they have shifted from “disrespecting a native American” to “smug privileged white boys”. This isn’t outrage because of what they saw happen, even if the story was what the media claimed it is. This is an excuse for the Left to assault, humiliate, and outright destroy anyone who has a different opinion than them, even if they happen to be minors......

Women's March Leadership Is Even Too Radical For The DNC

The Democrats Can Run, But They Can't Hide From Their Party's Inbred Bigotry

The Democratic National Committee Removed Its Name 
From List of Event Sponsors.

The annual Women’s March is just three days away, but the Democratic National Committee has quietly withdrawn its support less than 24 hours after March leader's refused to denounce the notorious anti-Semitic hatemonger Louis Farrakhan on national television. The groups leaders, a La Raza supporter and radical Hispanic activist, a rag-head pro-Palestinian anti-Semite, a black Louis Farrakhan lover and a self-loathing ugly white chick named BOB; I ask why any decent American would take these people seriously?

Tuesday, march leaders Tamika Mallory and Bob Bland took to the airwaves on ABC’s morning democrat infomercial and leftist propaganda hour, “The View” to address “criticism of their leadership and allegations of antisemitism that have been levied against them by former members of their leadership team. They only dug themselves a deeper hole.  The View’s” Sunny Hostin called out Malloy about photos she took with Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, which she captioned with the acronym, GOAT, meaning greatest of all time. “I didn’t call him the greatest of all time because of his rhetoric,” Mallory said. “I called him the greatest of all time because of what he’s done in black communities.” She failed to say what she believes Farrakhan has done for her people. (other then extort money and teach hate for white people). 

The DNC baled on the march and joins a laundry list of liberal organizations that once proudly supported the Women’s March but are no longer sponsors, including EMILY’s List, the Center for American Progress, and NARAL Pro Choice America. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which labels the Nation of Islam as a “hate group,” also withdrew its sponsorship. It’s been a rough year for the Women’s March, which lost more than half of its 550 sponsors from 2018 for its event this year. 

Last July, the Women’s March sent out a press release announcing its opposition to President Trump’s Supreme Court pick, “XX,” clearly demonstrating the group intended to attack whomever the president selected, regardless of qualifications.

(NKT)
(HUFFPO)   

Live by Pettifoggery, Die by Pettifoggery.

Cicero is remembered today as a great Roman orator, but few recall that he was a lawyer by trade. Cicero’s eloquence eventually enabled him to rise to the rank of Consul, in which capacity he presided over the execution without trial of five Senators. He was exiled for this unlawful act and, at length, was himself illegally executed. There’s a lesson here for the Democrats who increasingly employ lubricious lawyers to circumvent the rule of law.

Cicero’s career, which contributed to the republic’s collapse, came to mind when Democrat Bill Nelson hired attorney Marc E. Elias — a “recount specialist” with ties to Hillary Clinton and George Soros — to sue the state of Florida over the outcome of its recent senatorial race. Elias made his intentions clear upon arriving in the Sunshine State: “We’re doing this not just because it’s automatic… we’re doing it to win.”

In the eyes of Democrats, the law is just something to get around when it comes to winning what you want. That’s why they’re dangerous. Our government, like the Roman republic, is based on the principle that no one is above the law. The Democrats have assiduously undermined that principle, but this is as dangerous for them as it is for us. They should consider Cicero, whose executioners had been sent by his young protege, Octavian. The latter knew about those five executions and the former wound up with his head in a bag. Both men were above the law. - David Catron 

Thank You WHATFINGER NEWS for the Linkage!

Spartacus Booker: "17-Year Olds Too Immature to Be Held Accountable for Actions"

Senator Spartacus (D-NJ)

Well this is interesting. While attacking Brett Kavanaugh, Senator Booker is sponsoring legislation that proposes letting juvenile offenders off the hook. (this is to gain minority favor and yes he is running for president). As all the the world knows by now, Judge Kavanaugh stands accused of assaulting Christine Blasey Ford when both were in high school. Blasey did not report the incident to authorities or apparently anyone else at the time. There is zero evidence.  Kavanaugh was 17 years old at the time.

