When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
(Also, sidebar: aren't we living in a post-gender culture in which the terms "man" and "woman" are obsolete symbols of a failed patriarchy? I'm confused.)
That was addressed by the 5th attachment on Brains meme/twitter-screenshot post dump on this page 627. Try to keep up please.
KLAVAN: The Left: We Lost So Let's Destroy America
...
The reaction from the progs tells you a lot about the direction of that lost and radicalized faction. Basically it’s this: we lost, so let’s dismantle the country.
“The Constitution of the United States has Failed,” bloviates Ian Millhiser, Justice Editor of the Soros-backed ThinkProgress. What follows is a 4,000 word screed against a nation that is the inspiration and chief defender of every free system on earth. It reads like the work of a 19-year-old who has just read him some Howard Zinn and wants to tell us how woke he is now.
“Americans speak of our Constitution as if it were a religious text. To label a law ‘unconstitutional’ is not simply to say that it violates some procedural rule or legal technicality, it is to label it fundamentally unAmerican. ... But our Constitution has not served us nearly as well as we would have been served by other systems adopted by our peer nations. Nor has it lived up to the expectations of its drafters.”
Among his complaints: the Electoral College allows people he disagrees with to get elected, and our federal system restricts Washington’s ability to redistribute wealth.
Over at MSNBC, Lawrence “Stop the Hammering” O’Donnell doesn’t like the Electoral College either, and, while he’s at it, the Senate seems a rotten idea to him too. He tweeted: “Founders’ design flaws in democracy — Electoral College & 2 senators per state no matter the size or population — have created the current Supreme Court.”
Know-nothing Congressional hopeful Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also wants to get rid of the Electoral College. She tweeted: “It is well past time we eliminate the Electoral College, a shadow of slavery’s power on America today that undermines our nation as a democratic republic.”
The problem for these people, obviously, is that the Constitution, the Electoral College and the Senate empower states they detest, all those flyover backwaters where the deplorables live. And yes, state power was sometimes used to protect Democrat institutions like slavery and Jim Crow, but it is primarily a guarantor that the ever-so-wise sachems of California and New York don’t get to dictate the lives of people in Wisconsin and Tennessee.
The Left simply despises these people. If they are white, they hurl racist epithets at them. If they are black, their racial sensitivities suddenly vanish and they call them “Uncle Toms.” If they are women, they deem them “gender traitors.” In their simplistic and now vicious world, there is leftism and there is hatefulness, that’s it. All their tender loving care over victimized identities is a mask for their hunger for power — power to dismantle the institutions that protect the voices of those with whom they disagree.
Hillary Clinton said the quiet part out loud: “You cannot be civil with a political party (the Republicans) that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about. ... If we are fortunate to win back the House and or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again.”
Insofar as the Kavanaugh confirmation repulsed this band of nitwit vandals, it is a triumph worth remembering. There may come a day when the Constitution that created and protects this country is torn to shreds by the leftist mob. But it is not this day.
I didn’t support Donald Trump during the 2016 election — not that it mattered. I wasn’t in a swing state and I wasn’t publicly opining about the general election. Had my vote mattered, I might have brought myself to vote for him, but it didn’t, so I didn’t.
On election night, I had a few drinks and enjoyed Hillary Clinton losing. It was a spectacle at which, to borrow a line, it would have taken a heart of stone not to laugh. I did text a friend or two that I hoped I was wrong about Trump.
In some ways, I was. He has kept his promises on judges, for instance. In other ways I think my low opinion of him has been thoroughly vindicated. Thus, in writing for The Federalist, I have defended President Trump and criticized him, sometimes in the same column.
I have also criticized the die-hard Never-Trumpers who are willing to jettison conservatism to pursue their vendetta against Trump. Like many Trump-skeptical conservatives I tried to call things as I saw them. Sometimes I was pleased with Trump’s policy, and sometimes I was appalled by him. I do not disavow any of what I wrote. Nonetheless, I now support Trump’s reelection.
To use the word du jour: I have been radicalized. The enormity of the efforts by the Democrats and their media allies to destroy Brett Kavanaugh forced me to reconsider my views. The concerns I have about Trump’s character, temperament, and propensity to damage America’s cultural and political institutions are still there, but I am supporting him anyway.
It is not just that the Democrats have vitiated any claim to possess superior character or temperament (though they have), or that Trump’s policies have been better than I expected. I now support Trump because the Democratic Party and its media allies are controlled by people who view conservatives not as political opponents to be voted down, but as enemies to be personally destroyed.
