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The Anti-Trump Verbal Preemptive Cringe Conservative pundits might do well not taking their cues from Democrat elites. Bruce Thornton

Posted By on June 24th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/anti-trump-verbal-preemptive-cringe-b

Even conservative commentators who are not afflicted with terminal Trump Derangement Syndrome are compelled to drag Trump into their writing and criticize him in order to preempt any suspicion that their comments critical of progressives show support for the hated ex-president.

This verbal preemptive cringe is a way for members of the bipartisan political guild to signal their virtue and assure progressives that they’re not one of those knuckle-dragging “deplorable” Trump supporters. In doing so, they remind Trump voters why they supported him in the first place: He cut through all the class-signaling politesse and specious “norms” the cognitive elite use to advertise their superiority.

A good example can be found in a commentary from Lance Morrow in the Wall Street Journal. Much of the piece is a spot-on dissection of the progressive class-hatred of conservatives in general and Donald Trump’s supporters in particular. His portrait of these plutocrat progressives is worth quoting:

In their voices, you hear a throb of opulent hysteria—an ostentatious despair, the boutique self-pity of the privileged. Hating Mr. Trump and his followers dramatizes one’s own virtue. It makes elites feel good about themselves in the way, classically, that poor whites in the South were able to feel better about their own lot by despising and discriminating against black people. Progressives think that hating not only Mr. Trump but all conservatives settles their debts and cleanses them of sin. It gives them a certain moral luster.

But immediately there follows the preemptive cringe, the reflexive criticism of Trump lest Morrow’s fellow cognitive elites interpret those prior remarks as support for him:

Mr. Trump is to blame for much of this. Character is destiny, and Mr. Trump was quite a character. He gave his enemies the gift of Jan. 6. He played peek-a-boo with forbidden thoughts. He tossed cherry bombs at the Constitution to see if he could give it a scare. Whatever else one may say about Jan. 6, it was one of the stupidest afternoons in American history.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Democrats Get an Anti-Leftist Wake-Up Call from New York By John Fund

Posted By on June 24th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/democrats-get-an-anti-leftist-wake-up-call-from-new-york/

President Biden gave a speech this afternoon on the rising crime rate. Even the White House admits that in recent months “homicides rose 30 percent and gun assaults rose 8 percent in large cities.”

The timing is politically significant given the results of Tuesday’s New York City mayor’s primary. Crime and the Loony Left’s agenda were dominant issues.

Brooklyn Borough president Eric Adams, who spent 22 years as a cop, currently has a ten-point lead in the Democratic primary. Outstanding absentee ballots and NYC’s bizarre ranked-choice voting system will delay a final count until mid July. But Adams is the prohibitive favorite to win. Nathaniel Rakich at FiveThirtyEight says that Adams can start “measuring the drapes” at City Hall.

If he wins, it will be because he ran full tilt against defunding the police.

Starting in 1994, smarter policing under Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg made New York the safest big city in America. Those gains eroded under Mayor Bill de Blasio and accelerated last year with his weak response to riots, the elimination of bail, and the demonizing of the NYPD.

Adams ran full tilt against the leftist agenda of Wiley, a de Blasio appointee who is now in second place in the vote count.  He attacked her for wanting to slash NYPD’s budget and being open to the idea of taking their guns away.

He also called for lifting the cap on charter schools so the half of New York City students who fail basic proficiency tests would have a chance at a better education. He vowed to make better use of a law to get the mentally ill homeless to take the medications they need. He clashed with Governor Andrew Cuomo over how fast to end the city’s lockdown and get people back to work.

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What Was Kamala Harris Thinking? By Jim Geraghty

Posted By on June 24th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/what-was-kamala-harris-thinking/

Vice President Kamala Harris “clearly thinks she’s ‘winning’ something by refusing to [visit the border],” I noted at the end of today’s Morning Jolt. “What she thinks she’s winning is anybody’s guess.”

This afternoon brings word that Harris will indeed travel to the border, 91 days after President Biden appointed Harris to “lead efforts to stem migration across the U.S.–Mexico border.” Many Democrats have disputed the characterization of Harris as the “border czar.” But Biden himself said this, referring to her role on this issue: “I’ve asked her, the VP, today — because she’s the most qualified person to do it — to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that help — are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border.”