As it happens, Senator Booker is a co-sponsor of something called the REDEEM Act along with Senator Rand Paul. The proposed legislation centers on expunging the records of juveniles convicted of non-violent crimes, thus ensuring some teenage mistake does not follow them for a lifetime. While what Kavanaugh is accused of presumably would be classified as “violent,” again, he was never charged much less prosecuted for this. But in an explanation of his concern for teenagers who get in trouble, as here at the Senator’s website, Booker says this, bold print supplied:

"Studies of youth brain development have found that the decision-making functions of the brain do not fully develop until much later than was previously believed to be the case. Despite this, some states still try 17-, and even 16,-year-olds as adults by default. 

The REDEEM Act incentivizes states to establish 18 years old as a floor for original jurisdiction by adult criminal courts by allowing preference to be given to Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant applications that originate from states that have enacted similar or stronger provisions."

In other words? If one assumes that Christine Ford’s account is accurate, it happened for one reason, the reason that no less than Cory Booker himself has — truthfully — asserted. Again, that is this: Studies of youth brain development have found that the decision-making functions of the brain do not fully develop until much later than was previously believed to be the case.

In other words? The activities of a 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh, not to mention 15-year-old Christine Blasey, were the result of immature teenagers whose “decision-making functions” were impaired to begin with because they had brains that were not “fully” developed. Not to mention that if Booker is literally sponsoring legislation that would make it the law of the land to seal youthful criminal records, there is no way that Ford’s 36-years later allegation, when no charges were even filed in the day, should be relevant in the first place.

There is zero evidence — say again zero — that Kavanaugh has ever exhibited this behavior in his adult life. Say again, zero. To the contrary. One woman after another has come forward to describe him in terms of being a gentleman on a personal level and an utter professional in the workplace. 

Contrast this with the behavior Democrats are silent about this very minute.

(The Spectator)
H/T Crazy Cousin Olivia

Thank You Whatfinger News for the Linkage!

Saving the Culture from Modern Vandals

* Note to Reader: You may rest assured that this post, considering the subject matter, has been double checked by your blog editrix and found free of any and all offensive terms such as "monkey", etc....

By now, it’s become a parlor game: which movies, even from the recent past, could and would not be made today? “Blazing Saddles,” for sure, and perhaps even “Pulp Fiction,” for their relentless use of the “n-word.” Should the culture be denied Phoebe Cates’s magnificent bosom, which gave hope (however fantastic) to nerds across America that someday they too might actually see such wonders in the flesh. And they have already tried to kill Scarlett. 

These days, the censorship comes almost exclusively from the perpetually outraged cultural-Marxist Left. Like their Soviet, Chinese, and Cambodian forebears, they cannot abide anything that does not conform to their world-view right this minute, and therefore must constantly update their “Index of Forbidden Books, Films, Words, and Cultural Artifacts.” As revolutionaries everywhere are want to do, they are hanging their parents and desecrating the graves and monuments of their ancestors. Because their zeal knows no bounds—because, by definition, too much zeal can never be enough—they are now set loose upon the past, the better to erase it so that a brave new world might be born. 

Recall, if you will, that the World State’s motto in Aldous Huxley’s future dystopia is: “COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.” Although first published in 1932, the work is even more timely now than it was in the period between the wars, all three words having taken on vastly different, and more sinister, shades of meaning in the interim. But you can’t hatch the New Socialist Man without breaking a few eggs, so what’s the loss of a few old, dead, cultural totems when set against the inclusive paradise that is sure to come?

The assault on the past—on the Western and American past—is something more than simple cultural vandalism.  The negation of the past—even of its own past—is something the Left must accomplish in order for it successfully to school the populace of the brave new world in the brave new ways. This puts the so-called cultural conservatives in a bind. The old bluenoses must now defend elements of the culture they might well have hated, and still do hate—but refusing to protect them is to align themselves, however unwittingly or unwillingly, with their mortal enemies on the Left. It’s all the more galling when you consider that the Left hid behind “free speech” when it was in their interest to goad the larger culture toward change, but now cannot abide “hate speech,” which is, when you stop to think about it, exactly the same thing.

If they can come for Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad, they can come for anybody. As the Chief Bromden says in the opening lines of Ken Kesey’s great novel, “They’re out there.” And they’re coming for you. So what are you going to do about it? 

