The “new” Democrats: “We kick them”
Eric Holder, who used to be the Attorney General of the United States not so long ago, said this recently:
Michelle [Obama] always says, ‘When they go low, we go high.’ No. No. When they go low, we kick them. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.
I guess they’re not planning to run Michelle in 2020, unless she gets with the program. Even Obama seems tame now.
Of does he? Remember this from June of 2008?
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said at a Philadelphia fundraiser. “Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”
Obama made the comment in the context of warning donors that the general election campaign against McCain could get ugly. “They’re going to try to scare people. They’re going to try to say that ‘that Obama is a scary guy,’” he said. A supporter yelled out a deep accented “Don’t give in!”
That’s pure Obama. In Obama’s 2008 campaign, when I first began observing him, I noted quite early on that he liked to demonize Republicans by predicting what they would do or say before they ever did or said anything of the sort. For example, he kept predicting they would be racist in their attacks on him. It was a rather sophisticated way to blame the opposition for doing what it hadn’t done, and quite sneaky. But that was Obama.
And the above quote from him was pretty scary, too, and said in the context of saying he wasn’t scary and that the Republicans would be accusing him of being scary. At the time Obama said it, the tone of the rhetoric was noticeably different from the sort of thing we usually heard back then in politics.
It’s not so different from what we commonly hear now, though, is it? Obama set the tone, and now his students have exceeded him, and they are falling all over themselves to be the toughest guy (or gal) on the block. Of course, they blame Trump and his tough talk. But I don’t recall him using violent images, except for talking about punching out protesters at his rallies during his campaign, something I condemned at the time and have not changed my opinion about (I haven’t got time to find the original post right now, but it’s there somewhere). I can’t recall Trump talking that way about the Democrats in general, though, although I don’t have total recall of everything the man has ever said.
The truth, though, is that this has been going on from Democrats for at least a decade. Speaking in this more explicitly violent way seems to have been introduced by Obama, as far as I can remember. And lately among the Democrats it’s certainly gotten far more frequent, widespread, and bold.
Words are just words, but they can incite. Lately, the violent words of Democrats have been followed by actions. As Rand Paul recently noted, someone could easily get killed soon. It has almost happened already.
I wrote a post a little while ago mentioning that I keep hearing casual Trump assassination rhetoric among people I know. These people are Democrats, and not formerly especially radical or activist. They’re not about to assassinate Trump themselves, but my guess is that if it were to happen they wouldn’t mind one little bit and might actually applaud.
I suspect Hodgekinson was only the first.
Fortunately, most leftists are afraid of guns and don’t know much about them.
I understand there have been some young leftists learning about guns but they have a way to go.
MikeK:
Lee Harvey Oswald certainly knew about guns, and he was a leftist.
It really does seem like only a matter of time before another violent attack on a Republican politician occurs.
Then what is the response from the establishment left? Is it a call for calm or is it more of ‘hey, that’s what happens you right wing extremists’.
I would be very concerned for my family’s safety right now if I were a Republican elected official.
The left never does anything uncoordinated. So we get the Washington Post saying that all the left mobs is a right wing illusion, Hillary calling for incivilty, and now this from Holder.
What the hell are they thinking? As Rand Paul said, someone is going to get killed. Do they expect the violence they are promoting to somehow be blamed on the Republicans? Chicago 1968 in reverse??
NO race riots for the past 2 years ?
Well, remember how successful the Democrats were on blaming Trump supporters for the violent attacks at Trump rallies by anti-Trump protestors. The ever-helpful MSM simply wrote screaming headlines about “Violence at Trump rallies!” and either left out any identification of the actual instigators altogether, or buried it near the end of articles that headline-scanners wouldn’t read. It worked like a charm then, so I can see why they might imagine they can keep it up.
When Obama first burst onto the national political scene I remember hearing political reporters saying breathlessly that he would “… bring the Chicago-way of politics to the national stage…”
Having grown up in Illinois I knew what that meant… staggering levels of corruption and flat-out illegality… whatever it takes to “win.” Not good. Now the rest of the country knows. Do they care?
Lee Harvey was Marine Corps. trained, as was tower shooter Charles Whitman. I always thought of the Marines as a super infantry with a specialty in beach landings. But their original function was as sharpshooter riflemen who were placed in the rigging of sailing warships with the mission of shooting officers and seamen on the enemy decks.
The Obama line is similar to the some lines in the film “The Untouchables,” written by David Mamet.
Late in the film Sean Connery’s character, Malone, is attempting to foil an attempt on his life and chases the home intruder who has a knife out onto the stoop, where Irishman Malone says,
“Isn’t that just like a wop? Brings a knife to a gun fight.”
But it was a trap, and Malone is machine gunned down.
_____
The really great bit of writing along these lines occurs much earlier in the film where Eliot Ness and Malone have a heart to heart.
Yes, it is the Chicago way. Obama grew up in Hawaii, so why did he gravitate to Chicago? Because his ideological mentor Frank Marshall Davis spent decades there writing articles as a card carrying communist. And because the Alinsky school that Obama attended was located there. Alinsky got his start learning from Frank Nitty, Al Capone’s assassin.
______
David Mamet wrote an interesting article of his political change, entitled Why I Am Not a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal.’ I’ve read it a couple times, but not lately.
TommyJay:
Here’s the post I wrote about Mamet’s article. (Also see this.)
OK, enough of this tut-tutting. We conservatives need to do something to defeat the Left. How about starting with loosening your purse strings? The Left is certainly putting their money where their mouths are. “Dr.” Fraud’s gofundmepage now has over $1 million and counting. Susan Collins’ next Democrat opponent will start with over a $3 million war chest.
