CNN woes continue
CNN is really covering itself in glory – or something – this week, first by defiantly standing by a story debunked by its own source, and now with this almost painfully dumb defense of the violent, masked thugs of Antifa. Don Lemon admitted that, okay, maybe they’ve occasionally resorted to violence, but look at their name: “Antifa.” It means they’re anti-fascist. “No organization is perfect,” he admits, but they’re fighting racist fascists, and “there’s a distinction there.”
To be clear: Antifa clashed with actual racist fascists in Charlottesville over a year ago. Mostly, they specialize in pretending to be tough, revolutionary soldiers by donning masks to avoid any consequences for their actions, vandalizing property, cursing the police, and launching cowardly attacks on little old ladies, elderly veterans and young teenagers in MAGA caps. Not since Italians excused Mussolini’s actions by saying, “But he made the trains run on time” has there been such a feeble excuse for inexcusable fascist behavior.
But just when you think the stupid couldn’t get any thicker, next came CNN chief legal analyst Jeffery Toobin, to accuse President Trump of racism for criticizing Antifa. Why? Toobin said, “Let’s be clear also about what’s going on here, the theme here is, ‘I’m Donald Trump and I’ll protect you from the scary black people.’ Antifa is widely perceived as an African-American organization…”
What? I thought they were widely, and correctly, perceived as a bunch of unemployed and unemployed gender studies and other useless liberal arts degree holders, tapping out threats on keyboards in their parents’ basements. And as for their racial makeup, I think NRA TV’s Cameron Gray had the line of the week when he tweeted, “Antifa is whiter than Pat Boone making a mayonnaise sandwich with Wonder bread in a Minnesota snowstorm.”
"Racist dog whistles"
Personally, I have to confess that I don’t get this current leftist trend of labeling everyone whose views differ even slightly from far-left orthodoxy as a bigot/racist/hater/fascist, etc. You can’t just be a Christian who believes in the Biblical definition of marriage, no, you “hate gay people!” You can’t believe that government health care would be a ruinous boondoggle that would destroy freedom, quality, choice and the budget; no, you're a hater who wants sick people to DIE! I see the word “racist” thrown at people like rice at a wedding reception, which devalues what is actually one of the worst accusations you can make against someone.
I’m sometimes asked how I can defend President Trump (I don’t always, but I do when I think his accusers are off-base or just being hysterical, as they often are). After all, everyone knows he’s a horrible racist! I keep asking for evidence of that, and mostly what I get are either outright lies, misquotations, unverified claims from suspect partisan sources, or wildly twisted versions of stories I know the truth about.
Today, we have a new example of rushing to ascribe racism to an ambiguous comment: no sooner had the gubernatorial nominees been selected in Florida than a big “you’re racist" controversy broke out. Republican Ron DeSantis warned that things are going great in Florida and “The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state.” He claims that was meant as in “throwing a monkey wrench into the machinery” and had no racist intent whatsoever.
But the Democrats leaped on it, claiming the word “monkey” is a “racist dog whistle” because Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum is black. I’ve noted before how it seems that the people who constantly use the term “dog whistle” seem to be the only ones who can hear those whistles, which might be a clue that you’re the dog. Or in this case, if you hear the word “monkey” and your first thought is that it’s a coded reference to black people, then maybe you need to check your own racism.
In general, I don’t subscribe to the current fashion of assuming that anyone I disagree with politically is a horrible excuse for a human being, representing all that is evil and vile. I figure they don’t agree with me, but if we had a calm, civil discussion, maybe I could change their minds. I guess that’s why most of them are so averse to calm, civil discussions.
Some may claim I have a “Pollyannaish” outlook, always assuming the best of others, at least until they prove me wrong. That’s considered an insult, I guess; defined as meaning overly cheerful or optimistic. But I think people who mean it that way don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s a reference to “Pollyanna,” a classic children’s book made into a famous Disney film with Hayley Mills. Pollyanna showed some mean, judgmental people who’d leapt to wrong conclusions the error of their ways by quoting the wisdom passed to her by her father: "When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will."
It strikes me that we now have giant social media platforms and entire 24-hour news channels devoted to that very principle. Only they don’t see it as a warning, they see it as a prime directive.
Orientation
The incoming freshmen at the College of New Jersey’s orientation week were treated to a mandatory speech by a leftist writer who told them that rugged individualism is a myth, Fox News hosts are backward and bigoted, white people are mentally weak and are racists even if they think they aren’t, and America was never really that great.
Well, the students were told this event would orient them to what the next four years of college would be like, and it definitely did.
PS – I am officially outraged and offended that they used the outdated, racist term “orient.”