Trump will say anything, but Democrats will do anything. They and their media allies smeared a universally respected judge with an impeccable record as a serial sexual predator on evidence that would not have justified an indictment. They repeatedly lied and hid evidence in order to create delay (e.g., Christine Blasey Ford’s supposed fear of flying).
In the end, the evidence against Kavanaugh consisted only of the dubious testimony of a woman who could not recall basic details like a time or a place, whose story changed repeatedly, and whose witnesses remembered nothing of what she claimed. But Democrats did their best to forever brand him as a sexual predator anyway. They did not want a serious, confidential investigation; they wanted to publicly grind him into the dirt while the mob howled for his head.
They wanted the circus, the smears, the insane rumors and allegations from cranks. They wanted the tabloid journalism from formerly respectable outlets like The New Yorker. If Kavanaugh refused to withdraw, then they wanted Ford on national television. They even wanted the lunatic claims from a nutcase dredged up by a creepy **** lawyer, alleging that Kavanaugh ran a gang-rape ring as a teen. Even as the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh collapsed, they switched to smears about his high school yearbook and college drinking.
With rare exceptions, the national media repeated every smear and Democratic talking point. They spent weeks trying to destroy Kavanaugh’s life and reputation with lies, then had the effrontery to sneer at his anger when he took umbrage at being labeled a gang-rape mastermind. Lushes from the soused D.C. media lectured Kavanaugh about his teenage drinking. They earnedevery bit of Trump’s “enemy of the people” and “fake news” epithets.
Kavanaugh was a normal establishment Republican pick. Destroying him had nothing to do with opposing Trump’s particular flaws. This was about annihilating anyone who gets in the Democrats’ way, especially anyone who threatens their illegitimate Supreme Court policy wins. It was a declaration of war on every conservative, no matter how respected, reasonable, and mainstream.
There is no refuge from this sort of totalizing, destructive politics. The Republican rejection of Merrick Garland was political hardball; the sliming of Kavanaugh was categorically different and much worse. The Democrats crossed the line from policy disagreement to personal destruction, and in doing so they nuked any middle ground between themselves and conservative Trump skeptics. And they put every conservative on notice: You could be next.
If the Democrats will do this to a man as respected and mainstream as Kavanaugh, they will do it to anyone who gets in their way. The left has embraced mob justice that disdains our culture of due process and the presumption of innocence, and merely disagreeing with the mob provokes its wrath. At Facebook, the mob is after an executive who stood by his friend. At my alma mater, a dean was punished for tweeting skeptically about the woman accusing Kavanaugh of running a gang-rape ring in high school. Ordinary people are being targeted for having opinions the mob hates.
Capitulation to the outrage mob is contemptible, but it has become the norm, with lives ruined professionally and personally. The worst aspects of the online mob, the campus tribunal, and the gutter press have been embraced by the leaders of the Democratic Party, and they think any and everyone on the right is fair game. Those determined to believe the worst about the accused also believe the worst about those standing up for the rights of the accused, and want to destroy them as well. Dissent will not be tolerated—those who dare speak out against the witch-hunt will be burned as witches themselves.
I wish this was not so. I would rather be arguing about the Enlightenment than jumping on the Trump train. As a writer and scholar I want to persuade, not to destroy. I do not want American politics to be like this.
But as a voter who recognizes the unfortunate realities of our politics, I believe supporting Trump has become the responsible choice. Things may change, but right now Trump’s policies are better than I expected, he is not the authoritarian some feared, and he does not want to destroy me and mine. It isn’t much, but since Trump stands between me and those who would ruin me, he will have to do.
This is about self-defense. And that is why I’ve gone from “Meh” to “MAGA!”
Representative Kyrsten Sinema, the Democratic nominee in the Arizona Senate race, wrote a group email in 2006 in which she drew equivalence between the deaths of people trying to illegally cross the U.S. southern border to American soldiers fighting and dying in Iraq.
Additionally, when detailing her views on immigration in a profile from 2009, Sinema said, "I oppose all of them [immigration laws]," a stance that appears to differ from the policy positions she currently advertises on her campaign website.
Sinema drew the comparison between the deaths of troops to the death of someone attempting an illegal border crossing when addressing a Yahoo! group called "Local to Global Justice."