Would Harris have gotten some bad press by visiting the border three months ago? Sure, but it would have been one bad news cycle. White Houses get those all the time, and they survive them all the time. By waiting, Harris ensured that Republicans could bring it up over and over again, while also ensuring she would get asked about it and have awkward moments like her giggling, “I haven’t been to Europe, either. I don’t know what you’re getting at,” in response to NBC News’s Lester Holt. Now, when Harris visits, Republicans will point out, accurately, that U.S. Customs and Border Protection have had three straight months of border captures that are the worst in 20 years. With four months to go, it’s already the worst year since 2006.

To avoid one bad news cycle, Harris accepted three months of bad press.

And we’re left wondering: Just why the heck was Harris so reluctant to visit the border? It certainly isn’t a blanket administration opposition to photo opportunities, or else the president wouldn’t visit an Alexandria rock-climbing facility and joke about scaling a 60-foot wall. It’s become almost cliché in conservative media to say that Harris has bad political instincts, but I think that understates just how much she chooses to make avoidable mistakes.

It’s possible that for three straight months, Harris assumed that the following week or month would bring better news and signs that the waves of migrants are abating. If that’s the case, it’s not encouraging, because it suggests the administration’s policies and messaging will work any day now, despite all the counter-evidence.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Suddenly, Democrats Express Support for Voter ID Laws By Rick Moran

Posted By on June 24th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/06/23/suddenly-democrats-express-support-for-voter-id-laws-n1456545

Democrats have used voter ID laws to hammer Republicans for their supposed racism in supporting this simple voting integrity measure. In some campaigns, such as the Georgia governor’s race of 2018, Democratic hysterical opposition to voter ID led to a media frenzy about the “suppression” of the black vote.

It was never anything of the sort, of course. And as proof, try this on for size: National Democrats who skewered the GOP for passing voter ID laws now say it’s fine. Some, like Georgia’s Stacey Abrams (who wept about “suppression” of the black vote), now claim it’s simple common sense.

Washington Examiner:

In 2018, Georgia’s wannabe governor, Stacey Abrams, said voter ID laws are intended to “scare people out of voting.” Now, she audaciously says, “No one has ever objected to having to prove who you are to vote. It’s been part of our nation’s history since the inception of voting.”

Recently elected Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock is even more brazen in lying about opposing voter ID laws.

For years, then-Pastor Raphael Warnock, now a senator from Georgia, claimed ID laws were a form of “voter suppression” so “unnecessary and unjustifiable” that they amount to “dismember[ing]” Martin Luther King Jr.

Now he lies, “I have never been opposed to voter ID. And in fact, I don’t know anybody who is.”

The sudden reversal is because swing Democrat Joe Manchin agreed to support a compromise in the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act that included voter ID.

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World Gone Upside Down: Buffalo Elects Socialist Mayor While NY City Could Very Well Elect a Law-And-Order Democrat By Rick Moran

Posted By on June 24th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/06/23/buffalo-elects-socialist-mayor-while-ny-city-could-very-well-elect-a-law-and-order-democrat-n1456483

Buffalo, the second-largest city in New York, elected a woman, a political novice, and a socialist as mayor on Tuesday night. India Walton defeated 4-term incumbent Mayor Byron Brown by 1500 votes.

It was a shocking result — if you hadn’t been paying attention the last 4 years. Brown, a former state Democratic Party chair and a charter member of the New York political establishment, lost to a socialist because the socialist wasn’t part of the establishment. If that’s too complicated for you, look at the mayoral results in New York City.

Eric Adams is holding a lead at the moment. In fact, no one knows what’s going on with this “ranked voting” that’s confusing everyone. Indeed, the purpose of rank voting appears to be designed to make the result of the election as muddled as possible.

Not a bug. A feature.

Adams leads by a small plurality. The race will almost certainly be decided by voters’ second, third, fourth, and fifth choices. Adams may be the first choice of a plurality of voters, but with so many candidates in the race, he may end up not winning anything.

But Adams, a former Republican, supports funding for more police. His campaign platform reads, “If we are for SAFETY — we NEED the NYPD!”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Army Finally Defines ‘Extremism’ When It Comes to Screening Out ‘Hate Group’ Members By Stacey Lennox

Posted By on June 24th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2021/06/23/exclusive-army-recruiting-command-now-hunting-extremists-in-the-application-process-n1456597

The Army has decided to ask all applicants for enlistment a question about an association with “extremist/hate groups” in the screening process. This requirement might seem reasonable. However, according to the latest communication, extremism is defined in terms of individual belief and advocacy.

In a recent congressional hearing, Senator Tom Cotton questioned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin regarding racially-charged exercises and training content presented during the 60-day stand-down to root out extremism. Austin disavowed the concepts that members of the military reported receiving training on. Representative Jim Banks (R-Ind.) also questioned Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday about placing How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi on a recommended book list for sailors. From Gilday’s answer, it is doubtful he ever read the book that some social justice warrior lackey probably placed on the list.

