Author Archive: Ed Driscoll

THE PERFORMATIVE OUTRAGE OVER TUCKER CARLSON: “The current blame being directed at Carlson and Fox by other media outlets is thus almost 100 percent performative, with the purpose of removing a competitor from cable news. It’s a call for censorship, nothing more.”

It’s the latest variation of the left’s constant demand:

SO NATURALLY, LET’S BLAME TUCKER CARLSON: The Buffalo shooter was an eco-socialist racist who hated Fox News and Ben Shapiro.

Hell, the shooter admits that he’s a socialist, “depending on the definition.”

“Worker ownership of the means of production?” he writes. “It depends on who those workers are, their intentions, who currently owns the means of production, their intentions and who currently owns the state, and their intentions.”

The diatribe implies “those workers” better be white gentiles who worship Mother Earth. Here, crucially, is the shooter on his homicidal obsession with environmentalism.

“Green nationalism is the only true nationalism,” he wrote. “There is no conservatism without nature, there is no nationalism without environmentalism, the natural environment of our lands shaped us just as we shaped it. We were born from our lands and our own culture was molded by these same lands. The protection and preservation of these lands is of the same importance as the protection and preservation of our own ideals and beliefs. For too long we have allowed the left to co-opt the environmentalist movement to serve their own needs. The left has controlled all discussion regarding environmental preservation whilst simultaneously presiding over the continued destruction of the natural environment itself through mass immigration and uncontrolled urbanization, whilst offering no true solution to either issue. There is no Green future with never ending population growth, the ideal green world cannot exist in a world of 100 billion, 50 billion, or even 10 billion people. Continued immigration into Europe is environmental warfare and ultimately destructive to nature itself. The Europe of the future is not one of concrete and steel, smog and wires but a place of forests, lakes, mountains and meadows. Not a place where English is the de facto language but a place where every European language, belief and tradition is valued. Each nation and each ethnicity was molded by their own environment and if they are to be protected so must their own environments. THERE IS NO TRADITIONALISM WITHOUT ENVIRONMENTALISM.”

Related: Did the Liberal Media Just Gloss Over These Three Key Words in the Buffalo Shooter’s Manifesto? “Sort of hard to use the manifesto and this shooting to attack conservatives when the person described himself as a racist eco-fascist, or green nationalist, who says ‘conservatism is dead. Thank God.’”

OKAY, GROOMERS: Mom reads daughter’s homework assignment and immediately gets shut down by school board. “A mom in [Las Vegas’ Clark County] reads from a graphic assignment her daughter was required to do. Her mic then gets cut off because it’s inappropriate for a public discussion. Adults can’t handle hearing this content yet they readily give it to kids in school. How does it make sense?”

OUT ON A LIMB: Execute the Buffalo Shooter. The highest punishment sends a message to those deranged few who will admire his actions.

ESPN HOST MINA KIMES ENDORSES FAR-LEFT KAREN BASS FOR LA MAYOR:

Kimes is using her social platform that ESPN built to promote a far-Left candidate, even spreading Bass’ political messaging.

We have reached out to ESPN for comment. But because Kimes calls anyone who questions her a sexist bigot, don’t expect ESPN to respond.

This is what Sage Steele is referring to in her lawsuit, alleging ESPN selectively enforces its ban on discussing politics.

Suffice to say, ESPN would not allow Steele or Matt Barrie to post a photo with a Republican candidate. Can you imagine if Steele endorsed, say, JD Vance for the Senate while attacking his opponent on her social media page? Indeed, ESPN would take more opportunities away from Steele.

So next time Kimes posts on Twitter that she’s a victim in the world of sports, know that she’s one of the most privileged people in media. On top of making her the only non-former football player to hold the “NFL analyst “title, the network consistently permits her to inject her political views into her ESPN brand.

It’s called privilege.

Flashback: ESPN’s College Basketball Broadcast Takes Moment of Silence in Protest of ‘Don’t Say Gay.’ “ESPN’s Elle Duncan, who accused Sage Steele of not being black enough, says it’s unfair to families that teachers can’t discuss sexual orientation with young children.”

Okay, groomers.

TIME TO WRITE OFF ANOTHER STAR TREK REBOOT: ‘Star Trek’ Explores the ‘Strange New Worlds’ of Woke Activism.

Examining current issues through the lens of a science fiction universe is standard-issue sci-fi. Star Trek’s gift was its ability to address hot-button issues like racism in a nonthreatening, entertaining way. In “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” from the original show, two aliens — one black on the left side, the other black on the right — demonstrate how pointless their hate against each other is.

But Strange New Worlds insists on hitting its audience upside the head with a two-by-four.

So, for example, almost everyone supports “voting rights” but that isn’t the same as supporting Stacey Abrams. Almost everyone condemns the Capitol riot and political violence, but that’s not the same and placing unique blame on one single event from one side of the spectrum.

Ultimately, the problem here is that this kind of political signaling is alienating for those fans who are not part of the Democrat Party political tribe. As a fan myself, it hasn’t made me turn off the shows, but it’s jarring and also breaks the narrative spell of fantasy and science fiction which is why people tune-in in the first place.