The House is in the most danger. How about donating to some of these (just search the net using DuckDuckGo to find their campaign websites. Even this late they can use $$ to fund get out the vote drives):
House campaigns.
Some endangered House Freedom Caucus seats:
Dave Brat Virginia 7
Scott Perry pennsylvania 10
Debbie Lesko AZ 8
Ted Budd NC 13
Chip Roy Texas
Not necessarily Freedom Caucus
Jason Lewis MN
Diane Harkey CA 49
Elizabeth Heng CA 16
Dig deep–the Left certainly is.
I see what I believe to be rather naive commenters (naive because they believe that the the old values and rules still hold for the Left and Democrats), saying that if such an ideologically/politically motivated assassination of a Conservative/Republican/Trump official or supporter does occur that, then, Democrats will “have blood on their hands.”
Well, yeah, but will Democrats feel any remorse, will they publicly own up to their guilt and, more importantly, will that stop them from whipping up their supporters, giving their approval of, and advocating such violence?
Given what we’ve seen to date, I’d say the answer to all those questions is no.
From what I see and read, the Left/Democrats in Congress and elsewhere have now driven so far away from decency, and the tenets of Judeo-Christian morality that they can’t even see a trace of them in their rear view mirror.
Thus, If such an assassination takes place, I predict that Democrats and their allies will have all sorts of excuses for why they have no responsibility at all for the murder.
In fact, given their constant projection, I believe that, if such an assassination does occur, Democrats and their MSM allies will either quickly shove it down the memory hole–notice how quickly James T. Hodgkinson, the Bernie supporting would be assassin who shot, almost killed, and gravely injured Republican Congressman Scalise (who still needs canes to walk), and also aimed his attacks at a whole chunk of the Republican leadership, has quickly and almost totally disappeared from the news–and/or say that the victim somehow “deserved it,” that it was really the fault of Conservatives/Republicans, and/or the victim, thus Democrats had no responsibility whatsoever for it.
When the first elected Repubican is killed, democrats will rationalize it as deserved. When the second killing occurs, democrats will deny the obvious political ramifications. In the aftermath of the third killing, democrats will gain a new appreciation for the expressions; “Katie bar the door”, “reap the whirlwind” and “playing with fire”. But that deeper appreciation will be too little and too late.
I donated to Martha McSally but see lots of NeverTrump GOP swearing they will not vote for her. She won a swing district from a Democrats even after the previous Democrats had been shot by a nut but they will not soil their hands voting for her because she is a “RINO.”
I also made calls for Lea Marquez Peterson who is running in CD 2 McSally’s former seat. The GOP has a lot of gracious losers.
An oldie but goodie: after an oil spill on 2010, Obama’s interior secretary said they would keep their boot on the neck of BP.
This was and is fascist thuggery. It will be leftists wearing jackboots this time.
Things is gettin’ so bad I’m gonna have to git me a “support animule.”
I guess a squirrel is out, though.
Rand Paul: Somebody “could” get killed?
hmmm?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Congressional_baseball_shooting
Neo: “I keep hearing casual Trump assassination rhetoric among people I know.”
I remember people I knew (and were, generally, people I thought of as “nice” people) talk that way about Reagan and were not that upset when he was shot.
So, this isn’t a new issue. But, I do agree that it is much worse since Obama, as the president, started to talk that way. In the past, it was only “smaller fry” who did.
I’d also say that it was Obama’s “nasty” talk that allowed for the American people to not vote against Trump because of his blunt talk.
Those of us old enough remember we have seen this vile behavior from the left before. Will it be more violent than the weather underground? I think it will.
parker:
Also, the Weather Underground were very much outliers, revolutionaries going against the grain of the society of the time. These days, although that’s still somewhat true for our current crop, it’s much less true. I believe that there are many more people who support them now, although still not 50%. And there is an entire political party supporting them at this point, a party that does represent half of the US.
Ok…Holder et al advocate violence. The witches are actively hexxing the President and the new SC Justice. Campus Rs are physically assaulted & Capitol Hill Rs get shot at & hounded out of eateries. We’ll see how the run-up to the midterms plays out. But I don’t see an off ramp other than an exchange of gunfire.
I know I sound like a broken record, but it’s coming sooner than we want.
Snow on Pine on October 10, 2018 at 6:35 pm at 6:35 pm said:
From what I see and read, the Left/Democrats in Congress and elsewhere have now driven so far away from decency, and the tenets of Judeo-Christian morality that they can’t even see a trace of them in their rear view mirror.
* * *
They don’t see them in the mirror in front of them either.
I have read a hand-full of posts from the left in re Kavanaugh, and all of them talk about the evil nasty Republicans and how the sweet peaceful Democrats are just going to have to “take off the kid gloves” and get tough for a change.
Since when is this the “new” Democrat party, anyway?
The denial can’t go much higher without breaking the levees.
Right on cue —
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/10/verbal-duel-mcconnell-calls-out-hillary-clinton-for-withholding-civility-until-dems-are-back-in-power/
“The difference now is that Republicans aren’t ignoring threats from Democrats anymore; they’re highlighting the threats and criticizing them.
It’s not clear yet where this will go. I don’t think anyone really wants this to be the tone of our politics. But when one of the handful of leading Democrats says flat out that there can’t be civility from Democrats until they’ve retaken the House and/or the Senate — at a time when Republicans are being harassed in restaurants, their families are receiving death threats, and their personal information is being doxxed from a Democrat’s offices on Capitol Hill — there has to be a response.
Hillary said, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about. That’s why I believe if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and/or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again. But until then, the only thing that the Republicans seem to recognize and respect is strength.”
