Author Archive: David Bernstein

Q. HOW DO YOU SAY “JEREMY CORBYN” IN YIDDISH?: A. Bernie Sanders. Get this: The Israeli government is too “racist” for Bernie’s taste, so he wants to give money instead to the progressive humanitarians of … Hamas! No word on how Bernie feels about throwing gays off rooftops.

WASHINGTON POST, 800 YEARS AGO: Genghis Khan, beloved father to thousands, expert horsebreeder at helm of Mongolia, dies.

MCGOVERN 2020: From (my moderate-liberal Democratic friend) Max Stearns: The Elizabeth Warren Fantasy. Worth reading, but not if asides hostile to Trump will ruin your day.

THIS IS NOT YOUR FATHER’S ACLU: UConn students arrested for engaging in offensive speech. The ACLU of Connecticut puts out a press release denouncing racism at U Conn, apparently endorsing new hate speech rules, and opining that “policing is an inherently white supremacist institution.” Only at the very end of the release do we get a statement from the national ACLU that the speech in question is constitutionally protected.

THIS ISN’T YOUR OLDER BROTHER’S GQ: I have a hard time believing that any substantial percentage of young man are looking for this in a men’s magazine.

NEOCONSERVATIVE FANTASY LIVES ON: Properly understood, neoconservatism is an ideology that supports using U.S. diplomatic and especially military power to spread liberal democracy throughout the world. One would think that Afghanistan and Iraq would have taught the establishment some humility in this regard, but op-eds like this one by William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral and former commander of the United States Special Operations Command, suggest not:

We are not the most powerful nation in the world because of our aircraft carriers, our economy, or our seat at the United Nations Security Council. We are the most powerful nation in the world because we try to be the good guys. We are the most powerful nation in the world because our ideals of universal freedom and equality have been backed up by our belief that we were champions of justice, the protectors of the less fortunate.

But, if we don’t care about our values, if we don’t care about duty and honor, if we don’t help the weak and stand up against oppression and injustice — what will happen to the Kurds, the Iraqis, the Afghans, the Syrians, the Rohingyas, the South Sudanese and the millions of people under the boot of tyranny or left abandoned by their failing states?

As is often the case, Trump’s blunderbuss style is far from ideal, but is useful in showing the rot in the establishment.

If we can’t have faith in our nation’s principles, why would the men and women of this nation join the military? And if they don’t join, who will protect us? If we are not the champions of the good and the right, then who will follow us? And if no one follows us — where will the world end up?

Do high-level military officials really believe that Americans join the armed forces to try to liberate “the millions of people under the boot of tyranny or left abandoned by their failing states?” Or that the U.S. military is capable of doing this? Has nobody noticed the hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of lives lost trying to fix just Afghanistan, without any significant payoff? Exactly what does the McRaven think the U.S. military can do for the Rohingyas or the South Sudanese?

I THOUGHT PROGRESSIVES WERE AGAINST VICTIM-BLAMING: In the wake of a spate of violent crimes against visibly Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, Anti-Semitic hate crimes in NYC have risen significantly in 2019:

Lauter stressed that one of the keys to preventing hate crimes, especially among kids of different backgrounds, is education and long-term partnerships between religious and ethnic communities.

“The Jewish community at one point started withdrawing from its community relations agenda,” she said. “We’re feeling the repercussions now. This is hard work. You’ve got to do the long game on addressing these problems.”

If that’s not blaming the victims instead of the perpetrators, I don’t know what would be. And if the perps had been “white nationalists” instead of local, mostly minority, thugs, I’m pretty confident Lauter wouldn’t be claiming that the problem is insufficient efforts at community relations.

I WISH BERNIE THE BEST AS HE TRAVELS TO CUBA TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEIR EXCELLENT MEDICAL CARE (RIGHT?): Sanders treated for blocked artery.

IT’S ALMOST AS IF PEOPLE CHANGE POSITIONS DEPENDING ON THEIR PARTISAN PREFERENCES: Some of us are old enough to remember that Moveon.org was founded in 1998 to urge Congress to “move on” from impeachment and address “pressing issues facing the nation.” Times have changed.