Confidence and optimism are rising
A new survey conducted by Harris Polls found that blue collar workers are increasingly optimistic about their futures. Fifty-five percent said they're better off today than five years ago; and 51% say the country is headed in the right direction, a 12-point jump from one year ago. Eight-five percent say their lives are going in the right direction, 69% percent the same is true of their local communities, and 58% say their states are on the right track. Most startling (and heartening) of all, 80% of blue collar workers are optimistic about the future (one-third are “very optimistic”), and 88% are optimistic that their children will have better lives than they do. Just one year ago, a Pew survey put that number at a depressing 37%.
It’s odd: I was assured by the “smartest” people that Donald Trump was lying to the rubes when he said he wanted to help forgotten blue collar workers. I was told that he only wanted to enrich his billionaire buddies, and was cynically pandering by claiming that factory and energy jobs would return when those had left the USA for good and were never coming back.
Journalists frustrated that blue collar workers don’t seem as upset as they are about invisible Russian collusion or the preening lawyers of aggrieved porn stars should consider that maybe those workers aren’t “uninformed” or “misled” or "disengaged." They just have their priorities straight.
https://freebeacon.com/issues/blue-collar-workers-increasingly-optimistic-under-trump/
Leftist madness
Do I sense another Chick-Fil-A Day on the horizon? Some California Democrats, who routinely demonstrate their tolerance for diversity by trying to silence and destroy anyone who holds a different opinion, discovered that the In-N-Out burger chain donated $25,000 to the California Republican Party. Well, they didn’t exactly “discover” it: a journalist found the records and performed the same function as a medieval peasant yelling, “She’s a witch!!” And the chairman of the California Democratic Party, Eric Bauman, performed the role of the judge who declares, “BURN HER!” by calling for a boycott of delicious In-N-Out burgers.
It’s not clear what the political philosophy of In-N-Out corporate is, although the late founder was a Republican and an Evangelical, and his daughter, the current President, is a devout Christian (explaining the Biblical quotes on the burger wrappers.) Maybe they don’t like the open hostility of the far-left California Democrats to people of faith. Or maybe they just don’t like the economic policies of the state’s liberal leadership, who don’t do much to help any businesses except moving van companies. That seems fairly likely, considering they’ve also donated to PACs that support moderate Democrats.
But whatever the chain’s motivation may be, it is enlightening to hear that Eric Bauman, chairman of the self-proclaimed guardians of tolerance and diversity in the most “progressive” of states, is urging Democrats to drive the chain into bankruptcy and cause all their employees to lose their jobs simply because they contributed a piddling amount (considering their cash flow) to insure that other voices are heard besides Eric Bauman’s and those lucky enough to share the only thoughts and opinions he thinks should be allowed.
I don’t know about you, but I’m suddenly feeling really hungry for a Double-Double Cheeseburger Animal-Style.
http://fortune.com/2018/08/30/in-n-out-burger-republican-donation/
CNN feuds with the President
Last night, CNN and President Trump got into an epic Twitter battle, one which put CNN in the unenviable position of insisting it “does not lie” and “stands by its story,” even when the story has already fallen to pieces in public. Their source, Lanny Davis (who claimed Michael Cohen said President Trump knew in advance about the meeting with a Russian supplier of alleged dirt on Hillary), has retracted it, admitting he got it wrong.
CNN seems to be mistaking defending free speech with refusing to admit when you screwed up. Even the New York Times has a “Corrections” page. It’s worth reading the linked story to see all the WWE-style back-and-forth, but sorry, CNN. Your self-righteous refusal to come down off a hill made of shifting sand isn’t giving journalists a good name. It reminds me of the old Firesign Theater line: “You can believe me, because I never lie...and I’m always right!”
Of course, they were a comedy group, so they meant it as a joke. And they didn’t follow it with, “This…is CNN!”
Finding safe space at Facebook
While the big social media giants are insisting they are completely innocent of leftwing bias with the same adamant certitude of a naked emperor showing off his invisible ermine cape, some disgruntled conservative Facebook employees are pointing out the obvious: these Silicon Valley socialist billionaires are naked! Or at least, nakedly political.
It all started with a post by Facebook senior engineer Brian Amerige, who dared state the obvious: “We Have A Problem With Political Diversity.” He said Facebook employees who disagree with the prevailing office political “monoculture” are afraid to say so for fear of reprisals, bullying or losing their jobs. He offered a long list of examples you can see at the link, including tearing down posters welcoming Trump supporters, making it a firing offense to say that “all lives matter,” attacking non-leftist colleagues as bigots and accusing them of having “offensive ideas,” and demanding HR investigations of anyone who criticizes Islam’s human rights record.
