FACE, MEET PALM: New Campaign Seeks to End Use of Black Targets at Gun Ranges.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
February 20, 2017
FOLLOW THE CHOCOLATE: Nestlé Leaves California to Get Away from Anti-Capitalist Lawmakers and Activists.
UPDATE (Ed): To get a sense of how far to the left Sacramento has gone, a reminder that Nestlé’s corporatist instincts were one of the chief inspirations for Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism. But then, as Robert Conquest once said, everybody is conservative about what they know best.
FROM GLENN’S INBOX:
Having listened to Milo’s podcast and the deceptive editing on the video, as well as comparing his statements to what was said “on the air” as it were, I’m more than a little disappointed that Stephen Green fell for a clickbait headline saying “Milo advocates for sex between men and boys.” In my opinion this was not true but if the goal is to remove Milo’s pro-Trump rhetoric from CPAC than it makes sense to use whatever dirty tactics are at hand. (I especially liked the touch where the headline was left standing but Milo’s rebuttal was not quoted, especially the relevant bits where he lists the pedos he’s personally busted and said that the legal age of consent is in the right place.)
I don’t know if anyone else was planning to partake in this but if anyone does I’d be even more disappointed if no one weighed the value of Milo’s words on their own merit. Smear campaigns shouldn’t have a place at Instapundit or any other blog.
Per longstanding Instapundit tradition, the link in a post is the headline as written on the linked site. Those words are Paula Bolyard’s, not mine.
On an issue like this one, sometimes the best thing a blogger can do it provide context. So I gave you three links: First, to the hysteria. Second, to the transcript. Third, to Milo’s defense of himself.
Milo’s money quote, which was edited out of the video, is this:
The law is probably about right, that’s probably roughly the right age. I think it’s probably about okay, but there are certainly people who are capable of giving consent at a younger age, I certainly consider myself to be one of them, people who are sexually active younger. I think it particularly happens in the gay world by the way. In many cases actually those relationships with older men…This is one reason I hate the left. This stupid one size fits all policing of culture. (People speak over each other). This sort of arbitrary and oppressive idea of consent, which totally destroys you know understanding that many of us have. The complexities and subtleties and complicated nature of many relationships. You know, people are messy and complex. In the homosexual world particularly. Some of those relationships between younger boys and older men, the sort of coming of age relationships, the relationships in which those older men help those young boys to discover who they are, and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable and sort of a rock where they can’t speak to their parents. Some of those relationships are the most -”
And this was edited out as well:
“You’re misunderstanding what pedophilia means. Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to somebody 13-years-old who is sexually mature. Pedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty. Pedophilia is attraction to people who don’t have functioning sex organs yet. Who have not gone through puberty… That’s not what we are talking about. You don’t understand what pedophilia is if you are saying I’m defending it because I’m certainly not.”
“It’s complicated” is usually the correct answer about questions concerning sex. But Milo’s actual position on pedophilia — he’s outed three pederasts in his reporting — doesn’t seem complicated at all.
MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Alt-Right Leader Richard Spencer Crashed a Student Libertarian Conference and Was Shunned.
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: 11-Year-Old Docked Points for Not Bashing Trump.
WELL, YES: Trump may have been unclear, but Sweden experiencing a migrant crime wave.
Trump’s comments during a Florida campaign rally on Saturday – which some took as a misstatement about a supposed terror attack – dovetail with what Springare has been seeing during a typical week in Orebro, Sweden. Five rapes, three assaults, a pair of extortions, blackmail, an attempted murder, violence against police and a robbery made up Springare’s caseload for a five-day period earlier this month, according to a Feb. 3 Facebook post he wrote. The suspects were all from Muslim-majority countries – Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia and Turkey – save for one Swedish man nabbed in a drug-related case.
“Mohammed, Mahmod, Ali, again and again,” Springare wrote of those arrested.
Springare, who is now being investigated for possible hate crime incitement based on his post, managed to elucidate what Trump only hinted at during a Florida campaign speech – somewhat opaquely.