* Excerpts from Michael Walsh's Article @ American Greatness

 

Thank You Whatfinger News for the Linkage!

Former NC Governor Compares Activists to Nazi Book Burners

Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory blasted what he called “mob rule” at UNC-Chapel Hill Monday night as protesters continued their violent rampage against america's history, toppling a Civil War Soldier's memorial on the university campus. The Charlotte Observer reported that Gov. McCrory asked Tuesday if the protesters are any different from Nazis who tore down statues and burned books in the 1920s and 1930s? Protesters, some not known to be UNC students, brought down the statue known as "Silent Sam" that had stood on campus for over a 100 years. They claimed the statue was a symbol of America's racist heritage. McCrory responded by asking how far will this go and if the Jefferson and Washington monuments should also be removed. Unfortunately, there are people who do think just that way and believe today's activist are laying the groundwork for that eventuality.

AP - The bronze figure of a Southern soldier atop a stone pedestal was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1913. It had been under constant police surveillance after being vandalized in recent months, costing the university hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

The top officials of the University of North Carolina system say the toppling of a Confederate statue on the Chapel Hill campus was "unacceptable, dangerous and incomprehensible." In a statement released Tuesday, UNC board chairman Harry Smith and system President Margaret Spellings say the university won't tolerate the intentional destruction of public property. State Senate leader Phil Berger released his statement after the "Silent Sam" memorial was pulled down during a demonstration by hundreds of people at the University of North Carolina's flagship campus. 

Berger said Tuesday "only a civil society that adheres to the rule of law can heal these wounds." He says Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and other politicians must stop labeling violent riots as "rallies."University officials said their hands were tied by a 2015 law that essentially prohibited the permanent removal of "Silent Sam" and limited the relocation of similar Confederate monuments on public property. 

A protester who threw a mixture of red ink and her own blood on a Confederate statue says students, campus workers and community did what the University of North Carolina refused to do when they toppled the statue.

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Lesbian & Black Lives Matter activist Maya Little, charged with vandalism of the same monument in April said Tuesday that UNC-Chapel Hill had a 100 years to remove the statue. She says the toppling exemplifies activists' commitment to "smashing white supremacy" at UNC.
                                                      * Thank You WHATFINGER NEWS for the Linkage!

The Jim Acosta of Political Activist

David Hogg tells New York Magazine: “We really only remember a few hundred people, if that many, out of the billions that have ever lived. Is that what I was destined to become?” - @Alex Pappas

Skippy Plans to Run for Political Office When He Turns 25 and Learns to Drive

"Older Democrats just won’t move the f*ck off the plate and let us take control."  He believes that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is "a future President of the United States."

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If anyone remembers David Hogg it's because he's one of the most annoyingly arrogant leftist meat puppets, drunk off his own self-importance, that's ever been blessed to be born into privilege in this country.  A smooth brained simpleton & ignorant stooge of progressivism ...but I repeat myself. There is both Fame and Infamy. And Hogg obviously never took a class in Philosophy: "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." (Blaise Pascal)

 * Thank You WHATFINGER NEWS for the Linkage!

CNN's Fredo Cuomo Sides With Violent Antifa Thugs

This is why CNN should not ever be considered a legitimate information source of any kind. Case in point: CNN’s Chris Cuomo seemed to have driven the crazy train completely off the rails last night when he excused the violence from the left and disagreed with equality before the law:

“Be aware, there are many more of us who see you as unequal, as less than, and you will be opposed at every turn because what you are about is wrong. And fighting you is right.” - Video Link

All we see is hate from the “anti-hate” groups as CNN has begun to call them. These groups were screaming at and attacking police officers who had to endure hatred for them without responding. Cuomo never mentions they at times have even physically attacked the media also at this weekends protest. Anyone in their path who doesn’t agree with these extremist groups are attacked.

Cuomo is giving the #AltLeft an "escape hatch" with this moral equivalency BS. What makes Fredo think he or anybody else he knows has the moral authority to decide who can beat up whom. I really can't believe CNN's is allowing their platform to be used to make such ridiculous and biased rationalizations. This is a very dangerous territory and messaging that violence is less wrong if you're doing it "for the right reasons" and encouraging the left to become violent if they decide it's for a good cause. Antifa and their fascist minions don't show up to fight against hate... they are hate. Show some backbone Fredo, and call them what they really are.