Conservatives have been responding to her first point all day, of course, pointing out that Democrats as a political party want to destroy what Republicans stand for and care about. I leave it to you to decide how civil Republicans have managed to be nevertheless.”
[It’s hard to be civil “again” when you haven’t been civil in the first place.]
“Hillary said Democrats shouldn’t feel themselves bound by any rules of civility until they get the electoral outcome they want.
Once you’ve moved beyond childhood and into the realm of adult political discourse, that’s actually Bolshevism. It’s the hallmark of modern radical politics, from the French Revolution and its aftermath until now. It’s indefensible.”
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/10/portland-police-want-to-charge-driver-who-escaped-mob-protest-calling-violent-protesters-victims/
The video in question shows a man in a silver car getting caught up in the protest. Apparently fearing for his safety, the man starts to drive through the protest. One genius decides he’s going to jump in front of the car and try to stop it, as other members of the mob converge on the car, shouting obscenities at the driver and beating on his car. The driver eventually made it through, but stopped at the red light up the block. There, the protesters chased him down, smashed a window out in his car, and started threatening him.
[…]
Now police are encouraging the protesters to come forward as “victims” so they can charge the driver of the car with crimes. The police refer to the violent thugs as “pedestrians.”
* * *
Well, Portland is off my bucket list now.
FWIW I understand that John Nolte over at Breitbart is keeping a detailed list of all the violent activity of the left against conservatives
AesopFan,
The projection in accusing the innocent right of what they the left are blatantly guilty of is literally pathological. It’s either a malicious, calculated deceit or a delusional disconnection from reality.
While traveling through the rabbit holes (or weasel warrens), I checked out one of the links in this LU story. The possibility for mischief will be apparent just from the description here, but my main topic is the next node on the trail.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/10/snopes-politifact-to-be-replaced-by-machine-that-can-spot-fake-news/
That node is a website that professes to have a reliable methodology for sorting news sources into the proper ideological bin. I looked at their lists, and most of the names I recognized were in the same place I would have put them (not all, however, and YMMV).
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/
One placement I would dispute is that of The Intercept, the blog that “broke” the Ford-Feinstein-letter story.
I had not ever gotten around to looking at that original story, although it was quoted all the time, and so I went looking for it yesterday. In skimming through a day or two of their oeuvre, the leftist bias was almost palpable. However, the MB/FC only puts them at left-center (with NYT and NPR and WaPo), not extreme left (Daily Beast, HuffPo, LGF).
I think their categories may be overly broad. The methodology also averages four factors, whereas I would like to see a rating that gives the score on each one.
Anyway, it’s instructive to look at the lists, especially the conspiracy and questionable ones — AFAICT, most of them were conservative.
(Sorry, Neo, you didn’t make the cut for any category.)
Since all of the sorting has to be done by people, even those most committed to impartiality probably have a tinge of implicit and unacknowledged bias, kind of like that “hidden racism” the left imputes to everybody they don’t like.
Here’s an example of why CNN made it into the “Left Bias” bucket rather that “Left Central”.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/10/when-is-a-mob-not-a-mob-when-youre-on-cnn/
[on the Portland Antifa Police Irregulars]
And via PowerLine*
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/310008/
UPDATE: In an article at the WaPo, Blake blames — wait for it — Trump (of course) and Mitch McConnell(!) for the Democrats’ violent rhetoric (which was preceded by actual violence). As Steven Miller tweets, “When did McConnell ever encourage political violence? Are you shitting me.”
Flashbacks: [all of these are story links most of us have probably read]
? Democrat Doxxer Threatened To Reveal Senators’ Children’s Health Information.
? DC restaurant: We’ve received death threats after Ted Cruz, wife forced out by protesters.
? Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ): We Are Less Than 60 Days From Totally ‘Kicking the S–t Out of the Republicans.’
? Networks Silent On Attempted Stabbing of GOP Candidate By Anti-Trump Attacker.
? Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) Jokes About Threatening Trump Supporters ‘All The Time.’
? Bernie Bro James T. Hodgkinson, Attempted Assassin Of Steve Scalise, Already Being Erased From History.
? Politico: After failing to stop Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Democrats wonder if it’s time to be more ruthless.
But don’t you dare call them a mob.
Posted by Ed Driscoll at 5:14 pm
* * *
* (MB/FC rating “right bias” aka “extreme or far-right”)
“These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward conservative causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage conservative causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Right Bias sources.
Factual Reporting: HIGH
Notes: Power Line is an American conservative political blog, founded in May 2002. Power Line often vigorously criticizes Democrats and liberals for dishonesty, lack of morals, bad judgment and disloyalty to the United States. While this source has a very strong right wing opinion bias they do report news with proper sources. (10/30/2016)”
I’m having fun with MB/FC —
The Federalist is in the “Right Bias” (far side) bin, but has a Factual Reporting rating of High — which it is in danger of losing because it made one “mostly false” claim on a story about Obama, as determined by … Snopes.
Has this Media Source failed a fact check? LET US KNOW HERE.
Snopes – Least BiasedLEAST BIASED
These sources have minimal bias and use very few loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes). The reporting is factual and usually sourced. These are the most credible media sources. See all Least Biased sources.
Factual Reporting: HIGH
Notes: Snopes.com, also known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, was one of the first online fact-checking websites. It is a resource for validating and debunking such stories in American popular culture. Snopes ownership has said that the site receives more complaints of liberal bias than conservative bias, but insists that the same debunking standards are applied to all political urban legends. In 2012, FactCheck.org reviewed a sample of Snopes’ responses to political rumors regarding George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, and Barack Obama, and found them to be free from bias in all cases. Critics of the site have made the false claim that the website is funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, which has been debunked many times as they are strictly funded through advertising. Finally, MBFC has an article detailing why we rate Snopes least biased that you can view here. Overall, we rate Snopes least biased and high for factual reporting. (7/10/2016) Updated (10/18/2017)
Source: http://www.snopes.com/
* * *
Fisking this entry is left as an exercise for the reader.