“You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” Trump said. “Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.”
Many analysts took issue with Trump’s “last night” framing, and immediately compared the line to recent misstatements by Trump spokespeople, such as counselor Kellyanne Conway’s infamous “Bowling Green Massacre” blunder.
But Trump explained on Twitter late Sunday that he was only referring to a Fox News segment that aired on Friday night’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” dealing with the Swedish refugee crime.
This is a fine example of Salena Zito’s formulation: “The press takes Trump literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.”
KURT SCHLICHTER: President Trump Has Been Far Too Nice To The Mainstream Media.
It wasn’t a press conference – it was a kinky dungeon session where masochistic journalists eagerly sought out the delicious pain Master T was dealing. Hack after hack stepped up, tried to play “gotcha.” and ended up whimpering in the fetal position. The best part was CNN’s Jim Acosta, fresh from whining about how conservative outlets now get to ask questions too, basically handing Trump the cat-o-nine tails. Dude, next time keep from talking yourself into more public humiliation by biting down on the ball gag.
The media’s safe word is “Objectivity,” but none of them uttered it.
The wonderful thing about Trump – and the thing that sets the Fredocons and wusspublicans fussing – is that he gives exactly zero damns about the media’s inflated and ridiculous self-image. He doesn’t pay lip service to their lie that they are anything but what Instapundit calls “Democratic Party operatives with bylines.” Trump called them the “the enemy of the American People,” to which normals responded with “Yeah, sounds about right.”
Read the whole thing.
IT’S THEIR WAY: The Usual People Plan ‘Not My President’s Day’ Protests In The Usual Places.
I’m curious to see how long the Professional Left can maintain this level of outrage. You can’t keep it cranked up to 11 forever, especially since Trump has yet to do anything truly outrageous like sign an ObamaCare repeal & replace bill, or defanging the IRS or EPA, or — and I’m giddy at this prospect — announcing his replacement for a retiring liberal member of the Supreme Court.
FREE TRADE: After OPEC cuts heavy oil, China teapot refiners pull U.S. supply to Asia.
Chinese independent, or teapot, refiners are bringing in rare cargoes of North American heavy crude in a new long-distance flow that traders say has only been made possible by OPEC’s output cuts and ample supplies in Canada and the United States.
In April, at least 1 million barrels of the heavy crude Mars, pumped from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, are expected to land in China’s Shandong province and 1 million barrels of a second unidentified heavy grade will arrive in China, trade and shipping sources said last week. This follows the arrival in January of 600,000 barrels of U.S. Gulf Blend, a heavy crude made up of a blend of various U.S. and Canadian grades loaded onto ships on the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to the sources and shipping data.
OPEC might have just found its drilling floor, like it or not.
VIDEO: Milo Yiannopoulos Advocating for Sex Between Men and Boys.
Full transcript here.
And the denial here.
SET PHASERS FOR BACKFIRE: George Takei deletes Twitter poll after something goes hilariously awry.
WHILE THEY CAN: Red-State Dems Thread the Needle in Working With Trump.
In the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Thursday, an unusual entourage joined President Trump to watch him nix a coal mining rule put in place by his predecessor.
There was the usual smattering of Republican lawmakers, of course, and a group of coal miners decked out in their gear. But among this small crowd were also two Democratic senators, Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin, flanking the president as he spoke.
Manchin delivered a few remarks, too, to express his pride. “These are all West Virginians,” he noted, gesturing toward his home-state miners.
As Trump signed the resolution, they all crowded in for a photo.
“Come on, Heidi,” Trump said, urging the North Dakota lawmaker to slide in directly behind him. “Even though she’s sort of a Democrat.” Everyone laughed.
That was a fine moment, and it’s no coincidence that it featured the 2018’s two most vulnerable Senate Democrats.
ALLIES: Why Japan Is Relieved About Trump.