Yes Virginia, "In a Time of Universal Deceit, Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Act"

Yesterday the left lost their lunch over remarks perceived as incendiary or inflammatory by commentator Laura Ingraham. From the pages of DailyKos and Splinter to even writers at the formerly respectable RedState stridently went after Ingram for her commentary, some even calling for her punishment. I happen to have been watching when she responded to remarks by the loony leftist Alexandria Ocashew-Cortex and her repeatedly gleeful commenting on America’s changing demographics.

From what I heard, I give Ingraham the benefit of the doubt and believe she was referring to assimilation, not race:

"Because in some parts of the country, it does seem like the America that we know and love doesn’t exist anymore. Massive demographic changes have been foisted upon the American people and they’re changes that none of us ever voted for and most of us don’t like. From Virginia to California, we see stark examples of how radically in some ways the country has changed. Now, much of this is related to both illegal and in some cases legal immigration that of course progressives love."

I read her comments as referring to assimilation because of context, the inclusion of legal immigration, and her past statements. She's become a big target for the left, but far from being the robe wearing racist they make her out to be. She's adopted three children from foreign countries, and not here to clean her pool or cut her lawn, eh Hollywood?

But still, to some these latest comments by Ingraham somehow prove her inherent racism, because as we all know, any white person born before 1970 is a closet racist.  The demographic change she notes goes hand-in-hand with the political changes being foisted on the country, and that is what she comments on, Politics.  There ARE enclaves of immigrants (both legal and illegal) who would prefer NOT to assimilate into American society and culture, and even some elements that would prefer to radically alter it. There ARE fewer and fewer people who identify as strictly “American” and would instead prefer to be a member of the growing number of hyphenated groups.

What leftist media keyboard stalinist refuse to acknowledge is that not every negative comment about immigrants or black celebrities, sports heroes and politicians is born of racial or ethnic animus. Those who make those connections through their righteous indignation and their propensity to signal their virtue while seeing a racial/ethnic bogeyman behind every tree, one has to ask: who is the one preoccupied with race or ethnicity??

In the Battle for the Soul of America, There Can Be Only One Winner

The Unholy Left went to battle against America in the summer of 1968 and hasn’t stopped fighting since. They hated Nixon, they hated Reagan, they hated G. W. Bush and now, boy do they hate Donald J. Trump. From the moment it dawned on them on election night that Trump was going to win, they have gone to the mattresses, seeking to undermine the validity of the election and bring down the president of the United States.

While we’re waiting for the Left to see the light, let’s turn the tables and start using their own weapons against them. The very first Rule in my Book of Rules is this: “Know Your Enemy, His Intentions, and His Weapons—and Use Them Against Him.” Tolerance is not a virtue, diversity is not a goal, and hate is sometimes a very useful, self-protective emotion. Tolerance for the intolerant is suicidal. Diversity has never in history produced a successful country or nation-state, only a body politic at constant war with itself. Passivity in the face of constant provocation is what our enemies are counting on.

They want you cowed, thinking that any pushback is illegitimate. They want you to think that you’re the bad guy in this morality play. That’s why their pet media frames every confrontation as “far-right” groups vs. “anti-fascist” protesters, pushed beyond the limits of their well-known tolerance to take matters into their own violent hands. You are hateful, intolerant, racist and brimming with more phobias than Freud ever dreamed possible.

There is no pacifying the Left, no accommodating it, no buying it off with a bit of appeasement here and there. They’re not in the political fray to play, they’re in it to win it. They’re not fiddling around the edges of the American experiment, they’re throwing everything critical theory has at us, questioning every institution and founding principle, and finding all of them worthy of destruction. Ascribing good motives to our friends across the aisle is a fool’s errand. Like most villains, they think of themselves as the heroes of their own twisted morality play, casting themselves as noble superheroes for truth, silver-surfing the “arc of history” as it bends toward their definition of justice. We, however, see their assault on our history, customs, and traditions as nothing of the sort; to us, they are the vandals who cannot abide something they had little or no hand in creating, and just want to see the world burn.”

There is no pacifying the Left, no accommodating it, no buying it off with a bit of appeasement here and there.  If we react with anything less than a full-throated defense of both Western and American civilization, we’re going to lose.

