Archive for 2020
October 3, 2020
60 MINUTES INTERVIEWS TARA READE IN A SURPRISE MSM OCTOBER HIT ON JOE BIDEN: There’s just one problem. It’s the Australian version of 60 Minutes.
As Stephen Miller asks, “Wait…60 minutes AUSTRALIA is running this??? Hey US Media…what happened?”
UNEMPLOYMENT IS EVERYWHERE: Flatworms could replace rabbits as models for skin products.
‘I WAS BEING NICE!!’ Tom Arnold Tweets, Deletes Hope Hicks’ Phone Number After Positive COVID Test.
Was it actually her number? If so, that’s doxing, and how did he get it? If not, since Arnold currently has nearly 267,000 followers, a random person must have gotten thousands of angry messages on his her cell phone. In any case, why isn’t Arnold being banned or given a serious timeout by Twitter’s management for this move?
THERE’S A JOE BIDEN JOKE HERE: Study: Fecal transplant may one day be used to reverse cognitive decline.
ROGER SIMON: Why Trump Contracting COVID-19 Will Reelect Him.
On the surface, Biden is rather like a middlebrow Sinclair Lewis character version of Yasser Arafat, telling one thing to moderate Democrats and another thing to progressives, the AOC/Bernie crowd. Only Joe has to deal with both sides in English while lucky Yasser could switch back and forth between Arabic and English.
Joe’s refusal to answer whether or not he would pack the Supreme Court is a perfect representation of who he is—a confused coward who happens to be running for president.
Nevertheless, if we are to believe the polls (and I don’t, really, but arguendo…) Biden enjoys a sizable lead a month off from the election.
This can largely be ascribed to the mainstream media whose hatred for Trump was manifest the moment he rode down the escalator to announce his candidacy.
Almost simultaneously, if you think about it, a cabal of intelligence and FBI agents, evidently with the approval of the previous administration, began a treasonous attempt to prevent Trump’s election or, failing that, to discredit him. Then came the impeachment trial over Ukraine when it was Biden & Son who deserved to be impeached for their activities in that country.
All of this has resulted in an unprecedented level of hate and vengeance in our country that seems unending.
But as with the French Revolution, eventually these things go too far and burn out. Now we have reached a kind of apotheosis of hate that portends some kind of ending.
With Trump contracting the sometimes fatal disease that has been plaguing the planet, Twitter and other sources were littered with people (leftists of course) not wishing him well (like decent grown-ups) but wishing he die.
This started not more than an hour, or was it minutes, after it was announced Trump had contracted the disease. These leftists included leaders of the Democratic Party and, needless to say, well-known cable TV pundits, many of them filthy rich and hypocritical beyond belief.
Over the last few years, Trump has frequently been accused of “going too far.” This would be the end. But it is the left that has now gone too far, lusting for death—and the whole world is/was watching.
They are the new Robespierres and they are headed for their own self-inflicted, metaphorical guillotines.
In the aftermath of Trump’s contracting COVID-19, they are reelecting him.
Not if Silicon Valley can help it: Facebook, Twitter And TikTok Say Wishing Trump’s Death From COVID-19 Is Not Allowed.
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: AOC baffles Jewish community by refusing to meet with leaders.
THE HEADLINE DOESN’T SAY IT, BUT HE’S A DEMOCRAT: U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham admits to sexual texting with California strategist. He’s married, and so is she.
COMING OUT FROM ROGER KIMBALL: Who Rules?: Sovereignty, Nationalism, and the Fate of Freedom in the Twenty-First Century.
President Trump’s July 4 speech at Mount Rushmore celebrated American history, with invocations of the Founders, the Revolution, and 1776 in Philadelphia. The monument provided an appropriate backdrop to review the legacies of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Panegyrics to past leaders and expressions of faith in the American spirit are standard fare for Independence Day oratory, as much to be expected as are fireworks displays. But this year was different. July 4 occurred amid a wave of protests in the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, public efforts to raise awareness of anti-Black racism, and a renewed push to remove public symbols of the Confederacy. As protesters tore down historical monuments of Southern generals, George Washington too was attacked, as well as figures on the Northern side of the epic battle around slavery: Ulysses S. Grant in San Francisco, the Saint-Gaudens memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment in Boston, the abolitionist Hans Christian Heg in Madison, Wisconsin, and even monuments to Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. At this moment of widespread vandalism, the presidential choice to speak at the perhaps grandest of monuments was destined to elicit controversy.
