Category Archives: Politics

Feeding Frenzy in the Echo Chamber, by Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Posted on June 28, 2017 | Leave a comment

Raúl Ilargi Meijer echoes the critique of the MSM made in “Breaking the Alternative Media’s Dependency on the Mainstream Media.” From Meijer at theautomaticearth.com:

The best comment on the June 13 Jeff Sessions Senate testimony, and I’m sorry I forgot who made it, was that it looked like an episode of Seinfeld. A show about nothing. Still, an awful lot of voices tried to make it look like it was something life- and game-changing. It was not. Not anymore than Comey’s testimony was, at least not in the sense that those eager to have these testimonies take place would have liked it to be.

Comey shone more of an awkward light on himself rather than on Donald Trump, by admitting that he had leaked info on a private conversation with the president he served at the time. Not quite nothing, but very little to satisfy the anti-Trump crowd. It’s just that there’s so many in that crowd, and most in denial, that you wouldn’t know it unless you paid attention.

To cut to the chase of the issue, it’s no longer possible -or at least increasingly difficult- to find coverage in the US -and European- press of anything related to either Trump or Russia that doesn’t come solidly baked in a partisan opinionated sauce.

For instance, I have a Google News page, somewhat personalized, and I haven’t been able to open it for quite some time without the top news articles focusing on Trump and/or Russia, and all the ones at the very top are invariably from the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, The Hill, Politico et al.

But I am not interested in those articles. These ‘news’ outlets -and you really must ask whether using the word ‘news’ is appropriate here- dislike anything Trump and Putin so much, for some reason, that all they do is write ‘stuff’ in a 24/7 staccato beat based on innuendo and allegations, quoted from anonymous sources that may or may not actually exist.

In the case of Russia, this attitude is many years old; in the case of Trump, it dates back to him announcing his candidacy. And that’s funny, because when you think back to who else was a GOP candidate, how can you not wonder if Ted Cruz or Jeb Bush would really have been better presidents than Trump? The Trump presidency is not an indictment of the man himself, but of the entire US political system.

To continue reading: Feeding Frenzy in the Echo Chamber

 

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The Technicolor Swan, by James Howard Kunstler

Posted on June 26, 2017 | Leave a comment

An exorcism of the demonic forces in American politics is coming. From James Howard Kunstler at kunstler.com:

When I think of the Democratic Party these days, the image instantly comes to mind of little Linda Blair playing the demon-possessed child in the classic horror movie, The Exorcist (1973), most particularly the scene in which she spews a stream of pea soup-like projectile vomit into the face of kindly old Max von Sydow, as Father Merrin, the priest come to rescue her.

The pea soup represents the sort of ideology that the Democratic Party has spewed out in recent years — a toxic mush of racial identity politics, contempt for men, infantile entitlement tantrums, corporate whoring, and a demonic quest for war with the Russian Federation. Father Merrin, the priest, stands for incorruptible American men, who have been, at last, killed off by this barrage of diabolical idiocy.

Can you think of a single figure in the Democratic faction who dares to oppose the lethal nonsense this party has been sponsoring and spewing? Who are its leaders? Chuck Schumer in the Senate — a mendacious errand boy for Wall Street? Nancy Pelosi in the House, who wears her cluelessness like a laminate of pancake makeup. Got anyone else? Uncle Joe (Biden)? That’s rich. Bernie? (Looks like his wife is about to be indicted on a federal bank fraud rap for running a small Vermont college into the ground. Whoops.)

Who else you got? Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York. I live near Albany, the state capital, and I can assure you that Governor Cuomo is ripely loathed and detested by anyone who has had actual dealings with him. Insiders tell me he makes Nixon look like Mr. Rogers. And this is apart from the fact that he seems to stand for nothing.

To continue reading: The Technicolor Swan

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Advice To Help Our Beloved Democrat Friends Win In 2018, by Kurt Schlichter

Posted on June 26, 2017 | 1 comment

It’s probably too much for Republicans to hope that Democrats just keep on doing what they’ve been doing. From Kurt Schlichter at theburningplatform.com:

Since we conservatives humiliated Felonia von Pantsuit last November, it’s been all winning, all the time, from Neil Gorsuch to crushing the liberal climate cult to appointing a Defense Secretary nicknamed Mad Dog who prioritizes annihilating jihadists over making the infantry more welcoming to people confused about whether they are boys or girls. But that’s unfair to the Democrats – as our liberal friends teach us, our success belongs to them too, just like everything else we earn, build, or create belongs to them too.