Excerpts via Michael Walsh @ American Greatness

Journalist Have Ruined The Reputation of Fake News

"Big light in skies, later to appear in east. Sonic booms scare minority groups in Sector B.

And there's hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut."

 "Good morning, those are the headlines. Now for the rumors behind the news......"

________________________________

Nestled among the shelves of my father's eclectic record library, scattered about in the Frank Zappa, Miles Davis and PDQ Bach LPs, were a smattering of vinyl jewels by the now legendary satirical comedy group, The Firesign Theatre. Their comedy is best described as cultural-lefty-absurdist, and was very much in keeping with their times (Nixon, Watergate, the Vietnam War, etc.). In live performances they wore bizarre costumes such as clown suits, safari garb with pith helmets, and some in the audience were likewise attired.  The sketches were well scripted with room for improvisation, with intricate wordplay and puns which were meant to be politically and culturally thought-provoking without being obvious.

I’ve been thinking lately about how much the Hate Trump Media has come to resemble this weird avant-garde ensemble. After all, “Fake News” was what Firesign Theater was all about. It was zany and absurd, and the joke was that the reality of life, especially contemporary American life, strained credulity, and invited not only satire, but a total flight into fantasy. A typical line from a sketch: “I don’t know what you know, but I do know that everything you know is wrong.” This illustrates the essence of Fake News, rooted in the leftist-inspired cultural divide that currently afflicts America.

The “mainstream media” (CNN, MSNBC, the three networks, the major newspapers) are so consumed by Trump hysteria that it places them squarely in this Firesign Theater zone. The NYT's Nicholas Kristof and his wife talk about the president in bed. CNN's Brian Stelter describes himself as “Trump addicted.” Any psychiatrist can tell you that monomaniacal, pathological hatred has its surreal aspects.  

MSNBC’s interpretation of the importance of the Mueller investigation in its various guises is a good example of this “Credibile est, quia ineptum est” approach. Ricky Maddow, Stephanie Ruhle and Chris 'Soyboy' Hayes constantly strain to outdo themselves with conspiracy theories. One would think there were more Russians involved with the Trump campaign than populate the pages of War and Peace. More entertaining are the nightly shouting matches on Don Lemon’s CNN show. The Bill Maher-type formula dating from that host’s “Politically Incorrect” days is the model for Lemon and three or four indignant progressives spewing their inherent Trump-hatred at a lone conservative panelist.

The Batshit Crazy Lawrence O’Donnell reminds me of the Big Brother in the old “1984” Apple computer commercial, and Chris Matthews a ranting drunk in your corner bar. You never know, Brian Stelter’s future at CNN might involve honking a clown horn while wearing a pith helmet as an introduction to his commentary. Fake News Used to be a Lot Funnier. Journalist Have Ruined it. Lately, all this has been sending me back to Firesign Theater (easily found on YouTube) for perspective. Maybe a study of the works of Marx and Lennon is in order. Groucho and John, that is.......

Meanwhile, Back at Starbucks......

Columnist: We Don’t Need to Understand You Awful, White, Christian Trump Supporters!

Leonard Pitts: Another Liberal Bigot Who Gets To Hide Behind the Shield of Skin Color

The following is from the Chicago Tribune and one of those columns that’s instructive insofar as it represents what almost all liberals think, say in private, but most believe it’s too perilous to actually express publicly. Not Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald. He’s had enough of pretending to see his ideological adversaries (that would be me and you) as members of the human race, and he sees no reason not to go ahead and strip off the veneer. To him, there’s really no just reason to try to “understand” any of us, because, well . . . We'll let Jr. say it:

"This is for Rose.  She is a nice lady who wrote me a nice email in which she spoke about the need to try to understand Donald Trump’s supporters. As Rose put it, “We need to not close ourselves off to how the other side thinks.” It’s a sentiment I hear a lot from progressives, and it bespeaks a great generosity of spirit. 

But I couldn’t disagree more. 

Don’t get me wrong. Thinking people will always try to see past their own ideological blind spots, to put themselves into the shoes of those they disagree with. That’s an admirable trait. In normal times it’s a trait I would applaud with enthusiasm. But these are not normal times. Indeed, sometimes, I wonder if we appreciate just how abnormal — how fraught with danger — they really are. 