I can’t even explain that last line.
The new “woke & choke” brigades should read this article from The Atlantic: that bastion of Far Right Bias.* It has too many important points to summarize, although PL extracts the central kernel.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/large-majorities-dislike-political-correctness/572581/
(h/t PowerLine here)
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/10/political-correctness-and-other-white-elitist-fads.php
My favorite candidate for “woke is in the eye of the beholder”:
“If you look at what Americans have to say on issues such as immigration, the extent of white privilege, and the prevalence of sexual harassment, the authors argue, seven distinct clusters emerge: progressive activists, traditional liberals, passive liberals, the politically disengaged, moderates, traditional conservatives, and devoted conservatives.
[so far so good; I can go with these buckets, but the nomenclature is not entirely parallel, and I guess you would have to read the report to see how the clusters are defined]
According to the report, 25 percent of Americans are traditional or devoted conservatives, and their views are far outside the American mainstream. Some 8 percent of Americans are progressive activists, and their views are even less typical. By contrast, the two-thirds of Americans who don’t belong to either extreme constitute an “exhausted majority.”
…
Progressive activists are the only group that strongly backs political correctness: Only 30 percent see it as a problem.
So what does this group look like? Compared with the rest of the (nationally representative) polling sample, progressive activists are much more likely to be rich, highly educated—and white. They are nearly twice as likely as the average to make more than $100,000 a year. They are nearly three times as likely to have a postgraduate degree. And while 12 percent of the overall sample in the study is African American, only 3 percent of progressive activists are. With the exception of the small tribe of devoted conservatives, progressive activists are the most racially homogeneous group in the country.”
25% of the country includes this “small tribe” — something tells me their definition of “mainstream” is a bit skewed.
*MB/FC rating of The Atlantic:
LEFT-CENTER BIAS
These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes. These sources are generally trustworthy for information, but may require further investigation. See all Left-Center sources.
Factual Reporting: HIGH
World Press Freedom Rank: USA 45/180
History
The Atlantic is an American magazine, founded in 1857 as The Atlantic Monthly in Boston, Massachusetts. Since 2006, the magazine is based in Washington, D.C. Created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine, it has grown to achieve a national reputation as a high-quality review organ with a moderate worldview. The periodical has won more National Magazine Awards than any other monthly magazine. The current editor is Jeffrey Goldberg and the publisher is Hayley Romer.
Funded by / Ownership
On July 28, 2017, Emerson Collective became the majority owner of The Atlantic, purchasing the majority stake from Atlantic Media‘s David G. Bradley. The outlets owned by Emerson Collective include The Atlantic magazine and its digital properties along with its standout events line and Atlantic Media Strategies. The Washington Post reports Emerson Collective plans to move to full ownership of The Atlantic in “three to five years” after their 2017 investment. The Atlantic is funded through and subscription and advertising model.
Analysis / Bias
Both The Atlantic Magazine and web publication produce quality journalism that utilizes moderately loaded wording that typically favors the left: This Is the Moment of Truth for Republicans. All news stories on The Atlantic are properly sourced to factual information and usually present a reasonable balance on issues. Editorially, The Atlantic takes a Left-Center position on most issues and has a long history of endorsing Democratic candidates.
A factual search reveals The Atlantic has never failed a fact check by and IFCN fact checker.
Overall, we rate The Atlantic Left-Center Biased due to editorial position and High for factual reporting based on excellent sourcing of information. (5/15/2016) Updated (D. Van Zandt 7/17/2018)
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” This and “get in their faces”–Obama’s directives for engaging your neighbors with whom you disagree politically. I always bring these 2 up when my leftist friends/family complain about President Trump. And a number of them regularly spout off in all the ways they claim to abhor.
A few quotes from the study itself. (I’m not going to fix all the weird paragraphing from the copying)
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a70a7c3010027736a22740f/t/5bbcea6b7817f7bf7342b718/1539107467397/hidden_tribes_report-2.pdf
Executive Summary
This report lays out the findings of a large-scale
national survey of Americans about the current
state of civic life in the United States. It provides
substantial evidence of deep polarization and
growing tribalism. It shows that this polarization is
rooted in something deeper than political opinions
and disagreements over policy. But it also provides
some evidence for optimism, showing that 77
percent of Americans believe our differences are
not so great that we cannot come together.
At the root of America’s polarization are divergent sets of values and worldviews, or “core beliefs.” These core beliefs shape the ways that individuals interpret the world around them at the most fundamental level. Our study shows how political opinions stem from these deeply held core beliefs. This study examines five dimensions of individuals’ core beliefs:
– Tribalism and group identification
– Fear and perception of threat
– Parenting style and authoritarian disposition
– Moral foundations
– Personal agency and responsibility
The study finds that this hidden architecture of beliefs, worldview and group
attachments can predict an individual’s views on social and political issues with greater accuracy than demographic factors like race, gender, or income.
The research undertaken for this report identifies seven segments of Americans
(or “tribes”) who are distinguished by differences in their underlying beliefs and
attitudes. Membership in these tribes was determined by each individual’s answers to a subset of 58 core belief and behavioral questions that were asked together with the rest of the survey. None of the questions used to create the segmentation related to current political issues or demographic indicators such as race, gender, age or income, yet the responses that each segment gives to questions on current political issues are remarkably predictable and show a very clear pattern.