We need to share our winning. We need to be bipartisan-curious!

After all, Democrats are always offering Republicans helpful advice, like “Run away from the guy who beat The Smartest, Most Qualified, And Smartest Woman In The History Of Ever!” and “Reach across the aisle so we can grab your hand and drag you into our reeking cesspool of institutional progressivism!”

So, in that same spirit of cooperation and love, I once again humbly offer some ideas for our liberal friends to help them win in 2018, which still all boil down to this: don’t change a thing. It’s more important than ever for Democrats to maintain a steady course. Just ignore that iceberg up ahead; it’s probably racist anyway.

Look Democrats, you’re doing great. After a half year of Trump and several special election moral victories – which are the best kind of victories – America is digging your vibe. Everyone loves the Democrats and their can-do message of opposition to Trump, entitlement to our money, resistance to Trump, demands for even more of our money, and dog-whistlin’ about murdering Trump and anyone else who doesn’t hate Trump or want to give Democrats our money.

To continue reading: Advice To Help Our Beloved Democrat Friends Win In 2018

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The Genius of Trump’s Tweets, by Rachel Alexander

Posted on June 26, 2017 | Leave a comment

What’s overlooked about Trump’s tweets is that tweeting is the only communication medium with the American people he can trust. Sad. From Rachel Alexander at townhall.com:

President Donald Trump frequently comes under criticism for tweeting, even from his own advisers. But tweeting is probably the smartest thing he has done as president. He is able to speak directly to the American people without going through the biased mainstream media filter. The media doesn’t get to ask him slanted questions or pick and choose parts of his press releases to publish. Instead, Trump gets immense control over every single sentence he issues, which are then read by millions of Americans.

With almost everyone online these days, it is easy for the average American to follow Trump’s tweets on Twitter. Twitter is free, unlike some mainstream media sites. Many of The Washington Post’s articles — the site is a frequent critic of Trump — are behind a paywall. A Twitter account isn’t even required in order to view Trump’s tweets. And even if left-leaning Twitter artificially buries positive news about Trump, it doesn’t matter, people go directly to his tweets.

Google, Twitter and Facebook control much of the news we see today, but Trump’s tweets get around their dominance. Similar to the Drudge Report website, Trump’s tweets are so well-known that people view his tweets independently of the tech giants. The Drudge Report receives comparable traffic to Google News and The New York Times — despite the fact Google News prominently promotes the Times in search results and on its homepage. Drudge isn’t even carried in Google News, since the site merely aggregates links to articles. Google is the most trafficked site in the U.S. as well as in the world.

Most of the time, Google News is full of articles by the left-leaning media critical of Trump and conservatism. But Trump’s tweets changed all that. Reporters race to report on his tweets, filling up Google News with articles that are far more favorable to Trump, since there is so little room left for spin with his tweets. A quick perusal of Google News right now reveals this headline near the top, “Trump accuses Clinton of colluding with Democrats to defeat ‘Crazy Bernie Sanders.’” The Washington Post article acknowledges, “Trump took to Twitter Sunday morning…” There really is very little way to write the headline to make Trump look bad. There wasn’t any extra information to glean something from outside of one short tweet.

To continue reading: The Genius of Trump’s Tweets

 

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Political Correctness Claims a Victim… by Bill Bonner

Posted on June 25, 2017 | Leave a comment

You would think if you had a billion dollars in the bank you wouldn’t much care what anybody thought about you and you’d do and say as you damn well pleased, within the limits of the law. Apparently that’s not the case. From Bill Bonner at bonnerandpartners.com:

DUBLIN – Poor David Bonderman.

He said the wrong thing. He should be ashamed of himself.

We’ll come back to him in a minute…

Stroll Through the Park

In the meantime, if you want to enjoy summertime as it should be, take a walk through St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin on a sunny day in June.

Yesterday, young people lounged on the grass… taking off shirts and hiking up skirts to get the sun on their skin. Lovers walked arm in arm around the pond. Children kicked balls… old people sat on benches reading.

And your editor strolled with his son.

Warm, sunny weather is rare in Ireland. But when it happens in midsummer, the result is spectacular. The sun rises at 5 a.m. and doesn’t go to bed until 10 p.m. The flowers love it.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” said the younger one.

“Yes, hard to beat.”

“Our family is Irish, isn’t it?”

“Yes…”

“I wonder why they left.”

“Oh… Ireland was not always such a pleasant place. Even as late as the 1970s, there were areas in the west that were desperately poor. Children went to school without shoes. And some of the schools had outdoor plumbing.

“Then when the country joined the euro in 2001, it got access to credit at low German rates. That’s when the building boom started. By 2007, property prices had risen to the point that the Irish – on paper – were the richest people in Europe.

“Our family missed the whole cycle. We went from being one of the poorest families in Ireland to being one of the poorest families in Maryland.”

PC Hysteria

Back in the USA…

There is practically a subgenre in public commentary explaining how political correctness has gone too far.

To continue reading: Political Correctness Claims a Victim…

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Study supports Trump: 5.7 million noncitizens may have cast illegal votes, by Rowan Scarborough

Posted on June 24, 2017 | Leave a comment

Democrats scoffed when Trump claimed widespread vote fraud because millions of noncitizens voted. Now there is empirical research indicating that vote fraud in the 2008 election was much more prevelant than generally suspected. From Rowan Scarborough at washingtontimes.com:

A research group in New Jersey has taken a fresh look at postelection polling data and concluded that the number of noncitizens voting illegally in U.S. elections is likely far greater than previous estimates.

As many as 5.7 million noncitizens may have voted in the 2008 election, which put Barack Obama in the White House.

The research organization Just Facts, a widely cited, independent think tank led by self-described conservatives and libertarians, revealed its number-crunching in a report on national immigration.

 Just Facts President James D. Agresti and his team looked at data from an extensive Harvard/YouGov study that every two years questions a sample size of tens of thousands of voters. Some acknowledge they are noncitizens and are thus ineligible to vote.

Just Facts’ conclusions confront both sides in the illegal voting debate: those who say it happens a lot and those who say the problem nonexistent.

In one camp, there are groundbreaking studies by professors at Old Dominion University in Virginia who attempted to compile scientifically derived illegal voting numbers using the Harvard data, called the Cooperative Congressional Election Study.

On the other side are the professors who conducted the study and contended that “zero” noncitizens of about 18 million adults in the U.S. voted. The liberal mainstream media adopted this position and proclaimed the Old Dominion work was “debunked.”

The ODU professors, who stand by their work in the face of attacks from the left, concluded that in 2008 as few as 38,000 and as many as 2.8 million noncitizens voted.

Mr. Agresti’s analysis of the same polling data settled on much higher numbers. He estimated that as many as 7.9 million noncitizens were illegally registered that year and 594,000 to 5.7 million voted.

To continue reading: Study supports Trump: 5.7 million noncitizens may have cast illegal votes

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The Passing of the Pelosi Era, by Patrick J. Buchanan

Posted on June 23, 2017 | Leave a comment

The Democratic party needs new blood, leadership, and ideas. In other words, bye-bye Nancy Pelosi. From Patrick J. Buchanan at buchanan.org:

In the first round of the special election for the House seat in Georgia’s Sixth District, 30-year-old Jon Ossoff swept 48 percent. He more than doubled the vote of his closest GOP rival, Karen Handel.

A Peach State pickup for the Democrats and a huge humiliation for President Trump seemed at hand.

But in Tuesday’s final round, Ossoff, after the most costly House race in history, got 48 percent again, and lost. If Democratic donors are grabbing pitchforks, who can blame them?

And what was Karen Handel’s cutting issue?

Ossoff lived two miles outside the district and represented the values of the Democratic minority leader, whom he would vote to make the speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

The Pelosi factor has been a drag on Democrats in all four of the special elections the party has lost since Trump’s November triumph.

Prediction: Democrats will not go into the 2018 Congressional elections with San Fran Nan as the party’s face and future. No way. As President Kennedy said, “Sometimes party loyalty asks too much.”

Post-Trump, it is hard to see Republicans returning to NAFTA-GATT free-trade globalism, open borders, mass immigration or Bushite crusades for democracy. A cold realism about America’s limited power and potential to change the world has settled in.

And just as Trump put Bush-Romney Republicanism into the dumpster in the 2016 primaries, Hillary Clinton’s defeat, followed by losses in four straight special elections, portend a passing of the guard in the Democratic Party.

So where is the party going?

Clearly, the energy and fire are on the Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren left. Moreover, the crudity of party chair Tom Perez’s attacks on Trump and the GOP, being echoed now by Democratic members of Congress, suggest that the new stridency to rally the angry left is gaining converts.

Trump’s rough rhetoric, which brought out the alienated working class in the ten of thousands to his rallies, is being emulated by “progressives” — imitation being the sincerest form of flattery.

To continue reading: The Passing of the Pelosi Era

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