To state that immigration is not a war or is not equal in magnitude to war, I believe, dishonors those who have died in this country and others as migrants. I volunteer with a group called No Mas Muertes—No More Deaths—and I cannot explain to you the pain that I suffered one hot day last July as I scoured the desert along with scores of others for the bodies of those who have died tortuous and painful deaths in our desert … Death is death, and to rank one form of death as being somehow more important than other death [sic] does us no good as humans. The deaths that people suffer in the Mexico-Arizona desert are the same as the deaths that people suffer in the Iraq desert—they are needless, senseless deaths.
Sinema's post was dated April 4, 2006, the same day that an Iraqi court charged Saddam Hussein and six other defendants with attempted genocide in 1988 using illegal chemical weapons against the Kurdish population in the northern area of the country. The Bush administration cited the genocide, believed to have killed between 50,000 to 100,000, as one of the justifications for the sacrifice of American lives and treasure in Iraq.
In 2003, Sinema, who co-founded the activist group Local to Global Justice, issued an invitation to a Yahoo group to attend two events with Stewart. Stewart had already been charged with helping Abdel Rahman, her former client. Sinema insisted that Stewart was “emphatically not guilty” and would not have to face charges but for “the hastily enacted PATRIOT Act.” The provisions of the Patriot Act allowed the federal government to nab Stewart passing on secret messages Abdul Rahman sent to his followers to implement terror attacks.
Sinema wrote, “Prior to September 11th and the hastily enacted ‘Patriot Act,’ Lynne Stewart never would have been indicted at all. Last April, FBI agents arrested Stewart at her Brooklyn home. As they took her away in handcuffs, the FBI invaded and searched her Manhattan office. Her crime? Doing her job for the past 27 years as an outspoken criminal defense lawyer.”
As Fox News noted, “Sinema’s description of Stewart was not particularly accurate. Two years after the events in Arizona, Stewart was convicted of aiding the radical Egyptian cleric to pass on secret messages to a U.S.-designated terror group, the Islamic Group. She was initially sentenced to 28 months in prison but, in 2010, she was resentenced again for 10 years behind bars. The federal judge said Stewart also committed perjury and lacked remorse after her first sentencing. The lawyer was eventually released in 2013 due to her medical condition and died in 2017.”
But today, as the Democratic nominee for Senate from Arizona in one of the most pivotal races in the country, Ms. Sinema is campaigning as an altogether different person. While she is now a three-term member of Congress, Ms. Sinema is running as much on her biography — her three years spent homeless as a child — as on any issue. She is using that personal hardship to project grit and distinguish herself from “most people in politics,” as she says.
This emphasis on her life story has had a dual effect: It has highlighted her lack of a strong political identity and it has drawn scrutiny to her story of homelessness and some contradictory elements in it.
...
In speeches and interviews, Ms. Sinema recalls how she spent three years as a child living in a former gas station “without running water or electricity.” She has highlighted that hardship as a way to distinguish herself from “most people in politics,” as she would be the rare senator with personal experience of being homeless.But court documents reviewed by The New York Times raise questions about Ms. Sinema’s descriptions of what she endured in the mid-1980s, when her mother remarried and moved the family from Arizona to Florida. And Ms. Sinema herself, as her national profile has risen, has given contradictory answers about her early life.
In 1984, Ms. Sinema’s family sought a new start in the small Panhandle community where her stepfather, Andy Howard, had roots: DeFuniak Springs, north of the Gulf of Mexico but far from the resorts and waterfront summer homes where wealthy Southerners vacation.
...
Asked twice whether she had ever embellished details about her childhood, Ms. Sinema paused and did not answer directly. “I’ve shared what I remember from my childhood. I know what I lived through,” she said.
In this and other interviews on her homelessness, a pattern emerges: Ms. Sinema often includes vivid details, some that contradict other accounts. In 2013, she told the Washington Post the family had a toilet, but when pressed by the newspaper, she could not explain how it was flushed with no running water. And in a 2016 Arizona Republic story, she challenged the assertion of the previous owner of the gas station, who said that it had a spigot and wood-burning stove.
What is not in doubt is that Ms. Sinema and her family were living in deeply trying circumstances, relying on assistance from the local Mormon Church to which they belonged.
Yet Ms. Sinema’s unreserved statements about being homeless, and the public records pertaining to her upbringing, are noteworthy in part because of Ms. Sinema’s own views about the importance of candor and speaking precisely in public life.
In the end, the evidence against Kavanaugh consisted only of the dubious testimony of a woman who could not recall basic details like a time or a place, whose story changed repeatedly, and whose witnesses remembered nothing of what she claimed. But Democrats did their best to forever brand him as a sexual predator anyway. They did not want a serious, confidential investigation; they wanted to publicly grind him into the dirt while the mob howled for his head.