[graph of their seven groups, I’ll stick the percentages in below]
The segments have distinctive sets of characteristics; here listed in order from left to right on the ideological spectrum:
– Progressive Activists: younger, highly engaged, secular, cosmopolitan, angry. 8%
– Traditional Liberals: older, retired, open to compromise, rational, cautious.
11%
– Passive Liberals: unhappy, insecure, distrustful, disillusioned.
15%
– Politically Disengaged: young, low income, distrustful, detached, patriotic,
conspiratorial.
26%
– Moderates: engaged, civic-minded, middle-of-the-road, pessimistic, Protestant.
15%
– Traditional Conservatives: religious, middle class, patriotic, moralistic.
19%
– Devoted Conservatives: white, retired, highly engaged, uncompromising,
patriotic.
6%
The relevance of the segmentation is evident on a wide array of subjects, from issues of race and prejudice to gender and sexuality. Progressive Activists, the most liberal group, and Devoted Conservatives, the most conservative, show strong degrees of consistency within their ranks, while being almost perfectly at odds with each other. Middle tribes, by contrast, orient themselves incrementally on the ideological spectrum.
Further evidence of the relevance of core beliefs and their associated tribal identities is that tribal membership predicts differences in Americans’ views on various political issues better than demographic, ideological, and partisan groupings.
This can be seen on subjects such as approval of President Trump, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and approval of the modern feminist agenda. On these questions and many others, the differences between the most ideological segments are greater than the differences between, for instance, self-described “strong Republicans” and “strong Democrats.”
* * *
I’m not going to read the whole thing tonight, but it looks worth considering.
I am curious, though, about why “traditional liberals” (11%) are part of the “exhausted majority” while “traditional conservatives” (19%) are part of the “wing” of the right; the first chapter I skimmed showed as much distance between the two types of conservatives as there were between the two types of liberals.
I’m putting this on both posts today for different reasons; it’s an omnibus article.
MB/FC doesn’t list the website in its database, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess it would be “right bias”– you betcha.
http://www.watcherofweasels.org/donald-trump-false-accusations/
September 6, 2018 Bookworm
“Within the past few days, Bob Woodward dropped a book claiming to have first, or second, or third hand information from anonymous people who are, like, totally in the know, and thereby backing up Omarosa’s claim that Donald Trump is a crazy meanie. With perfect timing, an anonymous, but nevertheless really important person, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which s/he announced that Trump is a crazy meanie, so that the person has been forced to mount a seditious movement . . . er, sorry, a Deep State movement . . . er, sorry, a resistance . . . er, sorry, a “steady state” movement (yes, really — “steady state”) to undermine the will of those American people who just happened to elect Donald Trump.
…
The other person to whom I spoke was also on the receiving end of an overzealous prosecutor and ended up pleading out to a lesser charge, not because he was guilty but for the same reason as my client: he couldn’t afford either the legal fees or the risk to his professional reputation. Moreover, because he was dealing with a government agency, it did what those agencies do (see, the FBI and DOJ, above): Its people lied and it refused to turn over relevant documents that would instantly have proven his innocence.
…
All these stories are a reminder that big organizations, whether federal, state, municipal, or corporate, as well as frenzied mobs, have unbelievable power. When people who glory in power, are malicious, and/or dishonest get in the driver’s seat, they can pervert justice in ways that are truly Kafka-esque.
Worse, it’s not just individuals who suffer terrible harm. These events make justice such a travesty that they lead to vigilantism. If the law is manifestly corrupt, people will take power into their own hands, often with results more violent, although in many ways no more cruel, than what flows from corrupt governments or deep-pocketed entities.”
Because a lot of that corruption comes from Democrats and the left (although I’m open to considering that some of the corruptocrats are nominal Republicans).
Bookworm links two stories that are part of the craziness of the leftist-controlled culture.
https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/7-people-whose-lives-were-ruined-by-social-media/
BY JOHN HAWKINS SEPTEMBER 1, 2018
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/09/krissy-noble-self-defense-miscarriage-justice/
By JIBRAN KHAN
September 6, 2018 1:50 PM
“Last December, while 11 weeks pregnant, Krissy Noble was attacked in her Arkansas home by an intruder. The intruder had come by the apartment earlier, asking for her husband, but she didn’t know him. On checking, she found out that her husband did not know the man, either; it later turned out that the name he gave Noble was false. When he came by again, she was on the phone with her husband, who said that he would send a neighbor to check out the situation. At the door, however, she was tackled and punched. Breaking free, and fearing for her life — and that of her child — she grabbed her husband’s pistol, which she had placed on the coffee table after the first suspicious visit, and shot the man three times. Then she ran to the neighbor’s apartment and told her to call 911.
When the police arrived, Noble led them to the body and handed over the gun. Police found duct tape and a rolled-up duffel bag on the attacker’s person. Later, having investigated his identity, they discovered that he had a history of assault. Taking these two factors into account, the police concluded “that Krissy Lenae Noble was justified in her use of force and that this is a justifiable homicide, which does not merit the filing of criminal charges with regard to the homicidal event.” Noble gave birth to her child this year.
Last week, however, prosecutors decided to press charges against Noble — not for the killing itself, which is still held to be justified in self-defense, but for illegally possessing a gun at the time she was attacked.
The situation is absurd as it sounds: Nearly a year after the fact, Noble is being charged not for killing someone with a gun, but for holding a gun at the time she killed someone — an exquisite slicing of principle that makes a farce of our system of justice.“
I truly fear that Mr. Trump may not survive his first term. There is so much hate on the part of the Left.
It is all water under the troubled water. Unless there are skilled procesuctors willing enough and well funded to prrosecute this vile, stinking corpse of offal.