Yet social justice content is leaking its way into the military through some mechanism. Now, the Army Recruitment Command uses subjective and easy-to-politicize criteria to identify potential “extremists” who wish to enlist. This change comes amid the Pentagon considering ways to intensify social media scrutiny in background investigations.

Recommended: Whistleblowers Explain How Biden’s Woke ‘Extremism’ Training Is Tearing the Military Apart

On June 22, an Ops Flash instructed Army recruiters that the inclusion of a question regarding any association with “extremist/hate” organizations must be answered and uploaded for all applicants for commissioning in the Army before testing, before the physical exam, and before military entrance processing. The required form updated the gang participation question that has been asked since the 1990s:

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Sorry, But It’s Democrats – Not Republicans – Who Are The Radicals Worth Worrying About

Posted By on June 24th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/06/24/sorry-but-its-democrats-not-republicans-who-are-the-radicals-worth-worrying-about/

How many times have we read about the “extremist right” and how “radicalized” conservatives have become?

Wikipedia has a long entry on the “radical right,” but nothing on the “radical left.” Los Angeles Times reporter Jackie Calmes has a new book out subtitled “The Radicalization of the Republican Party.” CNN’s Brian Stelter says that “Experts warn about the radicalizing power of right-wing media networks.” The list is endless.

Enough! This is the mother of Big Lies!

Every day, it is the Democratic Party that is pushing an agenda more radical than yesterday. Its agenda is comprised of critical race theory, defunding police, open borders, socialism, nationalized health care, a federal takeover of elections, extremist environmentalism, packing the Supreme Court, killing the filibuster, the Green New Deal, cancel culture. None of these gets majority support in this country.

This isn’t just a small slice of the Democratic Party, either. Poll after poll shows that it is those who identify as Democrats who are way out of the mainstream. Let’s review some of the recent polling evidence to show who’s actually been radicalized in this country.

Critical Race Theory

The Biden administration is only the tip of the spear when it comes to attempts by the left to shove the Marxist-based “critical race theory” down everyone’s throat, particularly in the attempt to propagandize students. Team Biden is trying to bribe schools into teaching this race-baiting ideology to kids.

How mainstream is CRT? A new Economist/YouGov survey finds that 58% of Americans who know about CRT view it unfavorably, and 55% say it’s bad for America.

But among Democrats? Almost 90% view CRT favorably and 85% say it’s good for the country.

Casting the country as irredeemably racist and pitting races against each other in permanent battle: How much more radicalized can you get?

Related to this is the fact that nearly two-thirds of Democrats (64%) favor reparations, compared with just 29% of independents and 10% of Republicans, according to a UMass Amherst poll.

MEDIA Comments turned off

Washington Post ‘Clarifies’ Error-Riddled Hit Piece On Top Anti-CRT Investigative Journalist The article is a part of the left’s response to stinging critiques of the open racism embodied in critical race theory, which has led to Chris Rufo and others being targeted.By Gabe Kaminsky

Posted By on June 24th, 2021

https://thefederalist.com/2021/06/22/washington-post-clarifies-error-riddled-hit-piece-on-top-anti-crt-investigative-journalist/

Over the weekend, The Washington Post joined the Christopher Rufo smear campaign. He’s a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who has become the face of public opposition to critical race theory. The article’s misrepresentations led to a story “clarification” that doesn’t go far enough.

The article, written by “reporters” Laura Meckler and Josh Dawsey, is predictable and appalling in its failure to accurately define critical race theory and how Rufo has exposed it.

WaPo’s piece is a part of the left’s response to stinging critiques of the open racism embodied in critical race theory, which has led to Rufo and others being targeted in The Atlantic, The New York Times, NBC News, and on MSNBC and CNN. But in terms of how this report ranks on language manipulation and aversion to truth, Meckler and Dawsey’s article might very well top the bunch.

Yes, Insisting White Skin Means Privilege Is Racist

Before getting into the meat of the half-cooked smear, Meckler and Dawsey propose an insufficient definition of critical race theory (CRT).

Rufo alleged that efforts to inject awareness of systemic racism and White privilege, which grew more popular following the murder of George Floyd by police, posed a grave threat to the nation …Conservatives say analyzing these issues through a racial lens is, in and of itself, racist.