Have you seen the number of self-described liberals who genuinely believe that Kavanaugh is a rapist, and were figuratively seething with anger and frustration after he was confirmed?
There are a lot of them.
It would have been stupid for the Democratic leadership to not pander to their emotions and demand that Kavenaugh be publicly ground into the dirt.
Here is an example of things which many people actually believe:
Are minorities, women, and LGBT persons literally under assault by old white men? Of course not. But people who write things like the above aren't doing it with a deliberate sense of hyperbole, they literally cannot distinguish between the sociopolitical environment of 21st century America and that of the Jim Crow era.
Have you seen the number of self-described liberals who genuinely believe that Kavanaugh is a rapist, and were figuratively seething with anger and frustration after he was confirmed?
There are a lot of them.
It would have been stupid for the Democratic leadership to not pander to their emotions and demand that Kavenaugh be publicly ground into the dirt.
Here is an example of things which many people actually believe:
Are minorities, women, and LGBT persons literally under assault by old white men? Of course not. But people who write things like the above aren't doing it with a deliberate sense of hyperbole, they literally cannot distinguish between the sociopolitical environment of 21st century America and that of the Jim Crow era.
You have that backwards. The DNC and the media conspire to create the leftist narrative and then self-proclaimed liberals nod in agreement and run with it.
You have that backwards. The DNC and the media conspire to create the leftist narrative and then self-proclaimed liberals nod in agreement and run with it.
I agree with what you say, and I don't think I got it backwards.
The democratic party knows who their followers are and what they want. For a democrat politician to say something like "This person has the same rights to due process as everyone else, and skepticism is a healthy thing," would be received about as well as if Metallica were to start playing a Justin Bieber song during one of their concerts.
Metalheads want to rock, and SJWs want something to feel oppressed and violated by. Whether a musician or a politician, you give your fans what they want or else you get off the stage.
I agree with what you say, and I don't think I got it backwards.
The democratic party knows who their followers are and what they want. For a democrat politician to say something like "This person has the same rights to due process as everyone else, and skepticism is a healthy thing," would be received about as well as if Metallica were to start playing a Justin Bieber song during one of their concerts.
Metalheads want to rock, and SJWs want something to feel oppressed and violated by. Whether a musician or a politician, you give your fans what they want or else you get off the stage.
The vast majority of Americans and Dem voters are not SJWs at all, and are actually turned off by it. The media and the Dem leadership are pretending it's more popular than it actually is. The only reason Justin Bieber has so many fans is because that's what the radio plays, it's not organic support because he's a great musician.
But for any politician, not appeasing the most highly vocal of your constituency is career suicide. The ones who should the loudest might be a minority, but their influence on the broad public perception of the politician is disproportionately high.
This is one reason why politicians are moving further away from centrist notions, and further toward the extreme ends of the political spectrum. All it takes is a few hysterics to say "[Politician X] is defending a rapist and trampling on the rights of women! They are a traitor to the ideals of the democratic party and must be removed!" and, suddenly, that becomes part of the national conversation.
So if you are Politician X, and you were elected under the democrat banner, you don't dare postulate ideas like "Maybe white men deserve equal protection under the law, and have a right to the presumption of innocence." Instead, you pander to the folks whose voice has the power to destroy you.
It only took a few celebrities to initially (and quite loudly) accuse the president of being a racist, xenophobic, woman-hating bigot, and now look at how many people just accept that as fact. Accusations such as this, once entered into the echo-chamber of public outrage, reverberate and gain strength until they become the new truth.
It only took a few celebrities to initially (and quite loudly) accuse the president of being a racist, xenophobic, woman-hating bigot, and now look at how many people just accept that as fact.
This was my point at the beginning. Media is working hand in hand with Dems and some Rs to sow division, not the other way around.
This was my point at the beginning. Media is working hand in hand with Dems and some Rs to sow division, not the other way around.
Christopher Gon I am LGBT. My own have called me names that no Republican has ever called me, since 2016 I have found more honest dialogue, communication and acceptance from the Right while the Left has unfriended me, in one instance someone I considered a close friend and only that after a cruel tirade against my character. I share this all the time because I know I am not alone out there, there are many LGBT and people of color who are not Leftist ***** and we need to know we are not alone.