There is no escape. The radicals and their allies in major media have a stranglehold on entertainment programming. As long as the radicals can claim to be “triggered” by traditional values and reject any hint of opposition to their agenda as “hate”, America will be a monochromatic parody of the “original America.”

Strange New Worlds was supposed to be a return to episodic programming after the season-long arc of shows such as Star Trek: Picard*. Looks like it’s simply yet another vehicle to clumsily deliver the woke message.

* Whose second season was so bad, that in the middle of its run, Paramount started running ads announcing that the original TNG cast was returning next year. I hope they’re bringing better writers with them.

OLD AND BUSTED: “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

The New Hotness? The Left blames Tucker Carlson for Buffalo shooting as a censorship excuse:

After an 18-year-old alleged gunman stormed a Buffalo grocery store and killed 10 people, it took the national media apparatus about two minutes to point the finger at conservative media, specifically Fox News and Tucker Carlson. The alleged shooter left an online manifesto with eerie echos of the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand and the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, spouting off about the “Great Replacement” theory (the antisemitic theory of world-controlling Jews purposely transporting large amounts of immigrants into the United States to change the racial makeup of the country).

But journalists on Twitter and national news outlets took it a step further, pointing the finger squarely at Fox News and Tucker Carlson with the sole purpose of conflating the antisemitic theory peddled online with the very real concerns of an open immigration policy that right now is causing a historic influx of migrants across the southern border, as well as human trafficking and narcotics. These concerns are shared within border communities, which themselves have seen a political demographic shift since the 2020 election, with Hispanics in these family communities turning against traditional Democratic policies.

Journalists know exactly what they are doing in conflating these two ideas, as do Democratic politicians. Putting a target on Fox News and Carlson is simply the latest subtle push at censorship. In recent weeks, corporate media have been caterwauling at the idea of looser content moderation politics on social media, and you can bet that Elon Musk and his pending deal with Twitter will be tied to the Buffalo shooting next.

Earlier: The Left Created the ‘Great Replacement Theory:’ Great Replacement Theory is fueled by woke progressives gloating about America becoming non-white.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Dang: Disney’s favorability rating has cratered from 77% to 33% since last year.

UPDATE: Further thoughts from Ace of Spades: “The article points out that when a movie keeps failing to hit the day-by-day projections it should hit, based on the numbers it did the day before, that means that bad word-of-mouth is crippling it. Each day’s numbers are worse than you’d predict they would be, because each day’s numbers are poisoned by bad word-of-mouth getting out. The article also notes that Disney isn’t releasing the viewership figures for the finale of Moon Knight, ‘which means it was bad.’ I haven’t seen Dr. Strange but here’s my review based on the reviews I’ve seen: It’s okay. But given how bad Marvel Phase 4 has been, Dr. Strange really needed to be genuinely good to reverse things, and it’s not. We’re a long, long way from the excitement of the first Avengers. Or even the excitement of Avengers: Age of Ultron. We’re into the ‘Well, I guess I have to see this piece of shit’ phase now.”

So much Disney product, including their uber-woke reboot of the Star Wars franchise, has felt that way in recent years.

SAVAGE CLARENCE THOMAS DESTROYS THE MEDIA: “One of the things I say in response to the media is when they talk about — especially early on — about the way I did my job, I said, ‘I will absolutely leave the court when I do my job as poorly as you do yours.’ And that was meant as a compliment really… It really is good to be me.”

Heh, indeed.

MICHAEL WALSH: Why Are We In Ukraine?

From LBJ’s Vietnam to Bush pere et fils’ unfathomable obsession with Iraq and Afghanistan, to the Establishment’s newfound fealty to the Ukraine and its roundheeled banks and politicians, and their proxy war with Russia, Americans of my generation have hardly known a moment’s peace. And for what? No bono here: the nation’s economy is shot, its infrastructure’s a joke, its military can’t fight, its police are hamstrung in the face of decriminalized crime, its institutions are all under assault by the demon spawn of the Frankfurt School, and its domestic tranquility has been torn asunder.

Read the whole thing.

ERICK ERICKSON: The Curious Case of the Accidental Senators: Don’t Say They Can’t Win.

The Senate shift to the GOP in 1980 was so unexpected that no one had even contemplated a transition plan. Howard Baker who had, ironically, run in the Republican presidential primary to stop Ronald Reagan, became Senate Majority Leader because of Reagan’s coattails and Carter’s disastrous collapse. It was the largest swing in a Senate election since 1958 and the Senate GOP’s best showing since 1946 when voters turned against Truman. The Republicans held all ten of their existing seats up for re-election and flipped twelve of the twenty-four Democrat seats for a total gain of 22 seats.

The 1980 election moved men like Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, John Tower, and Barry Goldwater into Senate leadership positions.

“The swing in the Senate is probably even greater, in ideological terms, than the shift in the White House,” a prominent labor leader said yesterday. “A bleeping disaster,” said another.

