NO ENEMIES TO THE LEFT: Chuck Todd Finds All the Disinformation In ‘Ecosystem Problem’ on the Right.
Joy Reid, Brian Williams, Al Sharpton, Tom Brokaw, Andrea Mitchell, and Rachel Maddow could not be reached for comment. Todd, the Democratic Party operative with a byline, began his career in politics as a Democratic Party operative for former Sen. Tom Harkin, who also knows a thing or two about gaslighting.
ANY GIVEN SUNDAY: Game Day Rewind: Dolphins stun Patriots, 27-24.
As a result, somebody lost an expensive wager:
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: A Democrat Blames His Democratic Party For Upsurge In Antisemitism — He’s Right (Videos).
That’s former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who earlier this year sued Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, after she blocked him on Twitter for pointing out her pro-Palestinian worldview. As fellow Insta-co-blogger Charles Glasser wrote in November, “He sued her pants off in federal court, and she threw in the towel this afternoon.”
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ISN’T IT WEIRD, THOUGH? Trump and the troops: The president’s weird popularity with the military shows few signs of diminishing. “Enthusiasm for Trump among American servicemen, both active-duty and veteran, seems to be one of the more genuine things about this surreal phase of American politics. In polls, support for the president among veterans far outpaces that among Americans at large. Whenever Trump visits the troops, military leaders struggle to rein in the display of unauthorized MAGA paraphernalia. One former US Central Command planner described the support for Trump among much of the military as ‘downright cult-like’.”
Plus: “There is one additional key to Trump’s military popularity: America’s generals, though lionized as never before, are emperors without clothes. As with every institution of American life, the gatekeepers are on life-support. . . . Trump can ride roughshod over the institutional military because so many of its leaders symbolize professional and ethical failure.” Well, their record has not been exactly brilliant.
And I don’t find the troops’ enthusiasm for Trump as inexplicable as the author does. You see, they know that Trump listens.
THE NEW YORK TIMES ENDS THE YEAR WITH THE HOTTEST OF HOT TAKES: Twitter Made Us Better.
Fact Check: Very, very false: Twitter is a virus of the mind.
ROGER SIMON: Diversity Obsession Partly to Blame For Rise in Anti-Semitism.
The horrible attack on a Jewish shul in Monsey, New York on the seventh night of Hanukkah is not directly connected to the atmosphere on American campuses and, sadly, in certain quarters of the U.S. Congress. But they are of a piece spiritually and psychologically.
Something is drastically wrong. The canary in the coal mine (Jews first, others later) is back. It’s permissible to slur Jews and to beat or stab them (five different violent incidents during this Hanukkah alone in the New York City area). Jewish students on college campuses are hiding their religious affiliation as they cross the green to class.
Why now? What has caused all this?
It’s not the sole reason, but I am going to say something outrageous to some. It is the worship of diversity. Note that word—worship.
Diversity is by itself a good thing. We are a diverse society. As many have said, that’s part of our strength.
What has developed in recent decades, however, is the elevation of diversity above all. The slogan “E pluribus unum” (out of many one) has virtually disappeared from our country, the “unum” pushed to irrelevance.
Read the whole thing.
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THIS MUST BE REDISTRIBUTED IN THE INTEREST OF FIGHTING INEQUALITY: A Third Of America’s Economy Is Concentrated In Just 31 Counties.
I THINK I LIKE CONCEPT 3 THE BEST. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Knoxville Science Museum unveils design plans for $100 million project.
EVERYTHING MOVES FASTER IN THE 21st CENTURY. Roger Kimball proposes forming the Standing Committee on Impeachment: “Start talking about impeaching a president 19 minutes after he is inaugurated, go on talking about it at every opportunity, regardless of whether there are any grounds to deploy this most serious of political rebukes. Could a Standing Committee on Impeachment do any better?”
LEST WE FORGET: The Missing Chinese Activists of 2019.
IDENTITY POLITICS ENABLES ANTI-SEMITIC VIOLENCE. ENOUGH:
When it came to discussing the recent shooting at the Jersey City kosher supermarket by two Black Hebrew Israelites, reporting was startlingly sparse on the particulars surrounding the murders. As Bethany Mandel of Ricochet noted, many key details appeared purposely omitted, including but not limited to, the fact that video footage suggested the perpetrators’ initial target was a school full of Jewish children; that the perpetrators had a significant amount of ammunition; and that videos taken after the attack revealed many in the neighborhood blamed the Jews for the attack. Even following the killings, I am not sure if even one media outlet reported on the fact that a school board member in Jersey City, referring to Jews as “brutes,” essentially defended the murders as a natural response to too many Jews moving into the area.
The “social justice” arena in the United States, where most issues related to racial discrimination get siloed, is occupied primarily by those on the left. Thus, the growing problem is now groups traditionally in the business of confronting hate are less interested in doing so if they are unable to attribute the Jew-hatred to Trump or Republicans. If that anti-semitism is emanating from corners traditionally occupied by the left, the advocacy figures and media talking heads show an alarming and frankly disturbing indifference.
No enemies to the left, to coin a phrase popular with early “Progressives in a hurry.”
YET PEOPLE KEEP TELLING US THAT CAPITALISM IS “BROKEN.” The World’s Poorest People Are Getting Richer Faster than Anyone Else: In 1820, 94% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. In 1990, 34.8%, and in 2015, just 9.6%.
DEVELOPING: 2 Dead, 1 Critically Injured After Shooting At West Freeway Church Of Christ In Fort Worth, TX Suburb. “A witness told CBS 11 News the gunman walked up to a server during communion with a shotgun and then opened fire. According to the witness, another church member shot the suspect.”
KAROL MARKOWICZ: How liberals are allowing anti-Semitism to flourish.
Mayor de Blasio released his usual by-the-numbers statement. “Hate doesn’t have a home in our city,” he tweeted. But hate does have a home here, and it has found it while Hizzoner has mostly looked away.
The mayor added: “In light of recent anti-Semitic attacks, the NYPD will increase their presence in Borough Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg.” But the recent attacks have spread to Midtown Manhattan and Gravesend, Brooklyn. The problem has gotten worse while inaction paralyzed the mayor.
I first wrote about the uptick in May. The reason the city’s liberal political class was ignoring it, I argued, is that the criminals don’t fit their picture of Evil Bigots. They aren’t, for the most part, MAGA-hat wearing white guys with tiki torches. In fact, many of the attackers are people of color, as investigative reporting by Tablet’s Armin Rosen and others has shown.
Imagine if they were white nationalists. How much faster would the mayor and other city leaders have taken action?
Indeed.
TAKING STOCK OF FAKE NEWS: Top Media Mythbusting Posts of 2019, from W. Joseph Cambell at his Media Myth Alert blog.
DAVID BARON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Bear Found Walking Around University of Tennessee Campus. This is not the first time that’s happened.
SYNAGOGUE STABBER IDENTIFIED AS GRAFTON THOMAS, 37. “Some media outlets reported the suspect’s name as Thomas Grafton or Thomas E. Grafton, but public records reveal it to be Grafton E. Thomas. He is scheduled to be arraigned on five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary at a Rockland County courthouse on Sunday. Grafton Thomas is 37 and lives in Greenwood Lake, New York, which is about 20 miles away from Monsey in Orange County, New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo said Sunday, ‘This is violence spurred by hate. It is mass violence and I consider this an act of domestic terrorism. Let’s call it what it is.’ He said there have been at least 13 anti-Semitic attacks in New York state since December 8”
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