SIGN OF THE TIMES: More Palestinian flags than British flags in evidence at British Labour Party conference. (H/T Jonathan Sacerdoti).

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE…: John-Paul Pagano at NRO on modern blood libel:

Despite its lethality, anti-Semitism is the form of racism most often erased, excused, and even encouraged by people who identify as “antiracist.” One explanation for this phenomenon, increasingly dangerous as harassment, vandalism, and violence against Jews rise across the West, is the failure of Holocaust education to emphasize the importance of conspiracism in Nazi ideology. For their part, soi-disant American antiracists render Jews “white” and “privileged” through a limited lens of race and power, taking an approach that is an allotrope of anti-Semitism and disqualifies Jews from concern.

So when U.S. representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar resolved to visit Israel in August to showcase to the world its peculiar evil, and it emerged that Miftah, the Palestinian non-governmental organization co-sponsoring their trip, had published on its website that Jews bake Christian blood into their matzoh, most major media ignored it. For them the story was the erosion of liberal democracy by the tag team of Trump and Netanyahu, who had barred entry to the congresswomen. There is little indication that the blood libel stirred concern on the left where just a month earlier “Never again” was intoned relentlessly about Trump’s “concentration camps” at the border….

Under intense criticism, Miftah eventually retracted and apologized, but the medieval pitch of the piece was so true that I browsed their website for similar material and quickly found an article by Bouthaina Shaaban, who is now Bashar Assad’s media adviser. There Shaaban writes that Israel stole “Ukrainian children in order to harvest their organs.” The blood libel was transferred to the Arab world by Christian missionaries, surfacing in a famous case at Damascus in 1840. Today it is a recurring feature of Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism.

THE MEDIA COVERED FOR OBAMA’S INCOMPETENCE LIKE IT COVERED FOR NOBODY SINCE AT LEAST FDR: Jamie Kirchik: Critics of the Trump administration’s foreign policy have forgotten the mistakes and misjudgments of its predecessor:

This was the constant, tediously narcissistic background music of the Obama presidency—that his youth and personal sympathy for those who perceive themselves to be the victims of American global hegemony somehow obviated the forces of history and ideology and culture, never mind what other nations perceived to be in their national interest. The Obamians’ determinist view of history could not recognise that the Cuban communists lock up independent journalists because the stale doctrine of Marxist-Leninism demands it; that Iran pledges “Death to Israel” because it sincerely seeks it, that the men in the Kremlin acquire actual glory from the serial humiliations they inflict upon Russia’s smaller neighbours; and that these phenomena derive from cultures and ideologies that will not be attenuated by American apologies and appeasement.

YOU CAN’T CONTROL PEOPLE WITHOUT VIOLENCE: Phil Magness: Even Swedish Socialism was Violent.

But there’s also a neglected dark side to the Swedish welfare model that its “democratic socialist” admirers seldom mention. That same welfare system developed in explicit conjunction with a violent and coercive eugenics policy, intended to ensure its fiscal solvency and prevent abuses of its programs by persons who were deemed genetically “unfit” by the state.

LAWS? WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ LAWS: Bernie promises prosecutions of enemies of the people. Underlying violations of the law optional at best. Once a Bolshie always a Bolshie, I guess.

BERNIE SANDERS “JEW-WASHES” LINDA SARSOUR: Linda Sarsour emerges as surrogate for Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.

Jew-washing is neologism someone invented for when antisemites on the left use their Jewish origins or closeness to a Jewish person to claim they are innocent of antisemitism, usually after engaging in antisemitic attacks on Israel or its Jewish supporters. So it’s clear what Sarsour gets out of being a Sanders surrogate–she gets to express public support for a leftist Jew, which she believes will rebut charges of antisemitism, despite her long record of it. But what is Sanders getting, beyond losing his last semblance of dignity?

MEDIA JUST MAKING STUFF UP: Here’s ABC News Chief Political Analyst Matthew Dowd:

And here is some actual data. Netanyahu’s favorability/unfavorability rating among Jewish Americans: 45 percent favorable/38 percent unfavorable. This isn’t even the same universe as “eighty percent opposed.”