TommyJay on October 10, 2018 at 6:20 pm at 6:20 pm said:
“…his ideological mentor Frank Marshall Davis spent decades there…”
You spelled “father” wrong.
😉
They’re “normalizing” political violence which is something they’re always accusing Republicans of doing. Projection as usual. Also, typically, they’re talking and talking and talking about it which is a form of wish fulfillment. All of which gives implicit permission to violent idiots to just go ahead and shoot.
All this talk about bringing guns to knife fights, kicking people, and being uncivil, is nothing compared to the evil of Brett Kavanaugh daring to toss ice in the direction of another human being. tsk, tsk. The world as we knew it is done for.
Loudly hoping and praying that someone else will do what you lack the testicular fortitude to act on yourself. AKA “Let’s you and him fight”, aka “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
I truly fear that Mr. Trump may not survive his first term. There is so much hate on the part of the Left.
I hope he has his own security around him. I don’t trust the Secret Service since that one female agent said she “would not take a bullet for Trump.”
He had his own security guy but I think he left. The USSS has deteriorated under Obama with drunken orgies on trips and drunken driving in DC.
I have worked at a psychiatric hospital for forty years. I remember professionals – psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, attorneys – laughing when there was an assassination attempt on Reagan and wishing it had succeeded, and similar jokes when Bush 43 was endangered by an out-of-control car during the 2000 campaign. They have always fantacised violence while considering themselves peaceful people.
Violence on the right is usually defensive, even with angry and extreme people, promising to hole up with weapons and dare others to come after them. The bumpersticker about cold dead fingers is a defensive image. The left has always been more aggressive and violent in its protest. It has usually been against objects – breaking glass, setting fires, turning over cars – rather than people. That wasn’t universal, but it was usual. I fear that self-limitation is eroding, and the left’s violence is becoming more directed at human beings.
The Left and Democrats have gone absolutely insane, as they dig around, turn over rocks, peer at the scribblings on bathroom walls, snatch up and read random pieces of discarded paper that they find blowing around on the street, consult a few chosen psychics, trying to find anything—anything—that they can use to discredit and destroy President Trump, his Administration, and his supporters.
Thus, for instance, we have a recent story about Trump’s senior political advisor, Stephen Miller, quoting his Third Grade teacher—think about that a second—his Third Grade teacher—who informs us that in the third grade eight year old Miller was a “loner,” a “strange dude,” who kept a messy desk and reminded her of “Pig Pen” from the cartoon series Peanuts, and played around with and, then, ate some of the paste the the students were using to paste up their little projects—obviously the first ominous signs of a deranged mind, a soon to be sociopath, serial killer, and Hitler acolyte.
I wonder what any of our third grade teachers might have written about our habits and behavior in the third grade, and how those comments on our report cards might now be used against us as we are being shoved by the Left into what appears to be some form of new Inquisition, some current day version of the past’s Stalinist/Maoist eras and their tactics and horrors.
I thought, at first, that this was a satirical piece from the Onion but, in our increasingly crazy and violent political climate, it turns out the this was what passes these days for an actual news item,** one that has been picked up and spread by a number of other publications.
** See https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/stephen-millers-third-grade-teacher-tells-all-1150549
and this, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/stephen-miller-3rd-grade-teacher_us_5bbe815de4b0b27cf47a54b9
I think you’re spot-on. This thuggish trend began under Obama, though he was much more subtle about it, sly one that he is. Obama has a gift for lowering the bar without appearing to do so; but then again, liberals are easily fooled that way.
I agree that Trump shouldn’t encourage violence and the last thing I want to do is defend his blurtations but his freedom of speech was under attack, and I can understand why someone would have a strong reaction to that. I don’t sympathize with “protesters” who interrupt another person’s right to speak at their own venue and who get a bit of their own liberty infringed upon in the process. I call that just desserts.
Lest you think it’s just here in the US, I belong to a group that posts history and pictures of UK churches, from the small village church to large landmark places like York Minster. A fellow American left a complimentary comment about a series of photos and said how much he’d like to see it in person someday. The author responded by saying you’d be welcome anytime, but don’t bring Donald.
Sheesh.
Now now, Phillipa. Perhaps the person was once frightened by a duck, or by Mr. Disney. Benefit of the Doubt, you know.
(Signed) Purposely Obtuse ;>)
Protest is an American right laid out in the Constitution as the right to peacefully assemble and petition the government.
I was a TEA Party protestor. Our protests were always peaceful (in spite of provocations from leftists.) and never interfered with other people’s rights. We got permits, we obeyed the police who were on hand to keep things peaceful, were careful to not interfere with other people’s rights to go about their daily business, and always left the site cleaner than it was when we arrived. In spite of that we were demonized by the MSM, the Democrat Party, and the Obama administration.
Today the lefties are saying their protests are no different than the TEA Party/ That’s a big lie. These protests are seldom permitted, and almost always interfere with the rights of other people to go about their daily business. Blocking intersections/highways, trapping people in offices/elevators/cars/restaurants is an assault on other’s rights. The Capitol police and police departments nationwide need to crack down on this illegal behavior. Legal protests are peaceful and don’t trample on the rights of others. These leftists protests are nothing more than mob actions designed to intimidate people. They are not peacefully petitioning the government for change. They using extortion to get their way. They need to be called on it every day in every forum possible. The average American has no sympathy for these tactics and will support those who stand up against them.
@Phillipa – saying something bad about Trump is a secret handshake early in the conversation now to let people know they’re the right sort. It is not tied tightly to real information anymore.
Phillipa Crawford:
Lest you think it’s just here in the US, I belong to a group that posts history and pictures of UK churches…The author responded by saying you’d be welcome anytime, but don’t bring Donald.