This is an inadequate descriptor for the movement that is overhauling American institutions. CRT does incorporate the idea of systemic racism, but is far more radical than employing a “racial lens.”

The writers skim over the reality that the left takes things a step further, communicating through the neo-Marxist ideology that white people are implicitly racist based on the skin color they were born into, and that those who do not submit to “antiracist” “equity” dogma are racist. This is yet another example of the left’s progressive-or-bigot binary.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Washington Doublethink and the Iran Deal By Ruthie Blum

Posted By on June 24th, 2021

https://www.jns.org/opinion/washington-doublethink-and-the-iran-deal/

 The administration in Washington outdid itself in doublethink this week. Faced with the election of mass executioner Ebrahim Raisi to the Iranian presidency, top White House aides and media champions put such a spin on the situation that they ought to take home the gold in the George Orwell Olympics.
To counter the problem presented by Raisi’s record as a sadist who commanded the torture and murder of masses of innocent Iranians, members of and apologists for Team Biden told The New York Times over the weekend that the “ascension of a hardline government” might actually constitute a window of opportunity to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran from which former President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.
The logic behind the delusion is that Raisi, who announced on Saturday that neither Iran’s ballistic-missile program nor its support for regional militias would be up for negotiation, won’t be replacing incumbent Hassan Rouhani for six weeks, supposedly just enough time for all parties to the JCPOA to iron out any remaining differences and sign on the dotted line.
Furthermore, according to the Times, if a final deal is reached before Raisi takes the reins, “Iran’s moderates would be set up to take the blame for capitulating to the West and bear the brunt of popular anger inside Iran if sanctions relief does not rescue the nation’s stricken economy. But if the deal comes together, the new conservative government under Mr. Raisi can take the credit for an economic upswing, bolstering his case that it took a hardline, nationalist government to stand up to Washington and bring the country back.”

This is an astonishing view for three reasons.

First, Biden and his administration have been hot to trot back to the JCPOA from the get-go, despite claims of playing hard to get. One way that they’ve kept up the pretense is to engage in European Union-sponsored negotiations in the Austrian capita, referring to them as “indirect talks” and conducting them through shuttle diplomacy between rooms in a Viennese hotel.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

What China Did to Apple Daily, It Could Do to Any Company Beijing uses the odious National Security Law to silence Hong Kong’s feisty voice for freedom.By L. Gordon Crovitz and Mark L. Clifford

Posted By on June 24th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-china-did-to-apple-daily-it-could-do-to-any-company-11624485349?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

Jimmy Lai started the Apple Daily newspaper in 1995 to defend the Hong Kong way of life before the 1997 handover to China. Its inaugural launch editorial declared: “We are convinced that Hongkongers who are accustomed to freedom will not stay silent in the face of unreasonable restrictions and unfair treatments, for Hongkongers are born with a passion for freedom.” Apple Daily journalists pledged to “stick to our posts and work hard, to be proud Hongkongers through and through.”

That was before the Chinese Communist Party last year forced Hong Kong under the boot of its National Security Law, which this week took down Apple Daily. Its crime was being the most popular source of news and opinion focused on Hong Kong values such as the rule of law, free markets and the free flow of information. The newspaper’s demise mirrors the experience of the Hong Kong people as Beijing deploys the National Security Law to exert control over the territory. Hundreds have been arrested under the repressive law, including longtime legislators.

As members of the board of Next Digital Ltd. , the publicly traded company that operates Apple Daily, we voted Wednesday to close down the paper after the Hong Kong authorities used the law to freeze the company’s assets without a trial or even a court order. The freeze makes it impossible for the company to pay its staff, buy ink or keep the electricity on.

Hong Kong authorities had already jailed Mr. Lai, who is now serving a 20-month prison term for participating in an assembly that was deemed unlawful. Some 500 armed police raided the Apple Daily offices last week. They arrested Next Digital’s CEO and Apple Daily’s editor in chief and denied bail to both; the chief editorial writer was arrested this week.

The way the authorities undermined the functioning of equity markets, property rights and contracts is a warning for other companies that are publicly traded in Hong Kong or simply doing business there.

John Lee, the Hong Kong secretary for security, invoked the National Security Law on his own to prohibit Mr. Lai from voting the 71% of Next Digital shares that he owns, denying him the rights inherent in shareholding on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. Mr. Lee then froze Next Digital’s bank accounts, announcing it would be a crime for the company to make financial transactions. He warned the company’s banks not to enable any transactions. The company could no longer access accounts with tens of millions of U.S. dollars to pay its bills or to accept payments for subscriptions and advertisements.