As for Trump, the most recent poll shows American Jewish disapproval at 69%. Note that this is “disapproval,” not “opposition,” though at least 69 percent is in the same general galaxy as 80%. (Note that Jews being disproportionately urban, coastal, irreligious, and concentrated in blue states demographically one would expect them to be significantly less approving of Trump than the population as a whole, Jewishness aside).

Anyway, what does it tell you when a “big 3” network’s chief political analyst just feels free to make things up that are contrary to easily obtainable data?

ACADEMIC HISTORY IS BUNK: How Twitter is Corrupting the History Profession. In my academic work, I’ve done a great deal of historical research. I find that whenever I research something myself, the “standard” historical story is replete with errors of fact, and extremely dubious interpretations, especially with regard to anything that requires a modicum of understanding of economics. There are ideological biases, of course, but there are also many situations in which one famous historian essentially made something up based on dubious or incomplete or distorted evidence, and other historians just repeat the invention for generations, without anyone bothering to check the original sources. In short, professional standards in academic history tend to be quite low, which is why it’s easy to corrupt historians.

FIND A SPOUSE WHO LOOKS AT YOU… THE WAY LINDA SARSOUR LOOKS AT HERSELF:

LINDA SARSOUR RESPONDS–STILL LYING: Earlier, I noted that Sarsour had tweeted that “right-wing Zionists” were hanging out with KKKers who were holding Confederate flags protesting a speech she gave in March. Here and on Twitter, I presented photos and video of the event that showed no sign of any KKKers or Confederate flags (much less both!), and noted that she had once again shown herself to be a lying antisemite. Here is Sarsour’s response on Twitter:

You don’t have to be especially astute to notice that while there is one guy holding a Trump flag, one guy holding a Betsy Ross and Gadsen flag, several Israeli flags, several modern American flags, several Christian flags (utterly mainstream), and one guy with an “Armed infidel” flag, there are no Confederate flags to be seen, nor any indication that anyone is affiliated with the KKK. Nor, for that matter, is there any indication that the Israeli flag-wavers are “right-wing Zionists,” as opposed to people of whatever ideology appalled by Sarsour’s antisemitism-laden genocidal hostility to Israel. So, still a liar.

SHOCKER! LINDA SARSOUR IS LYING:

I was able to track down a picture of the protest of Sarsour’s speech in Hillsborough from the local newspaper. No Klansmen. No Confederate flags. The “right-wing Zionists” appear to be one women waiving an Israeli flag, and someone holding up a sign that says “Women Against Antisemitism.” Neither this nor any other story about her speech mention any KKK presence, nor the presence of Confederate flags.

UPDATE: A Twitter friend sent me a Facebook link to video of the protest and counter-protest. No KKK, no Confederate flags. Shocker. And just to clarify: the first set of pictures are from Rep. Meyer’s tweet of yesterday about events of yesterday. Sarsour is claiming the the KKK and Confederate flags were present at her speech in March, for which I have provided contrary photographic evidence. She is lying.

YOU MEAN ONLY NATIVE-BORN WHITE AMERICANS CAN BE SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES?: Politico on Mike Pence and Nikki Haley: “While the two could hardly be more different — Pence is a 60-year-old social conservative, she is a 47-year-old daughter of Indian immigrants — those close to them say they have long had a warm relationship.”

WHILE ILHAN OMAR IS BUSY RUNNING HER OWN MIDEAST FOREIGN POLICY: Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District Listed As Worst District For Black Americans To Live.

Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, represented by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, was listed this week as the worst congressional district in the country for black Americans.

The financial website 24/7 Wall Street compiled a list of the 30 worst districts for black Americans by using data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Specifically, the list-makers honed in on metrics like median-household income, homeownership, unemployment, poverty, and educational achievement.

The numbers produce a stark picture of the 5th Congressional District, which encompasses Minneapolis and several surrounding suburbs.

“Black area residents are about four times more likely to live below the poverty line than white residents and three times more likely to be unemployed,” the list-makers noted, citing a legacy of historic racism as a source of the disparities. “Minneapolis is one of several Midwestern cities that enacted restrictive housing covenants and exclusionary zoning policies in the early 20th century. These policies impact residential patterns to this day.”

But if you can’t indulge your Jew-hatred, what’s the fun of being a Congresswoman?