That doesn’t surprise me, as Eurosneers and American lefties very seldom disagree. One irony about that attitude coming from the UK is that Donald Trump’s mother was born and raised in Scotland. When an emigrant’s offspring makes good in America, generally the mother country has a positive attitude towards the offspring. Kenya, for example, was very positive about President Obama, whose father was born and raised in Kenya.
The left, even the intellectual left, wants from normal people what normal people neither want nor need from them.(and by terminological definition there may lie therein an operative definition/tautology: normal not being so warped.)
Whether this neediness of the leftist is biological or psychological or a psychological artifact of their biology, I would not know. But that psychic neediness and resentment seems to me to be at the root of their insatiable desire for control of everyone everywhere, under the justifying rubric of fairness, and equality. Stephen Hicks has, as numbers here have now pointed out, perceptively identified and defined this peculiar quality of the abnormal progressive mindset as “resentment”.
If an insufficiently catering God or Nature have not made men perfectly equal, then progressive man will refashion reality itself, until all causes of resentments and envy are ended; and the world of “from each” and “to each” is eternally established forever and ever amen. Pass another helping of bliss, please …
Julie near Chicago, do you know the third most famous duck? If you are on FB, look up the Bangor Police Department and learn about the Duck of Justice, who, btw, was recently touring Old Blighty so may you are on to something with the duck trauma.
AVI, I agree about the secret handshake. The silence is sometimes deafening when I don’t respond with the expected bash.
Snow on Pine:
What kind of 3d grade teacher calls one of her 8-year-old students a “dude”? Yecchh
JJ – I did not participate in any “Tea Party” activities but was very sympathetic. I thought they had great integrity and it goes without saying they did not engage in the violence and intimidation practiced by today’s left/“antifa”. The demonization of the Tea Party by the MFM was dishonest and disgraceful.
Michelle Obama appeared on NBC’s Today show and responded to the Eric Holder comment.
Interestingly, this sounded like it was also possibly a response to last night’s Laura Ingraham show, where she asked, “What is this stuff [Holder] doing to our children who may not understand the nuances of politics?” (paraphrasing)
Good for Michelle. To be pessimistic, maybe this means she might run for the Presidency?
TommyJay:
Bad cop, good cop?
Good for Michelle. To be pessimistic, maybe this means she might run for the Presidency?
I assume her reply was unscripted. As such, Michelle Obama showed herself to be a good off-the-cuff speaker. Her husband, when off the teleprompter, either put his foot in his mouth or inadvertently unmasked his true opinions.
Phillipa,
Thanks so much for the lead on the Bangor Duck of Justice. I don’t do Facebook, but as the Bangor Daily News says in its Police Department department,
http://bangordailynews.com/bdn-maine/community/duck-of-justice-for-1130-a-duck-of-justice-parable/
To all and sundry (especially the latter): It’s a gently humorous write-up in which, having told the story of the Duck and its admirers — especially Kelly (q.v.) — it goes on to explain that if the plows are out, you may want to run to your car and move it off the street before the “walkers” come by and leave a ticket on it.
Yes, very good of Michelle Obama to have said that. There’s a video of her making the statement here.
Here’s a serious new problem for President Trump who, you might know, had been trying to create better relations with supposed “moderate” Muslim nations—foremost among them Saudi Arabia and it’s young and influential new ruler, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman—so that President Trump can gather, strengthen, and energize a coalition of “moderate” Muslims nations to fight against ISIS and other Muslim terrorist organizations.
Meanwhile another supposed Muslim “ally” and member of NATO, Turkey, has been sliding ever closer to a fundamentalist, hard line Muslim position.
According to news accounts, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and a columnist for the Washington Post, was apparently lured from the U.S. to the Saudi Embassy in Instanbul, Turkey, to get paperwork showing that he had divorced his first wife, which he needed in order to marry his new fiancee.
U.S. intelligence had apparently picked up communications intelligence showing that the Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, gave orders to lure Khashoggi to the Saudi Embassy in Turkey and detain him.
According to reports, a couple of days ago, on October 2nd, Khashoggi entered the Embassy in Turkey—his fiancee waited eleven hours outside the Saudi Embassy—but Khashoggi never came out. On that same day 15 men entered the Embassy.
The Saudi’s say that he left by another exit, but have reportedly offered no proof of this.
Turkish newspapers say that Khashoggi was murdered inside the Embassy, dismembered, his body mailed out in small parcels and, then, that same day, a fifteen member Saudi assassination squad left the Embassy and fled the country in two private Gulfstream jets.
Turkish newspapers have identified each one of these fifteen by name, and also printed surveillance camera pictures of each one of them.
Now, today, comes the story that Khashoggi was wearing an Apple watch, which recorded audio of the murder.
A “bipartisan” group of members of Congress has invoked the Magnitsky Act (originally applied to Russia, but an amended version of which now applies globally), which calls for the imposition of sanctions (on countries and their officials) for “perpetrators of extrajudicial killings, torture or other gross human rights violations,” and called on President Trump to make an inquiry into this incident.
Which will, of course, tend to bust up Trump’s hoped for moderate Muslim coalition.
Here is one news story about this https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/senators-use-human-rights-law-to-compel-trump-to-investigate-disappearance-of-saudi-journalist/
The Apple angle: https://www.wired.com/story/jamal-khashoggis-apple-watch-investigation/ which says that, depending on which model it was and how close his fiancee’s cell phone was, the Apple watch could have recorded and transmitted Khashoggi’s activity level, location, and heart rate data.
Turkish authorities are reported to be working the case and looking at the Apple watch angle.
BTW: Sorry for injecting something totally off topic, but I thought it was very important to alert people to this issue, which could blow up one of Trump’s major diplomatic initiatives, and make it much harder for us to combat Islamic terrorism.
