Archive for 2020

HE’S RIGHT:

OPEN THREAD: Sharing a drink called loneliness, but it’s better than commenting alone.

MODIFIED LIMITED HANGOUT CONCLUDES:

● Shot: Congressional Democrats rebut Trump charge they want to defund police.

—Headline, the Washington Examiner, Thursday.

● Chaser: Majority of Minneapolis City Council signs pledge to disband police department.

—Headline, the Washington Examiner, today.

● Hangover: NRCC turns up heat on vulnerable Democrats over [Ilhan] Omar’s call to abolish police.

—Headline, The Hill, Friday.

AOC’s tweet is also included in article: “If police budgets bought peace, the $6 *billion* NYPD budget would’ve bought the most sophisticated de-escalatory operation in the world.”

New Yorkers are now getting the bad old days of the pre-Giuliani era good and hard. As Kyle Smith warned in 2013 on the eve of de Blasio’s election, he and fellow New Yorkers “grouse about soda bans and Citi Bikes. Twenty years ago, we worried about being mugged or murdered. Electing a Democrat who demonizes the police would ignore the luxury provided by two decades of safety.”

●  Finally, the D.T.s:

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser had “Black Lives Matter” painted onto 16th St. just down from the White House. Last night protesters added “Defund The Police”

—Tweet by Doug Mills of the New York Times today. As Charlie Sykes of the Bulwark correctly notes at that last link, “This is *huge* in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign. A gift.

YOU’RE NEVER WOKE ENOUGH TO BE SAFE, WHICH IS THE POINT: J.K. Rowling mobbed for saying that only women menstruate. “The famous author also suggested she was voicing an opinion shared by others who were too scared to speak out over fears of being met with an overwhelming backlash.”

But remember to believe in science, y’all.

TRUST THE EXPERTS. They know the science.

OUR NEW ORACLES: They Blinded Us With “Science.” Throughout the pandemic, political leaders have consistently relied on questionable expert guidance—and ducked responsibility for their own choices. They’ve imposed disastrous policies by surrendering power to public-health officials who only pretend to be unbiased, and who lack the knowledge or perspective to make wise decisions.

WELL, THERE’S A HEADLINE THAT GETS YOUR ATTENTION: Minneapolis City Council Members Announce Intent To Disband The Police Department, Invest In Proven Community-Led Public Safety.

Related: Would Joe Biden defund the police? It is worth giving abolitionists a hearing. It is also worth asking them questions, getting them to be specific and detailed about their stated goals.

Given that Biden is for-gainst the 1994 Crime Bill he once bragged about writing, I wonder if Trump can brand the last ten days as “the Biden Riots” in his fall campaign ads?

Earlier: Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Made to Leave Protest in Shame After Refusing to Defund Police.

CRYBULLIES CLAIM ANOTHER SCALP: NY Times editorial page editor James Bennet resigns amid staff fury over Tom Cotton op-ed.

The New York Times announced Sunday that Editorial Page Editor James Bennet is resigning — amid reports of anger inside the company over the publication of an op-ed from Sen. Tom Cotton about the George Floyd unrest last week.

Bennet had apologized late last week after previously defending the piece, titled, “Send in the Troops.” Cotton, R-Ark., called for the government to deploy troops to help quell riots and looting that emerged amid the anger over Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody last month.

“The journalism of Times Opinion has never mattered more than in this time of crisis at home and around the world, and I’ve been honored to be part of it,” Bennet said in a statement. “I’m so proud of the work my colleagues and I have done to focus attention on injustice and threats to freedom and to enrich debate about the right path forward by bringing new voices and ideas to Times readers.”

Fired for publishing an op-ed written by a Republican senator espousing an opinion held by the majority of the American public, or to put it another way, doubleplus ungood crimethink:

In a 2018, review of Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s The Coddling of the American Mind, Quillette contributor Matthew Lesh asked, “Is Safetyism Destroying a Generation?

Yes, and they’re now collecting plenty of scalps from the older generation as well along the way.

UPDATE: Heh, indeed:

Meanwhile, over in the “news” division of the Gray Lady: “Journalism is dead. That fact was made abundantly clear by New York Times staff writer and founder of the factually-inaccurate 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones in an appearance on the CNN’s so-called ‘Reliable Sources’ Sunday, where she argued that the media couldn’t legitimately treat the Republican Party fairly because they were a ‘rogue’ organization and being fair would be ‘picking sides.’”

The New York Times morphed so slowly into the Daily Kos, I hardly even noticed.

BLACK LIKE MAO: Red China and Black Revolution.

Related: The Real History of Antifa.

With riots and civil unrest metastasizing across the United States, the president declared he intends to designate Antifa as a terrorist group. Predictably, the talking heads rushed out to declare that Antifa doesn’t really exist, and even if it did the president couldn’t possibly target it using that legal designation. They argue Antifa is an amorphous blob of discontents, not a functioning organization, and certainly not one which could be designated and targeted for concentrated counterterrorism enforcement.

As usual, the Twitterati don’t know what they are talking about. Reality is both simpler and more complex.

To begin at the beginning: Antifa—real name: Antifaschisitsche Aktion—was born during the street-fights of the 1932 Weimar Republic. It was founded by the Stalinist Communist Party of Germany (KPD), although various Communist “anti-fascist defense” units were associated with the KPD much earlier.

Anti-fascist Action’s sole purpose was to help the KPD combat other political parties for control of the streets in the revolutionary politics of the rapidly failing Weimar Republic.

And yes, they fought the Nazis.

But they also fought liberal parties, conservative parties, and anyone and everyone who got in their way. While these early antecedents were short-lived, it is useful to view Antifa in this context. More than anything, Antifa exists to serve as a tool of revolutionary politics in a failed (or failing) state.

Can someone print this article out and toss it over the transom at NPR?

DOUBLEPLUS GOOD PROMOTION FOR COMRADE WINSTON SMITH — he’s been transferred to the Social Media Branch of the Ministry of Truth on Airstrip One:

“Largely peaceful.”

And speaking of gaslighting on Airstrip One:

To be fair, you can clearly see the crowd all keeping six feet apart from each other in that overhead shot, which is why the protests have been “largely peaceful.”