Trump never once mentioned his earlier demand that Japan pay more – or, indeed, the entire cost – for US troops stationed there and the suggestion that Japan develop and deploy nuclear weapons that so horrified many never came up.
Instead, the two leaders busied themselves by reiterating the importance of the bilateral security relationship and Washington’s commitment to defending Japan and maintaining its nuclear umbrella. Pointedly, that included the disputed Diaoyu islands, which Japan controls and knows as the Senkakus.
The shared security message received a significant boost when North Korea launched a new type of medium-range ballistic missile on Sunday morning. Not many believe the timing of the launch was a coincidence.
The other key issue between Trump and Abe was economics, with the Japanese leader again relieved that there was no new talk of imposing tariffs on Japanese companies’ imports or accusations that Tokyo manipulates its currency to help exports and the national economy.
Good. These were never credible positions.
KAROL MARKOWICZ: Lefties keep showing off their civic ignorance.
Last week, cable news personality Sally Kohn tweeted what she called a “straightforward” plan that would eject Donald Trump and install Hillary Clinton into the presidency: “1. Impeach Trump Pence; 2. Constitutional crisis; 3. Call special election; 4. Ryan v Clinton; 5. President Clinton.”
Anyone with middle-school knowledge of the presidential chain of command should know that impeaching both Trump and his vice president would not, actually, lead to a “constitutional crisis” or a “special election.” It would lead directly, do not pass go, do not collect $200, to President Paul Ryan. Whom Clinton would be welcome to challenge in the next election.
Kohn is far from alone in broadcasting her ignorance of the political process. Our so-called “elite” seems to be in desperate need of a remedial civics class.
Call it willful ignorance of the legal impediment standing between the elites and absolute power.
NOT HIS FINEST HOUR: Trump Mocked Mercilessly for Claiming Imaginary Terror Attack in Sweden.
QUESTION ASKED: Where was McCain when Obama attacked the free press?
SAD: For Generation Z, ‘Live Chilling’ Replaces Hanging Out in Person.
Teens have been hanging out online for 20 years, but in 2017 they’re doing it on group video chat apps, in a way that feels like the real thing, not just a poor substitute. Ranging in age from adolescents to their early 20s—the group loosely defined as “Generation Z”—these young people are leaving the apps open, in order to hang out casually with peers in a trend some call “live chilling.”
This phenomenon is made possible by the sudden ubiquity of video chat, in messaging apps such as Kik and Facebook Messenger, as well as stand-alone apps including Houseparty, Fam, Tribe, Airtime and ooVoo.
Houseparty, which launched in February 2016, says it reached one million daily active users within seven months. Fam, launched in December 2016, reached a million downloads within 12 days, says co-founder and chief executive Giuseppe Stuto.
There’s no good substitute for real human contact, particularly for teens who are still sorting out their identities and discovering how they fit in with the rest of the world.
THE DEEP STATE STRIKES BACK: House intelligence chair claims top Obama official leaking to media on Trump.
The House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes on Sunday accused Obama-era officials, who are working for President Trump until his administration is staffed up, of illegally leaking intelligence and other reports to the media in an attempt to hurt the Republican leader.
“I think there is a lot of innuendo out there that the intelligence agencies have a problem with Donald Trump. The rank and file people that are out doing jobs across the world — very difficult places — they don’t pay attention to what is going on in Washington,” the California representative told CBS “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson.
“What we have is we do have people in the last administration, people who are burrowed in, perhaps all throughout the government, who clearly are leaking to the press,” Nunes added. “And it is against the law. Major laws have been broken. If you believe the Washington Post story that said there were nine people who said this, these are nine people who broke the law.”
Start naming names and punching back twice as hard.
February 19, 2017
ANDREW KLAVAN ON CHOOSING SIDES: Donald Trump vs. the Deep State.
CAN HE PRESCRIBE ME TALLER AND WITH FEWER GRAY HAIRS? Hawaii Dem Argues Doctors Should be Able to Prescribe Housing to Cure Homelessness.