Suspicious ol’ me did notice that this “bipartisan group” of Senators included many more Democrats than Republicans, so the thought did occur that this was merely another way for Democrats to monkey wrench Trump’s agenda.
I’m not convinced any moderate Muslim grouping could include Sadi Arabia.
Quite apart from not being moderate, in any reasonable meaning of the word, they always want to be in charge of any Muslim grouping. Their behaviour towards those that won’t bend the knee, like Qatar, is abominable.
It’s a fool’s errand to try and create Muslim coalitions. Even the Arab world, which has no major ethnic splits and is largely Sunni, can’t even work together very well. Adding in Turks and Shia is a recipe for no cooperation at all.
Snow on Pine on October 11, 2018 at 11:48 pm at 11:48 pm said:
BTW: Sorry for injecting something totally off topic, but I thought it was very important to alert people to this issue, which could blow up one of Trump’s major diplomatic initiatives, and make it much harder for us to combat Islamic terrorism.
Suspicious ol’ me did notice that this “bipartisan group” of Senators included many more Democrats than Republicans, so the thought did occur that this was merely another way for Democrats to monkey wrench Trump’s agenda.
* * *
I’ve been looking at that story also.
However, so far most of the “evidence” has been produced by Turkey.
To say that Erdogan would like to split up the BFF, USA and SA, is an understatement.
Whatever happened to Mr. Khashoggi is tragic, but I am staying neutral on the perps for now. However, here’s a speculation that the SA is at fault, but the death was accidental and occurred during an attempt at rendition.
PS How were the Saudis supposed to do a clandestine exfiltration from their embassy in Turkey — which hates them? They didn’t do a good job of covering their tracks if that was the plan.
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/10/11/trump-rebuking-saudis-khashoggi-hes-not-u-s-citizen-didnt-happen-100-billion-arms-deal-line/
Here’s the underlying link.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-1433170798
Lots of skulduggery, but all reported by the Turks, with a possible assist from British intel ops.
As “ahem” said on another of Neo’s posts today:
“I don’t know the truth, but I have a strong feeling that truth differs substantially from what the public has been told.”
Senator Lindsay Graham–one of the signers of the letter invoking the Magnitsky Act sent to President Trump–was just asked about the Khashoggi matter on FOX news, and he said that, if the reports that Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul were true, it would destroy the U.S. Saudi relationship.
Chester Draws–Perhaps the U.S. trying to form an alliance with somewhat less fundamentalist Muslim nations to fight the most fundamentalist nations and elements within Islam that these more “moderate” nations fear may be a useful temporary tactic.
However, looking at the fundamental texts of Islam, Islamic history, and past and current Islamic behavior around the world, it is obvious that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with our Western Judeo-Christian civilization (what’s left of it) and, in fact, is diametrically opposed to it.
Thus, any alliance with particular Muslim nations can only be a temporary alliance of convenience, similar to the Islamic “hudna,” which is what these Islamic nations may be trying to forge with the U.S.—a temporary, short term alliance made with an enemy that will allow you to gather your forces and strengthen yourself, before breaking off the alliance before the end of it’s supposed term, and resuming conflict with that enemy and temporary ally.
As I understand it, a “hudna” can also be the cessation of conflict–a truce, or a peace treaty.
No one seems to be asking how Turkey got audio from inside the Saudi consulate.
Of course, bugging diplomatic buildings is a “given” in international politics, but isn’t revealing that a rather blatant provocation?
I don’t trust Erdogan to tell me the sun rose this morning, I trust the Saudis about the same. However, I wonder why so many “conservatives” are jumping to “guilty until proven innocent” for MBS after just repudiating that concept with Kavanaugh.
The point being: nobody knows what happened except the people who were there, and they don’t appear to be telling all they know.
AesopFan–Horrible circumstance if true, but it would certainly be a selling point for Apple watches–in terms of crime prevention–if the stories that say Khashoggi’s Apple watch captured his interrogation and murder, and broadcast it to his fiancee’s cell phone or to the Cloud, are true.
The projection in accusing the innocent right of what they the left are blatantly guilty of is literally pathological
Same thing happened in Soddom and Gomorrah. People just don’t know about it because it was written in the Book of Jasher and not “the bible”…
For example in S and G, strangers and new people would be harassed and left to starve in the streets (big no no in the covenants). Then if a person strikes a stranger in the head and the head bleeds, the stranger must pay his attacker money for this favor.
Haha, you humans always do the same thing over and over. And every single time you people will blame the gods for punishing and stopping this behavior. So they just leave it alone now, enjoy.
Which will, of course, tend to bust up Trump’s hoped for moderate Muslim coalition.
Welcome Trum to all the headaches Bush and Cheney had to deal with in the ME, while Trum was chanting no blood for oil and people died.
in terms of crime prevention
That’s not prevention.
However, looking at the fundamental texts of Islam, Islamic history, and past and current Islamic behavior around the world, it is obvious that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with our Western Judeo-Christian civilization (what’s left of it) and, in fact, is diametrically opposed to it.
Apparently protecting children is fundamentally incompatible with the Church of Rome and Vatican run Western religious control institutions. But people don’t want to talk about that as it makes the West look bad.
While the Vatican was selling sex slaves to the Islamos from captured European heretics, that’s okay right. But Islamos slave raiding into Iceland, that’s not okay, right. Just a bunch of Western hypocrites historically. The Italian mafias and patriarch merchant houses were the middle men for the sex slave trafficking of women from Europe to the ME harems, period. But people don’t want to talk about that as it makes the West and their Crusades look evil.
As per Google, don’t Look Evil.