Since Amerige posted his manifesto, about 100 other employees have joined him in a group called “FB’ers for Political Diversity.” They say the purpose is to create “a space where you can talk about these issues without fear of the mob” and to be a place to “talk about how we can fix this.”
Now, if you thought that the people they were rebelling against saw that and were struck with a bolt of self-realization – that they looked in the mirror and thought, “What have I become? How did my opposition to narrow-minded, intolerant, censorious bigots become so inflamed that I didn’t realize I had turned into exactly what I hated?” – well, then you don’t know the modern left very well. Instead of pausing to consider whether someone with a different point of view might be justified in holding it, they immediately acted like a mob and began attacking the FBer’s For Political Diversity, calling them bigots and claiming their posts were offensive to minorities.
Hey, Facebook leftists, let me clarify something for you. When there are thousands of you who are all alike, and you’re attacking 100 people who are different, then THEY are the “minority,” and you’re the enemies of diversity.
With these sites becoming the new version of public utilities, this kind of bias against conservatives or Christians is not going to stand much longer. The tech titans had better realize that just because they supply the pipes, that doesn’t mean they get to decide who does and doesn’t receive water. I can see this ending in one of three ways: Mediation (they work with their critics to fix the problem); litigation (they get sued for unfair business practices and violations of Constitutional rights); or regulation. They really don’t want that last one, and usually, I don’t either. But if you insist on acting like a corrupt monopoly, don’t be surprised when the government treats you like one.
https://www.westernjournal.com/facebook-employees-turn-tech-giant-call-tolerance-right/
"Black Elevation"
As long as we’re talking about Facebook, here’s a story from a couple of weeks ago that somehow got overlooked. Amid all the stories about social media sites and search engines allegedly suppressing conservative voices and shutting off conservative media outlets as “fake news” or “hate groups,” one of the most successful Facebook political organizing sites was exposed as a fake page fomenting hate.
This site, which Facebook took down last month, sought to sow discord among Americans and incite racial division. It had tens of thousands of visitors, and one video it posted got 2.5 million views. Facebook wouldn’t reveal who was really behind it, but it is likely tied to a Russian organization that tried to influence the 2016 election. Is this starting to sound like a CNN tape loop?
Well, wait, there’s a twist: this allegedly Russian-backed fake site was a leftist site called “Black Elevation.” It claimed to oppose racism and promote progressive ideas, but did so by organizing “Remember Michael Brown” anti-police rallies and a pro “Medicare 4 All” rally in Chicago with the covert intention of dividing Americans. The idealistic social justice warriors who followed the site and took marching orders from it seemed stunned that they had fallen for an allegedly Russian-backed hoax that was actually designed to rip America apart. Yes, ask not who was colluding with Russians, for the colluders were thee.
The good news is that if they want to find leftwing sites that organize protests against intolerance that are actually meant to promote intolerance, they’ll probably still be able to find plenty of real ones.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/technology/facebook-disinformation-black-elevation.html
Strangest Video of the Day:
This gives new meaning to the phrase, “flying fish.”
https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/utah-restocks-lakes-airplane-fish/
Rigged I tell you!
Here’s how not to convince people that Google is rigged against Trump:
Trump on Tuesday: “Google is rigged!”
Just hours later, the top news story on Google News: “Trump slams Google search as ‘rigged’ — but it’s not” – CNN
https://www.westernjournal.com/look-top-google-news-story-hours-trump-called-rigged/
By the way, I searched for “Trump” and “rigged” on Thursday morning, and that CNN story was still the top story returned. The rest of the first-page stories included a few that were a bit more balanced from USA Today and ABC, but none from any conservative news sites. But it did include these headlines: “How the Electoral College Rigged the Election for Trump” – Rolling Stone (Nov. 2016) and “Rigged: How Voter Suppression Threw Wisconsin to Trump” – Mother Jones (Dec. 2017.)
I know when I’m searching for the latest fair, balanced, nonpartisan “news” stories, two-year-old hit pieces from Rolling Stone and Mother Jones are certainly among the first things I’d expect to come up. I guess if Trump were older, Google would be showing me stories from the Daily Worker from 1958.
Candace Owens update
This story illustrates why so many on the left have the long knives out for Candace Owens: because she confronts them with things they can’t refute. Like this long-ago quote from Barack Obama on immigration that sounds exactly like the sort of comment they have outrage seizures over when it comes from President Trump.
https://www.westernjournal.com/candace-owens-digs-old-obama-quote-immigration-goes-viral/
Incidentally, if you are a fan of Candace Owens, then be sure to watch “Huckabee” this weekend on TBN, when she will be one of my guests.
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