COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: Kamala Harris took money from Epstein’s law firm the same day she blasted it.
Archive for 2019
July 15, 2019
OPEN THREAD: Enjoy!
RADICAL CHIC: THE NEXT GENERATION. New Video: AOC, Ilhan Omar repeatedly refuse to condemn Antifa attack on ICE!
He’s not wrong. As John Hinderaker writes at Power Line:
I am pretty much with Lindsay Graham on this one. There aren’t many bad things one can say about AOC, Ilhan Omar et al. that I wouldn’t subscribe to, as long as one sticks to the facts.
Some would say that Graham went overboard when he referred to the radical Democrats as “a bunch of Communists,” on the ground that a socialist is not the same thing as a Communist. I am not offended by Graham’s use of that term, however. I think when people like the radical Congresswomen and Bernie Sanders use the phrase “democratic socialist” to describe their views, they basically mean Communism that is imposed via elections rather than armed rebellion. If there is any limit they would impose on government power, I haven’t seen it–certainly not in the Green New Deal.
To be fair, based on their recent activity, the jury is still out on AOC and her chief of staff being national or international socialists.
DANIELLA GREENBAUM DAVIS: The brief bravery of Scarlett Johansson.
Johansson found herself at the center of a curious conversation last July. Like every actor in the film industry, she is frequently paid to portray individuals aside from herself. English language speakers used to refer to this behavior as ‘acting.’ The job in question was to act in a film called Rub and Tug. The problem? The character Johansson was slated to play was transgender, and the actress is not. Inquisitive minds may wonder whether the task of portraying someone who is not yourself and not like yourself fits within the job description of an actor? Hope you didn’t dare wonder that out loud.
I did, last summer, in a column for Business Insider, where I was then a political columnist. It didn’t go very well for me. It didn’t go very well for Johansson either, who had dared to accept a transgender role. After immense — and, If I may bait the censors again, highly unwarranted — criticism, she pulled out from the film, turning down the role in recognition of some perceived social sin. Fast forward a year. No one has seen Rub and Tug: not because it was made with some lesser actor following Johansson’s exit, but because in the wake of the scandal, the film has not been made at all. What a victory that must be for the transgender community, who remain essentially invisible to so much of the American public. The kind of exposure Scarlett Johansson could have brought to this minority group is incalculable. Instead, nothing.
But trans people weren’t the only losers in this equation. We all were. As the left continues to reform and reshape every single industry in its own image, we are failing to meet their efforts with proper fortitude. Instead, society seems to increasingly give into a mob that gorges itself upon its victories. Just last week, Johansson gave an interview in which she said, among other things, ‘as an actor, I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job.’ Hear, hear. She went on to say, ‘I feel like it’s a trend in my business and it needs to happen for various social reasons, yet there are times it does get uncomfortable when it affects the art because I feel art should be free of restrictions.’
Pretty strong comments considering it was just a year ago that she pulled out from a film in the face of criticism.
Read the whole thing.
THOUGHTS ON ASYMMETRIC WEAPONRY.
HATE IS OKAY WHEN THEY DO IT: Nikki Haley slams ‘disgusting’ silence from Dems after Mexican flag raised at ICE facility.
BLUE ON BLUE: Cuomo rips de Blasio amid power outage fallout.
CHUD: THE NEXT GENERATION. Police: Flushing drugs could create Alabama ‘meth-gators.’
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Peter Thiel Urges U.S. Probe of Google’s ‘Seemingly Treasonous’ Acts.
GREAT MOMENTS IN GASLIGHTING:
● Shot: “‘There are very few people who are able to deliver a trustworthy broadcast without point of view,’ says CBS News president Susan Zirinsky. ‘That’s who we want to be.’”*
—“Norah O’Donnell Takes Over as Anchor on ‘CBS Evening News,’” the Hollywood Reporter, today.
● Chaser: Norah at Night: The Most Liberal Moments From Incoming CBS Evening News Anchor.
—NewsBusters, today.
* Curiously, lots of talk about Walter Cronkite, but none of Dan Rather in the Hollywood Reporter article. Katie Couric and Scott Pelley are each only mentioned once, despite (or likely because of) their own inability to “deliver a trustworthy broadcast without point of view.”
JEFF DUNETZ: Epstein Accusers’ Attorney Makes A Very Positive Point About Trump.
Best-selling author James Patterson wrote a book about Epstein and his crimes published in 2017 called “Filthy Rich: The Billionaire’s Sex Scandal–The Shocking True Story of Jeffrey Epstein.” In the book, Patterson independently substantiated that Trump booted Epstein from his resort:
“There were some complaints about Epstein at Mar-a-Lago,” he said. “I spoke to the head of the spa there. I said, ‘did you ever meet Epstein?’ She said, ‘oh yes… he was inappropriate with some of the younger women there. She said she went to Trump and he threw him out of the club.”
All of this is unfolding in the context of an Epstein case that most observers think could affect a lot of “very connected” people, from politicians to industry executives and the media.
YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Merriam-Webster: Hey, Don’t Use Us to Defend Trump!
PRO-TRUMP MEMESMITH CARPE DONKTUM SAYS BUZZFEED IS THREATENING TO DOX HIM AND HIS FAMILY:
BuzzFeed and its alumni have a long history of this sort of thing, dating back to Andrew Kaczynski ginning up the Twitter mob to get Justine Sacco fired over a botched joke in 2013, and in 2017, now with CNN, doxxing a pro-Trump Twitter meme maker on the fourth of July. The firestorm that Sacco faced and other Twitter shame mobs are a topic of Glenn’s new book, incidentally.
UPDATE: “I have heard back from [BuzzFeed] and they have decided to run the story WITHOUT including my name,” “Carpe Donktum” tweets. “Thank you for making the right decision. My family thanks you as well.”
IT’S THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE Apollo/Soyuz Mission. We had a family trip to Pawley’s Island and I took a portable TV along to watch the flight.
WELL, TWITTER IS OPPOSED TO FREE SPEECH, SO. . . BREAKING: Twitter silences Canadian free speech activist Lindsay Shepherd.
JIM MEIGS: Dark Days Ahead? Saturday night’s Manhattan blackout could be a harbinger of things to come. “Across the country, the challenge of coping with aging power systems is aggravated by green-energy mandates.”
IT’S DEJA BARRY ALL OVER AGAIN: Biden: If You Like Your Health Care Plan, You Can Keep It.
Whew, good thing Biden didn’t work for a president who spoke 2013’s “lie of the year” (awarded by Democratic Party house organ “Politifact” no less) at least 36 times, and whose staffers would go on to joke about it with now disgraced former CBS anchor Charlie Rose, who creepily laughed right along with them.
FLASHBACK: “Of course Trump fucking won.”
AT AMAZON, Prime Deal of the Day, Sun Joe SPX2598 2000 PSI 1.65 GPM 14.5-Amp Electric Pressure Washer.
JUST THINK OF THE MEDIA AS DEMOCRATIC PARTY OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES, AND IT ALL MAKES SENSE: The Photo Adorning The Economist’s Article on Jeffrey Epstein Features the Billionaire Not With Bill Clinton But With Donald Trump.
AT AMAZON, Prime Day Deals in Health & Personal Care.
BOOKWORM ROOM: Trump is not a racist; he’s pushing the Overton window to normal.