Amid his expected patriotic appeals, Trump also called out the “merciless campaign to wipe out our history” being carried out by an ideological movement that he described in attention-getting terms as “a new far-left fascism.” That designation is more historically specific and pointed than one associates with standard political attacks and should therefore give us pause. It provides an opportunity to think through some of the complex historical connotations of the accusation of “left fascism,” just as it challenges us to consider the applicability of the term to the current developments in the country.
* * * * * * * *
Trump’s accusation of left fascism stings because it contradicts the standard political map. Fascism is typically treated as an exclusively far-right phenomenon, a conservatism on steroids, as distant as possible from the left end of the scale. However, there is also a long-standing discourse around “left fascism” that originates in the early 20th century, not as an insult from the right but with critiques made by prominent leftists directed at their own movement. Two Jewish women, both associated with the left, though different parts of it—Hannah Arendt and Rosa Luxemburg—each played a crucial role in developing the intellectual framework necessary to describe and criticize left fascism. The concept has taken on other meanings as well over the course of its history, at times coming from fascists themselves. Examining these various strands of left fascist meaning and political tradition can shed some light on our current predicament. Since historic fascism was largely a European phenomenon, it is important to start in Italy and Germany, the crucibles of historic fascism, before coming back to our American predicament.
And then there was early “Progressive” H.G. Wells:
By 1932, a frustrated Wells found his superior wisdom bypassed time and again by the superior mass appeal of fascism and Communism. In a talk at Oxford provocatively titled “Liberal Fascism,” he called for liberalism to be “born again.” After his customary denunciation of parliamentary politics as an anachronism, he let out his frustrations, calling for fascist means to serve liberal ends by way of a liberal elite as “conceited” and as power-hungry as its rivals. “I suggest that you study the reinvigoration of Catholicism by Loyola,” Wells said. “I am asking for a Liberal Fascisti.”
The intertwining ideologies of the international socialists and National Socialists sounds like it would make a great topic for a book.
It’s worth considering: Does the Trump administration’s policy approach deserve credit for the massive economic successes during the president’s pre-pandemic first term?
It’s true that some poor policy management on issues prevented the economy from hitting even higher heights during this period, such as the weight of an increasing national debt and the fallout from Trump’s harmful trade restrictions.
And, of course, no president of any party is entirely responsible for the country’s economic outcomes, even if that is, unfortunately, how the economy is often portrayed by the press and political class. There are, quite literally, millions of factors in play that determine the state of the economy.
But there’s no denying the fact that the laissez-faire approach of deregulation the Trump administration implemented during its first three years contributed to the economic growth and rise in the stock market that fueled surges in household net worth. The 2017 tax reform lowered punitive corporate taxes, which fueled growth by making the US more internationally competitive. Thus, the Trump administration does deserve major credit for the positive economic trends we’ve experienced.
In sharp contrast: Biden’s Green New Deal Will End Fracking And Make America Beholden To China.
RADICAL CHIC, THE GERITOL YEARS: Old and busted: Cosmopolitan’s 110 Tips for Better Sex.
The New Hotness? Cosmo at the Barricades!
Cosmo, part of the Heart* magazine empire, advocates contributing to bail out funds for rioters:
So many of the organizations that are dedicated to helping save and advocate for Black lives are in desperate need of additional funds, as are the families involved. And many protestors are being held on bail, so donating to a bail fund helps combat mass incarceration as well as racial and economic disparities.
Cosmo’s lengthy list of deserving organizations including the following:
The Milwaukee Freedom Fund has pledged to support protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as they carry out demonstrations following the shooting of Jacob Blake. On August 23, Blake was shot seven times in the back by the police as he tried to enter his SUV, where his three sons bore witness. CNN reported that prior to the shooting, Blake broke up a fight between two women.Black Visions is committed to organizing Black communities in Minnesota. Donate here and text Black Lives to 23559 to stay informed.
* The Hearst magazine empire, you say? I wonder what Patty Hearst thinks of their turn to the radical chic left? In any case, yet another example of why it would be a good thing if billionare GOP supporters “Buy some women’s magazines. No, really. Or at least some women’s Web sites.”
NO REASON FOR DELAY: Amy Coney Barrett vote by Nov. 1.
JUST A REMINDER: I get paid based on ad revenue now, so if you wouldn’t mind whitelisting InstaPundit if you run an ad blocker that would be great. Or some people hit the PayPal donation button, which is also great.