Fast forward to now, the year 2022. The nation’s mood is as pessimistic or more pessimistic than in 1980. Inflation is at a forty-year high. American morale is in decline so much so that members of the Biden Administration have used the word malaise as Carter did. We have a labor shortage, a housing shortage, a baby formula shortage, and other shortages. “The 16 percent of voters who think the country is on the right track is easily a 13-year low in the NBC News survey.”

Corporate America seems very good at manufacturing profits, not products. Private equity groups are imposing the left’s ESG (environmental, social, governance) agenda on the Fortune 500, even if it is bad for business and helps China. The same groups are buying up American homes, forcing Americans into permanent tenant status and depriving them of home equity. They’ve taken a stand for leftwing social causes even as most Americans are not down with the agenda.

Schools are ruining the lives of students with lockdowns, excuses, and indoctrination. Parents are furious and the Department of Education is furious with the parents.

Congress won’t secure the border or take care of the basic functions of government, while also blowing up deficits and making inflation worse. The Biden Administration compounds the problems by driving up energy costs, harming American wage growth, and generally having the King Midas but turds approach. Everything Biden touches turns to poo. Oh, and COVID is starting to surge again.

I think David McCormick is a wiser choice in Pennsylvania than Kathy Barnette. Both are real Republicans and actual conservatives and not huckster frauds like Mehmet Oz. I think Herschel Walker has so much baggage that he is an enormous lift for voters to get into office, especially when any of the other Georgia Republican senate candidates would be easier to get across the finish line.

But don’t think any of them cannot win.

Especially when voters remember the good times were as recent as 2019 – that’s very a different environment than the Democratic Party’s perma-malaise, which began around 1968 and continued through the entire decade of the 1970s, until voters at last saw change in the form of Ronald Reagan. But to coin an Insta-phrase, don’t get cocky.

QUESTION ASKED: Are you sure you want to call the Roe protests “the summer of rage?”

Thus far we haven’t seen any serious incidents of violence associated with these protests, so keep your fingers crossed. But when you start inflaming your followers by tossing around words like “rage” and “outrage,” don’t act surprised if some of them start taking your advice to heart. The very first BLM marches in 2020 actually were “mostly peaceful” and the media happily picked up the phrase. But then they insisted on continuing to use it even as the demonstrations quickly devolved into riots, with federal buildings and police stations being set ablaze, mass looting destroying retail areas, and law enforcement officers being assaulted.

Yes, that was the “summer of love.” And now we’re being warned to prepare for the “summer of rage.” Some liberal activists aren’t waiting for anyone else to issue marching orders, by the way. At Yale University, liberals are demanding “unrelenting daily confrontation.” And the subject in question on any given day doesn’t really matter. They simply want any of their fellow students or faculty members who express any sort of conservative opinions to be physically driven from the public square. (Free Beacon)

Members of the law school’s conservative Federalist Society, first year law student Shyamala Ramakrishna said in an Instagram post, are “conspirators in the Christo-fascist political takeover we all seem to be posting frantically about.” Why, she asked, are they still “coming to our parties” and “laughing in the library” without “unrelenting daily confrontation?”

Some of her classmates were less moderate.

“It’s not time for ‘reform,’” first-year law student Leah Fessler, a onetime New York Times freelancer, wrote on Instagram. “Democratic Institutions won’t save us.” It is unclear how Fessler will apply that view as a legal intern this summer for federal judge Lewis Liman. Judge Liman did not respond to a request for comment.

While it might fit on a bumper sticker or a t-shirt, “democratic institutions won’t save us” isn’t really a very good message, particularly if you’re in the process of seeking a law degree. Also, even if you believe that unsavory maxim, please enlighten us as to what the alternative to democratic institutions might be? I hope I’m wrong, but the only thing that springs to mind is mob rule. Is that where you think this is all heading?

Err, yes? As Jon Gabriel tweets, “Gonna be tough to top 2020’s Summer of Rage, but let’s see what you got.

Read the whole thing — the last paragraph is a hoot.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Midler, Colbert, Kimmel and More: The ‘Let Them Eat Cake’ Celebrities.

“TRY BREASTFEEEDING! It’s free and available on demand,” [Bette Midler] Tweeted, ignoring the countless women who struggle to breastfeed for often heartbreaking reasons. Surely a 70-something woman has met a few moms in her life who shared their motherhood struggles.

The Biden administration claims it’s been working on the problem for some time, apparently with little or no net results. Tell that to the mothers scrambling to find formula for their infants.

That collective suffering doesn’t bother Midler. Why?

It might negatively impact President Joe Biden specifically and Democrats as a whole. So Midler pushed their concerns aside to land some cheap partisan points.

Let them eat cake.

* * * * * * *

And Colbert championed another “cake” closeup earlier this year following more gas price hike headlines.

“Today, the average gas price in America hit an all-time record high of over $4 per gallon. Okay, that stings, but a clear conscience is worth a buck or two … I’m willing to pay. I’m willing to pay $4 a gallon. Hell, I’ll pay $15 a gallon because I drive a Tesla.”

Mary Antoinette would be proud, assuming you believe the historical myth.

Colbert morphed into Paris Hilton so slowly, I hardly even noticed: