Taibbi tells all to Tucker

I listened to the entire 2 hour 20 minute interview of Matt Taibbi on the Tucker show this afternoon (waiting for a call back that never came). By the end I was almost tearful. It's sad when one's dreams are dashed--even for leftists. Taibbi was considered the golden boy of liberal journalism. Worked 10 years in Russia (speaks Russian) as a journalist and had his dream job for 16 years with Rolling Stone. He got the big exposé about Twitter, how it was infiltrated by government intel. He now works as an independent (Substack) and is called "right wing" by the Demedia, his former friends and colleagues. He really dislikes Trump, but has had to acknowledge the Soviet/Russian style justice he has received (and Steve Bannon). He was such a huge fan of Obama it was almost painful to listen to his confession of faith. Oddly, he is such a believer in the values of freedom of speech and a journalism ethic that I don't believe ever existed in real practice, that he's about as MAGA as one could be without knowing it.

One odd thing I learned during the interview is both men have fathers who were adopted. Taibbi is actually of Filipino/Hawaiian ethnicity, adopted by Italian Americans with a Lebanese surname.

Depolarization of Christians during this political climate

Our church is offering an educational unit on "Depolarization" to help members face the increasing divisions especially in the current election cycle using the Bible as a guide. Call it a polarizing subject, but abortion is at the top of my list. I don't want to nor will I attempt to bridge the gap between me and a Democrat, a Christian, a fellow member of the body of Christ, who voted twice to push through the abortion issues which passed this year in Ohio. A change in our state constitution to "protect the rights of women." And let's just throw in a recent side issue of men in women's sports and locker rooms bill, a bill which DOES NOT protect women, but which would allow continued mutilation of children, aka "affirming care." A bill which Republicans in the legislature needed to override the veto of our so called Republican governor, Mike DeWine.

Actually, I haven't heard too many conservatives complain about the divisions and polarization in our country--they seem to know that liberals are feeling some guilt and anxiety about the wars, the border, and abortion available to the last day, and THAT's causing them to see a profound chasm of the Democrats own creation. It's not the party they signed on to 30-40 years ago, nor the party I left almost 25 years ago. It's not for me to close the gap or wave the white flag.

Northern, rich sanctuary cities complain about illegal invasion

"MSNBC’s Chris Hayes called the migrant flights “deeply deeply sick and dehumanizing” as if the 50 individuals were shipped to a concentration camp. CNN actually compared the flights to one of the nation’s most glamorous vacation spots to the Nazi Holocaust. The Washington Post’s Max Boot, who last month called Martha’s Vineyard “the real America,” condemned the move as “beneath contempt” for the Florida governor.

The majority-white, wealthy liberal enclave where median home sales are north of $1.3 million and where 150,000 tourists descend every summer should, however, be well-equipped to absorb 50 new migrants into its community. After all, rich white liberals have spent the better half of the last decade lecturing Americans to bring home “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and welcome unchecked illegal migration."

10 Even More Awesome Places To Send Illegal Immigrants (thefederalist.com)

Seventeen years ago, and things haven't changed much

17 years ago a fellow library blogger. Walt, referred to me as a "right wing librarian." I responded at my blog (somewhat in shock):

"Because I remember those days when I was a liberal humanist, I know why and how this designation happened. When you are a liberal or a Democrat, you see yourself as just “us.” When you are a liberal, the antonym of “liberal” isn’t “conservative,” but right-wing. Everyone to the right of you is wrong headed, a threat to your personal space and freedoms, and “them.”

When you are a liberal you can’t see the bias of the major news media outlets because they reflect your own views and opinions; you don’t notice there are no Republican voices on the faculty of your institution or among the speakers invited to the campus; you don’t even notice when 70% of the campus never says anything out of fear for their jobs; you don’t see that there are almost no conservative books on the new book shelves of your public library and just assume they must all be awful because surely librarians wouldn’t tolerate bias in book selection; you believe that money will solve all social problems; and arriving at a goal or target is never enough--you must gird the loins of your cause with more tax money.

I’m far more liberal, in the true sense of the word, than many of the Democrats I know. I believe the “least of these” have value, therefore I’m against killing babies in the womb because they have physical anomalies or it's not a good time in mommy's career. I believe poor and minority children need a good education to succeed in a complex society and shouldn’t be left behind just because their parents can’t provide it. I believe there should be art and music in the schools--libraries are less critical.

I believe that Jesus Christ suffered and died so that every single person can be welcomed into the kingdom of God, but also believe those for whom he died have the right to say "no thanks" if they so desire. I believe that men and women are equal but not the same--in some areas women are superior. I believe in ordaining women and letting their skills and abilities and your needs determine if they should be in your pulpit.

I believe in meritocracy in the work place and don’t support quotas and affirmative action--they are demeaning to all we fought for. I do not support the death penalty. I was a strong pacifist through the end of the Vietnam war when our “anti-war movement” condemned millions of Vietnamese to death by pressuring our government to run out on them. The most shameful page in our history. I think the United Nations is a waste of time and money since it wasn’t able to save Rwandans or the Sudanese and it stole and scammed food from the Iraqis. It would still be investigating the cause of the tsunami and forming study groups if the US hadn't taken the lead. These lives mattered too.

I believe Israel is the only democracy in the Middle-East, the government/country with which we have the most in common. Anti-Israel fervor is veiled anti-Semitism, in my opinion, and just a new version of "let's blame the Jews for all our problems." I believe we should stop propping up third world monarchies and feudal kingdoms. I think the war in Iraq will look like child’s play compared to the one coming--with China.

I support strong environmental laws that benefit everyone, not just a few disappearing rat and bird species. In fact, I believe our earth is God-created, organized and run. Therefore we should take care of it. I am a 6 day creationist and think it’s a waste of time to try to squeeze “intelligent design” into our theology or public school classrooms. ID doesn’t say much of anything. But evolution often looks Unintelligent too, and children need to be exposed to more than one view as the liberals used to believe.

Many of the librarian blogs I link to are “liberal”--but only if they are well-written, logical and informative. Walt has actually supplied the names of some I’ve never seen. But I’ve never seen mine linked on liberal blogs (some of that is ageism, not politics). A liberal today has severe torticollis and can turn only one direction--left."

I'd forgotten Walt in the last 17 years so I looked him up and found his twitter account. Yup, an apologist for Biden.

Moving right? Where's the plumb line?

 I saw an opinion piece (based I'm sure on someone's academic research while quarantined happily) that American voters are moving to the right.  I suspect that depends on where you place center.  Yes, more blacks and Hispanics are fleeing the Democrat party. That doesn't mean the spineless Republicans have any appeal.  Their personal values, particularly on sex and children, are probably more conservative than whites, who are a mishmash of many races and cultures. Minorities made huge gains under Trump, and all Biden has provided is promises and high inflation.  If CRT and wokeism in the classrooms of first graders is the plumb line, and if social media are considered the standard for American voters, I suppose it looks like we're moving to the right.  But I don't see it, particularly not in my community of Upper Arlington, Ohio.  Our public library has a miniscule collection for conservative Christians of any denomination, and as far as politics and social issues, you might find one or two authors against hundreds of the other ilk. Our churches seem as lost in the fog as the media.  I'll have to check and see if any of my conservative friends have taken off their muzzles and face masks.

Liberal parents

 

Suicide of the Liberals

When I saw the title, "Suicide of the Liberals" in the October, 2020, First Things, I thought it would be "our" liberals who wave their little flags at "peaceful" protests led by BLM, and donate to racial justice causes, and meet with other faculty at the university to promote reeducation workshops on American history. But, no. It was about what happened in Russia in the first 20 years of the 20th century--i.e. the Russian Revolution. As the author points out:

"Revolutions never succeed without the support of wealthy, liberal, educated society. Yet revolutionaries seldom conceal that their success entails the seizure of all wealth, the suppression of dissenting opinion, and the murder of class enemies.

There were many groups colluding and cooperating in bringing down the Russian government--the Maximalists, the Socialist Revolutionaries, Kadets, Mensheviks, populists, anarchists, and the Bolsheviks, who finally gained control. The author reports that the liberals in Russian society (referred to as the intelligents) well-educated, not particularly wealthy or of high social class, with a regulated life and obligatory beliefs for a "moral" person, with a devotion not unlike a strict religion.

The Russian liberals of the early 20th century had great distain for anything conservative and could excuse all manner of violence and intolerance as noble and understandable. Like robbery, extortion, murder and demands to abolish the police. Better to side with people a mile to one's left than be associated with anyone an inch to one's right.

There wasn't a word in this article by Gary Saul Morson about 2020 and what is happening in our country, but it certainly sounded familiar. Like Twitter and Facebook yesterday shutting down the Biden China story and the President's press secretary. Or critical race theory appearing in government departments and medical schools attached to major universities. People being threatened or having careers destroyed over a different opinion in politics. Or a candidate for vice president twisting history to fit her wish for a liberal supreme court justice. The willingness to move a mile left and not an inch to the right. Yes, very familiar indeed.

https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/10/suicide-of-the-liberals?

White liberals are still calling the tune on race

We have a white liberal problem, not a black problem, not a race problem. Liberal whites — not minorities — are setting the tone on race issues. White liberals will report that Trump's wall is racist; white conservatives do not think that. In earlier administrations, it was bipartisan, and we have Clinton and Obama on video stating the importance of border security to protect the nation and our values. When Obama was in office, white liberals' perception of racism soared--they found it everywhere and acted accordingly. Nasty. White conservatives' views on race barely budged.

It seems liberals have moved their focus from class to race. Whatever, the Man is still in charge and setting the rules.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/opinion/race-america-trump.html?

The equal opportunity crook

I can see why white liberals have become so defensive.

1) Their president who was supposed to absolve them and the country of all past sins of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination and bloated ineffective social programs designed and run by their own party failed. He set out to make race relations worse, didn't improve conditions for minorities except in politics--becoming his own Tammany Hall for blacks, didn’t end the war he had opposed, and he dealt a death blow to a health system already struggling, creating massive mergers wiping out small practitioners.

2) An outsider of both parties was able to bring in a brief golden age of freedom and opportunity for those shut out for decades--a man so crude and buffoon-like he actually conducted business on social media and fired people he had appointed. A man who could stare down the Europeans and Asians and demand respect from their frat club United Nations and European Union.

And now the final blow.

3) The man who made white liberals swoon with suave good looks, stellar "character" and fluid speeches has been found to be a crook of the magnitude we've never seen before in our history.

Liberals have more trust and faith in government edicts than conservatives do—Ohio study

It appears Covid19 has always been political in Ohio according to a recent study.

"For example, results showed that a higher percentage of conservatives than liberals thought they were at low or very low risk of catching the virus during both surveys. But the gap closed quite a bit between the first and second survey as more liberals no longer saw themselves at high risk.

There were also differences in how liberals and conservatives perceived the reactions of their fellow Americans to the pandemic.

Of the people in the April survey who said that most Americans were “not taking risks seriously enough,” 44 percent described themselves as liberal and 21 percent described themselves as conservative. In contrast, of those who said that most Americans were “overreacting to the actual risks of contracting the virus,” 16 percent described themselves as liberal and 38 percent as conservative."

https://news.osu.edu/survey-shows-how-ohioans-views-on-covid-19-have-evolved/

Clarence Thomas on liberals

Justice Thomas: "I felt as though in my life I had been looking at the wrong people as the people who would be problematic toward me," Justice Thomas said in the documentary. "We were told that, 'Oh, it's gonna be the bigot in the pickup truck; it's gonna be the Klansmen; it's gonna be the rural sheriff.' But it turned out that through all of that, ultimately the biggest impediment was the modern-day liberal. They were the ones who would discount all those things because they have one issue or because they have the power to caricature you."  https://pjmedia.com/trending/justice-clarence-thomas-takes-revenge-on-joe-biden-he-wanted-to-get-rid-of-me/

How true. Although I was a Democrat at the time, I was excited about this appointment by GHW Bush in 1991. I remember where I was when it dawned on me what liberal professors at OSU were about. They don't walk the talk. We were at lunch in the Faculty Club and I naively assumed all of us overeducated state employees would be thrilled with this nomination. "Bush is just doing it because he's black," she said, "He's just not qualified."

He has been an amazing justice, and his autobiography is one of the best political and cultural histories I've ever read, "My Grandfather's Son." You'll learn more about the black experience reading that book than attending a year's worth of SJW sniping at a university.

Trump is. . .

Trump isn't a conservative, 

he's not a liberal,

 he's not a Republican,

he's not a Democrat.

He's an American.

You can tell he's not a Republican--he's got a spine, he fights, and he doesn't hide his success. 

You can tell he's not a Democrat--he was rich going in and will be poorer coming out.

 You can tell he's not a conservative because he's not 30 years behind. 

You can tell he's not a liberal because he's not offing babies.

The worm has turned. Piers Morgan.

PIERS MORGAN: "Populism is rising because liberals have become unbearable. In my core, I'm probably more liberal than not although fundamentally I see myself as a journalist and I like to see both sides and I can argue both sides of all these things, but what's the point of calling yourself a liberal if you don't allow anyone else to have a different view? This snowflake culture that we now operate in, the victimhood culture, the everyone has to think in a certain way, behave a certain way. Everyone has to have a bleeding heart and tell you 20 things that are wrong with them. I just think it is all completely skewed to an environment where everyone is offended by everything and no one is allowed to say a joke.

If you said a joke ten years ago that offended somebody, you can never host the Oscars. So now there's no host for anything. The Emmy's now just said they're not gonna host either, so hosts have gone, and soon, every award winner will go because everyone's a human being and we're all flawed, so no one can win awards anymore because there will be no platform before they even get on the podium, so then no hosts, no stars. Then no one can make any movies because we're all flawed, so no actors, so suddenly, where are we?

The liberals get what they want, which is a humorless void where nothing happens, no one dares do anything or laugh about anything or behave in any way that doesn't suit their rigid way of leading a life. No thanks. So what's happening around the world? Populism is rising because people are fed up with the PC culture. They're fed up with snowflakery, they're fed up with people being offended by everything and they're gravitating towards forceful personalities who go: "This is all nonsense!"

Which, by the way, it is in most cases. So why are we surprised? I'm not surprised. It doesn't mean to say I agree with all of it, but it means I can understand it, and I understand why the liberals, my side, if you like, are getting it so horribly wrong. They just wanna tell people, not just how to lead their lives, but if you don't lead it the way I tell you to it's a kind of version of fascism. If you don't lead the life the way I'm telling you to then I'm going to ruin your life. I'm gonna scream abuse at you. I'm gonna get you fired from your job. I'm gonna get you hounded by your family and friends. I'm gonna make you the most disgusting human being in the world."

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/08/20/piers_morgan_the_left_have_become_unbearable.html

Argument with a liberal--Turning Point USA

We can’t get away from it

Priceton.org

Trump on Twitter

I’ve been looking for a link, but haven’t found it.  While I was listening to Michael Medved today (conservative talk show host on pop culture) I heard him say that President Trump has 56 million followers on Twitter, but someone surveyed the followers and 21% self identified as liberal and 17% as conservative.  He didn’t go into the other categories.  Medved speculated that some people just enjoy feeling outraged and that may be the motivation for some of his followers.

Your race card has expired, liberals

"No president in history came to office with more political capital than Barack Obama. He squandered it like a lottery winner within a few months. If liberals had any sense of irony, they would appreciate the inanity of braying about racism right after America elected a black president." Joy Tiz, Sept. 16, 2009

But Obama was so good at it, it's now all out, worse than ever, never slow down, and every candidate, black, white, and brown is using it. Black socialist woman didn't win in Georgia--must be racism; black male with questionable background not elected in Florida--must be racism. Black millionaire Don Lemon feels free to demonize all white men, and liberal commentators now go after white women as victims of patriarchy for not voting for blacks.

NYU Professor Michael Rectenwald—Springtime for Snowflakes

If you are employed in academe and are a conservative, stay off Twitter and Facebook. https://vimeo.com/284319829?fbclid=IwAR1eDZIB1ESYP5_yXl_Vp-yBSmqleCDDprPhhtgzxLO6vJh1eaEssHFipYE

HR's threatened "voluntary" leave of absence for mental health (his political views were a "cry for help") reminds me of the USSR or China. A former leftist, he's fighting back. What happens in academe has metastasized to the general culture.

Relax liberals

Although I'm not sure this will assure my Democrat friends and relatives, Brett Kavanaugh will probably not bring any change to the leftward list of the last 60+ years of SCOTUS decisions. Beginning with Earl Warren (when I was in high school and during the 40 years  I  was a Democrat) we've had an activist court. Americans have become very comfortable with being told what to do by the highest court. Democrats are never disappointed with their presidents' SCOTUS picks; Republicans always are with whom their presidents chose.

 Joseph Mussomeli at the Imaginative Conservative outlines the picks and pans. Eisenhower gave us Warren and Brennan; Nixon gave us Blackmun and Powell (Roe v. Wage and California v. Bakke); Ford's appointee John Paul Stevens helped strike down "a moment of silence;" Reagan's Sandra Day O'Connor often disappointed conservatives; GHW Bush's David Souter also sided with liberals; GW Bush's John Roberts supported Obamacare.

So relax liberals, Democrats, Progressives and Communists. Call back your witches, the Antifa, the Pink hatted haters. Stop the caravans invading. The court always leans left, even if it's not as fast as you desire.

Michael Smith, guest blogger, on truth, facts, conspiracy theories and bias in politics

Interesting isn't it? How many people:

- Who can't stand the conspiracy theories of Alex Jones but believe the Steele dossier is real.

- Refuse to believe that the Hillary Clinton campaign was not connected to Russian "interference" when there is clear evidence they paid the law firm Perkins Coie to pay Fusion GPS who paid Christopher Steele.

- Believe Donald Trump committed campaign finance crimes, yet Hillary Clinton did not.

- Continue to insist that illegal aliens commit less crime than legal immigrants and citizens:

1) when every single illegal immigrant has already committed one misdemeanor if they have crossed the border once and a felony if they are repeat offenders, and

2) when illegal immigrants make up approximately 9% of the total population but 27% of the prison population.

- Believe if the Second Amendment was ignored and all guns were banned, there would be no more gun crime but don't accept that enforcing current immigration law to completely ban illegal immigration would end crime by illegal immigrants.

- Believe that one non-NRA member committing a gun crime means all NRA members are responsible, but one Islamist committing a terrorist act does not mean all Muslims are responsible.

- Don't believe a border wall will be effective, but build fences around their property and lock their doors.

- Believe "toxic masculinity," misogyny, sexism and sexual violence against women are problems, but importing people from cultures where these aspects are common is not.

- Believe the real issue in the Mollie Tibbetts murder is not that the murderer was here illegally, it was that he was a male.

- Claim to oppose fascism and racism while engaging in fascist and racist acts.

- Believe for speech to be free, it must be restricted or banned (for certain people).

- Believe it is totally intellectually consistent to say private social media companies can choose their customers, but a private cake bakery cannot.

- Believe that a scandal is only a scandal if the New York Times, the Washington Post, or CNN says it is.

- Believe sexual harassment is always real and the accuser should always be believed without question as long as the accusations aren't against #metoo members - then it was consensual and the accuser is a liar.

Of course, these are prominent features of our hypocritical progressive friends. For them, cognitive dissonance is a feature, not a bug.

None of this - not a single damn instance - is about the referenced situation - it is all about the political position of the person and how best to protect that political position. It's making up rules and crap "facts" as they go along just to keep their agenda alive and moving.