David Kaufman I’m straight but have lost many friends one of whom was my best friend growing up - he’s black and told me I need to check my privilege 😳😔 I’ve realized maybe many of these so called friends were never truly true friends if we can’t even have a dialogue- stay strong 💪 brother
Shannon Summerlin Jones David Kaufman same exact scenario with me by 2 black lifelong friends...suddenly I'm a racist and a bigot. I was also told I need to check my privilege. hurtful and disrespectful, but I'm good now.
Vincent Bruce It's true. I've lost many long time friends for being openly conservative. 1 happened to be trans and the other gay. It's sad to me because we grew up together. When 1 came out as gay, i said "I've known since childhood, doesn't change our friendship." When the other told me that he was becoming a female my exact words were "that's cool that you're comfortable with who you are, i support you." But then I voiced my approval pf trump and all hell broke loose. Guess they weren't true friends after all
Jb Hafidha Swingle Too sad....my brother stopped talking to me. I was sad, but oh well...life goes on. True friends don't dump you bc of political differences or other differences. One can love another no matter their views
Brenda Wilkerson My sister hasn’t talked to me in years. I’ve given up trying to appease her. Oh well. 😏
Azea C Gafford Liked the interview. But honestly, I LOVED the responses more. It's amazing how we Republicans get called every evil name and accused of being hateful, noninclusive, homophobic, xenophobic and the lot. But when you take a moment and actually look at what's going on, you see that it's the liberals who demonstrate those traits through their words and deeds... Not us.
Robin Davidson I'll never understand why it's okay to treat someone so badly over their political feelings. My Mother has really shocked me to the core with her dislike of President Trump, much less with me over my support of him...
George Carneal Jr. I've been attacked by gays and liberals for leaving the gay life AND for supporting Trump. I've lost so many "friends" I can't keep count. Thanks to everyone for standing behind Trump in spite of the attacks. I love my President Donald J. Trump. He is doing a fantastic job!
Justine Nicole I will be honest. Im deathly afraid to state that I am a Trump supporter. Most of my friends are liberal. They just cuss him out any chance they get!
Gloria Zechman True conservatives don’t care, you are an American citizen...that is what is important. We don’t care if you are gay, straight, purple, black, white....
True conservatives aren’t going to try and force their beliefs and don’t want beliefs forced on them.
It is always a bad few that gave us a bad name.
Gail Justinger You have a motley crew on the left. Muslims, feminist, lbgq, socialis, antifa, and others. What they don't know is when they no longer have use for some of them or someone disagrees with the agenda. They will eat each other.
Evans Jenjen He's not alone. I've been unfriended unfollowed and my posts get ignored. Oh well. Don't give two *****. Im still ME. SO I understand completely. Also...i work in a Democratic Union environment....imagine the ignorance of that. It ain't easy but I still don't give two fucs.
Charlie Hearts If I was American I'd be conservative but being in the UK I can't really... Ehh touchy subject here... Ukip...
Carl Pacheco I'm an LGBT, Latino immigrant...who is a Christian conservative Trump supporter. I've faced harassment and hatred from the left, and especially the LGBT who are 7/10 far left. Now facing charges for defending myself against harassment from some far left people when I was alone, trying to go home after an event while wearing a MAGA hat and Trump tshirt
Candice Hearn I had a friend who was a democrat. She hated Bush and Gingrich. When Obama was elected she worshiped him. I would tell her that she had one vote and I had one vote. I never talked politics with her but when I was a Trump supporter she just couldn't take it. She got a brain tumor and died. I gave to her gofund acct when she was sick. But she would not talk to me. So sad on so many levels. I never discussed my views with her but politely listened as she trashed my candidates.
Media is working hand in hand with Dems and some Rs to sow division, not the other way around.
I don't think that "Media" are actively colluding with celebrities for the purpose of creating divisiveness.
For us (the media), it's really just the same "give 'em what they want" mentality. The golf channel would probably lose a lot of its existing viewers (and pick up many new ones) if it started airing documentaries about climate-change during prime time, for instance. By the same token, many viewers react positively to violent controversy and shouting (meaning that they watch it, not necessarily that they like or agree with it.) An episode of the Maury show tickles the same nerve impulses as making outrageous accusations against politicians using hyperbole and lies. That's why both formats are successful.
CNN was caught staging news in a video captured by citizen journalist, who posted the footage to his Twitter account @markantro. Becky Anderson of CNN is seen in London handing props to a “peace group.”
10-10-2018, 06:24 PM
0