Under Trump, American laws, news media and mores are under assault, to say nothing of American democracy itself. And I’m sorry, but I don’t think “understanding” Trump followers will ameliorate — or even address — any of that. Besides which, is there really so much left to “understand”? Not from where I sit. Long before Trump even existed as a political force, many of us noted with alarm the rise of a backlash among right-wingers deeply angry and profoundly terrified by the writing on the demographic wall. 

Said writing foretold — and for that matter, still foretells — the declining pre-eminence of white, Christian America. As several studies now show, a sense of alarmed displacement among white, Christian America is the soil from which the weed of Trumpism grew. The idea that we must “understand” those folks carries with it an implicit suggestion that in so doing, we might find some ground for compromise. It would be a great idea in normal times. 

But again, these times are not normal. No compromise is possible here for a simple reason Trump followers seem to understand better than the rest of us: You can’t compromise with demography, can’t order numbers to stop being what they are and saying what they say about the coming tide of change. But what you can do is seize the levers of power and change the rules of the game in hopes of blunting the force of that tide. 

That — again, look at the studies — is what Trump supporters elected him to do. Trump followers see a nation in demographic peril, so they seek a nation where those who frighten them can be regulated into irrelevance. There’s no big mystery about that. There never has been. So no, they don’t really need to be understood. 

What they need to be is defeated."

_____________________________________________

Got that? It’s normally admirable to put yourself in the other guy’s shoes and try to empathize, but damn it, these are not normal times! Fittingly, we see in Pitts’s column the fruit of his refusal to understand.

American laws are under assault? Because the president wants to actually enforce them? The news media are under assault? Because they’re called out when they’re biased and inaccurate? American mores are under assault? What does that even mean? And democracy itself? How is that, exactly? As far as I can see, all the usually scheduled elections are going on as per normal, and both the president’s supporters and his critics have to win those elections to stay in office. I suppose maybe he’s referring to the whole “Russia stole the election” thing, which if true is only further proof of his complete disinterest in understanding anything whatsoever.

But the core notion that Pitts is sure he understands is actually his biggest misunderstanding of all. He’s convinced that people who voted for Trump did so because they are all white and Christian, and can’t stand the thought that all these coloreds and heathens are multiplying and taking over. That’s why he continually refers to demography. And this is what most liberals think as well. They think the biggest concern of conservatives is that the scary minorities are taking over and we want protection from them.

If you tried to explain to Leonard Pitts that we really just want the chance to live our lives and earn a living without having our earnings confiscated and given to other people, or our lives threatened by a refusal to enforce basic laws that are already on the books but ignored by people like him for emotional reasons, or we’d like to make our own choices about things like our health care, where we send our kids to be educated and by who . . . well, there’s no point trying to explain anything to a bigot like Leonard Pitts Jr. 

He isn’t interested in understanding. Which is why he doesn’t.

It’s a Slow Burn Cultural Revolution

The Famous Statue of The Father of American Music - Stephen Collins Foster

The Marxist Cultural Revolution is alive and well in America, and has claimed another victim. The city of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania's iconic monument to native son Stephen Collins Foster, the Antebellum songwriter widely acknowledged as the Father of American Music has been deem offensive and the 117 year old statue removed from public view.

At morning' first light, the 1,000-pound 10-foot-high bronze statue that stood at the entrance to Oakland's Schenley Park for 74 years, moved from its original location near the entrance to Highland Park to prevent vandalism, was remove on orders of the city's cultural commissar public art and civic design manager, Yesica Guerra. Never-mind the leading citizens of late 19th century Pittsburgh selected the statue's design and commissioned the noted Italian émigré, sculptor Guiseppe Moretti to create it, and was dedicated with great fanfare in 1900.

Foster, who was born in Pittsburgh on July 4, 1826, wrote more than 200 songs, including such time-honored classics as "Oh Susanna," "Camptown Races" and "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair." The statue had stirred controversy for years because it depicts Foster standing with a black man playing a banjo at his feet. The hyper-sensitive I'm offended crowd have described it as racist and demeaning to blacks(?) Others have argued that it depicts Foster gaining inspiration from a black musician. While some of Foster's songs contain graphic, derogatory depictions of slaves, he is credited with being among the first musicians to dignify and humanize blacks through his songs. He died at age 37 on Jan. 13, 1864 in New York City, with 38 cents in his pockets.