KURT SCHLICHTER: The COVID Chaos Is a Net Plus for Trump’s Campaign.
But now Trump has options and does not have to be the focus every day, giving his soft supporters a respite from his restless energy. He couldn’t stop doing press and rally events before without drawing scrutiny, but now he can. Ditto dodging the next debate – he can do it if he wants, or not do it if he wants, with no fallout. He can still talk to the press if he feels like it, he’ll just have to be in a plastic bubble. But if he doesn’t want to, he doesn’t have to, and then you have a press with no one to talk to, so maybe the pressure grows on Joe to fill the void. And when Joe fills a void, it’s like when Nadler fills his trousers.
There are a couple of other intangibles. The first is this is yet another moment where the Democrat left comes off the leash and starts saying out loud all the things they were only supposed to say under their breath. Their dancing around hoping that Donald Trump will die, and that his wife will die too, is repellent to normal human beings. Since normal human beings are not a key liberal demographic, they probably don’t understand what psychos they sound like. The Democrats had to put the message out to their legions to stop rioting because that was freaking out the squares, and then stop trashing Amy Coney Barrett for liking Jesus and not being a barren, whiny, feminist shrew, because that was also freaking out the squares, and now publicly cheering on the death of the president and his wife will further freak out the squares. And there are a lot more squares voting than edgy elitists who think being avant garde means tweeting about how they hope Trump dies.
Perhaps that’s why Jack Dorsey decided to do cleanup duty for his fellow leftists on Twitter: Twitter to remove posts hoping for Trump’s death.
I hope our sister site Twitchy is screenshotting those by the best-known Democrats before they’re tossed down the memory hole.
It’s safe to conclude there are a fair number of ghoulish tweets: “The poll—conducted by the technology company Morning Consult and the political publication Politico—polled nearly 1,000 Americans on Friday from 12:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.. The pollsters asked several questions about people’s reactions to Trump’s diagnosis. While 55 percent of Republicans reported feeling ‘sad’ and 51 percent reported feeling ‘worried’ about his diagnosis, 40 percent of Democrats said they felt ‘happy’ and 41 percent said they felt ‘indifferent’ about it.”
YET ANOTHER FABULIST AT THE NEW YORK TIMES? James Foley’s Family Blasts Star NY Times Reporter Rukmini Callimachi’s ‘Lies.’
Long before The New York Times began its review of the reporting in her critically acclaimed podcast, the paper was aware of deep concerns about star correspondent Rukmini Callimachi’s work, including from the family of James Foley, the American journalist brutally killed by ISIS in 2014.
“She left our family with a lot of pain from her un-professionalism and lies,” James’ brother Michael Foley told The Daily Beast in an email.
Last Friday, Canadian law enforcement arrested Shehroze Chaudhry, a 25-year-old Canadian man who claimed for years that he had worked as an executioner in the Islamic State. Chaudhry became a source of public fascination after attracting media attention from major outlets including The Times, which told his story in the multi-part investigative podcast series Caliphate, hosted by Callimachi, a Pulitzer finalist and foreign correspondent for the paper.
Canadian authorities now claim that Chaudhry, better known by his alias Abu Huzayfah, fabricated his story, and have charged him with concocting a terrorist hoax. And while the story raised eyebrows among some of the rank-and-file staff at the paper of record, Friday’s arrest was not the first time the Times has been forced to take a closer look at Callimachi’s reporting.
Walter Duranty. Andrew Rosenthal. Jayson Blair. Possibly Jill “I do not record. I’ve never recorded” Abramson. Nikole Hannah-Jones. And now possibly Callimachi as well. When asked about the Washington Post’s 1981 fabulist, Janet Cooke, the late Tom Wolfe told his interviewer:
It reminded me of when I first went to work on the New York Herald Tribune and they were still laughing over the ship-of-sin scandal from prohibition days. An informant had told the Herald Tribune that there was a ship of sin operating outside of a three-mile limit off of eastern Long Island. On board you could get liquor and dope and sex. So the Tribune sent a reporter out. He didn’t find the ship, but he did find a saloon in Montauk, and he phoned in about five days’ worth of the most lurid stories in the history of drunk newspapermen. Half of New York City gasped and the other half rushed out to eastern Long Island to rent motor launches, until it was discovered he had made up the whole thing. These things happen about every three or four years; some reporter gets caught piping a story out of his skull…Phony stories are going to be written every once in a while, so long as you give reporters the trust that you have to give them.
But they do seem to happen on quite a regular basis at the Gray Lady.