The city plans to replace the statue with a memorial to black women and has scheduled public meetings to gather suggestions before deciding on a theme. Perhaps a large black granite depiction of Michelle Obama's Ass would satisfy the shit-weasels. 

(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
(Trib Live)

Running For President As A Progressive Means Introducing Another Crazy Idea

Friday, Senator Cory Booker, a rising star in the Democratic Party and a likely 2020 contender even though he faces considerable skepticism from within his own party for being somewhat of an asshole, all but formally announced his plans for a run at the white House by putting forth the latest of surely more to come crazy big government ideas from Proglodyte Democrats. Booker, who would surely have been unmercifully crucified for his recent angry and disrespectful questioning pointed at HLS Lady Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen if he had not been a democrat, announced his Federal Jobs Guarantee Development Act. 

This little pile of progressive unicorn droppings would guarantee a full-time federal government job paying at least $15 and providing health care and paid sick/family leave for any adult that needs one.  This would begin with a three year pilot program in 15 local areas, (i.e. the urban areas ruled by dems) and be expanded throughout the United States. Expanded nationally would ensure that every American who wants a job has a job.

There are many other benefits to this scam jobs idea. If the government were to guarantee $15 an hour jobs with benefits to everyone who wanted them, private sector employers would have to raise their wages and benefits in order to attract and keep employees, and prices go through the roof. 

The Act is based on ideas long advocated by economists Mark Paul, William Darity, Jr. and Darrick Hamilton of  left-wing think tank 'Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' and pushed for by Jesse Jackson during his presidential run in 1984. As the geniuses at Vox point out, a similar program in India, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, was found to not only increase household earnings for low-income households, both in the private and public sector. 

Yes, we really need to look for solutions to our ignorant and uneducated in a country where the average monthly wage is $392 USD,  just behind the economic paradise of Kyrgyzstan and Syria!

No, this is just a common temporary anti-poverty program used in developing third world countries, all wrapped in a pretty red bow of European socialism (and eerily similar to pre-WW2 German National Work Programs)  It's just a another hook to get uneducated minorities unionized and expand their government dependency, encourage more immigration and securing votes. Along with programs like this is more government regulation on business, higher taxes and less freedom. 

Would a program like this be expensive?  You Bet. The plan proposed by Paul, Darrity and Hamilton estimates its cost at $543 billion a year.  So like everything the government has ever gotten involved in and lied about the cost, you can probably triple that price and then add in a health dose of graft corruption and incompetence, you'd probably be closer to the real price tag

Booker and the dems, by continuing to embracing things like Medicare-for-all and programs like this one, are yet to learn one of the lessons of 2016, ......that progressive ideas are not as vastly appealing to centrists as have been in the past......

How many finger am I holding up Winston? 

* Thank You MJA for the Linkage!

It's Either One Or The Other.

Is racism a uniquely heinous offense against humanity, such that it needs to be treated as beyond the pale and outside the acceptable bounds of civilized society? Or is it so common that basically everyone is guilty of it? Because it can’t be both. 

If racism is an attitude of extremist cranks on the fringes of society, then the vast majority of us who don’t embrace racism can isolate the cranks and deny them the ability to impact society in accordance with their misguided, evil racist notions. But if racism is more or less in everyone’s hearts, and in fact that includes a great many people who don’t really overtly hate minorities and don’t mean anyone any harm, then how can it be treated as a fringe, evil belief? It’s one or the other. 

What the left wants to do is treat it like the existential threat the former scenario suggests, but nevertheless presume just about everyone in the country to be in on it. That doesn’t work.

You do have to hand it to Starbucks on this score, however: Have you ever seen a bigger overreaction to an isolated incident? One employee loses who doesn’t know how to manage a fairly innocuous situation ends up calling in the police, and the next thing you know 8,000 stores are closing for the day. Granted, this situation is tailor-made for activists who want to turn this one employee’s poor judgment into a global “Starbucks is racist” narrative, but is anyone surprised that Starbucks is essentially conceding the point with the way it’s reacting?