Biden attempts an Emily Litella for the entire thrust of his MAGA threat speech
Read all about it here:
Doocy: “Do you consider all Trump supporters to be a threat to the country?”
Biden: “I don’t consider any Trump supporter a threat to the country.”
I guess the polling after the speech was very very bad.
One of the saddest things about all of this is that it leaves many people wondering whether Biden even remembers on Friday what he said on Thursday, or whether he’s even aware of it as he says it. My position remains that most of the time he is quite aware, but that he is a person for whom lies – often outrageous, “who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes/ears” lies – are a favored tactic and have been for his entire political life. His lies are not just the usual bragging exaggerations, although he certainly deals in those as well (Trump was famous for that sort of thing). No, Biden’s lies are elaborate stories that are fabrications, as well as lies about very substantive issues involving policy or history or what the opposition has said or done, and this has blatantly been going on his entire political life, which is most of his life.
This time, though, the visuals will probably live on in photos and memes they generate. Of course, there are always people such as Sam Harris, who suffers from such an advanced case of TDS that he had this to say about the speech’s setting:
I love seeing Trumpists condemning the political optics of this image. Admittedly, they are terrible. But they are only bad by reference to values that should lead you to totally repudiate Trump himself. For Biden, this is a gaffe; for Trump, it would be a window into his soul.
I really wasn’t familiar with Harris prior to his “the Hunter Biden laptop coverup was wrong, but completely necessary to save us all from evil Trump” remarks. But a lot of people on the right apparently used to listen to his podcasts approvingly, and the extent of his TDS astounds them. I don’t really have any previous notions of Harris to walk back, but I do know that, as a well-known atheist of the type that likes to debate the issue with believers, it seems odd to me that he would talk about Trump’s soul. Of course, he’s also slightly echoing the title of Biden’s execrable speech “the battle for the soul of the nation.” But Harris’ tweet is such a glaring example of how Trump-hatred twists the mind and warps the judgment that it almost could serve as a caricature.
Calling such a speech – written and planned in great detail, and practiced, and then given to the nation with a lot of panoply and fanfare, and backed up by other previous comments (“semi-fascists”) in other speeches, as well as similar statements by Biden’s press secretary – a “gaffe,” as though it was just some off-the-cuff misstatement, is absurd. Perhaps Harris himself is aware of his own absurdity, or perhaps he actually believes what he says. Either way it is a cautionary tale, and unfortunately a rather commonplace one.
NOTE: The extent of Harris’ warped thinking can be found here:
But within the framework of his odious beliefs, he demonstrated many virtues,” Harris said of [Osama] bin Laden.
“He was a man who certainly seemed to be capable of real self-sacrifice,” the podcast host said, calling bin Laden a man who was “committed to ideals beyond his narrow self-interest.”
“[Bin Laden] was by all accounts personally quite courageous,” Harris said. […]
“None of these things can be said about Donald Trump,” Harris said. “Trump is, without question, one of the least honest and most malignantly selfish human beings I have ever come across.” [….]
“Unlike bin Laden, it is patently obvious that Trump isn’t psychologically normal.”
Note that Harris, the nonbeliever, presents this as an article of faith: Trump is these things without question. Thing is, there are plenty of people like Harris, who look at Trump and almost literally see the devil – and this is even true of atheists like Harris, who apparently don’t seem to understand the phenomenon they are demonstrating.
Sam Harris, along with 40% of the voters, is suffering from Long TDS. There is no cure. They will go to their graves suffering from this terrible malady.
Different subject: Have you noticed that the Patriot Front has disappeared since they were recognized as a false flag FRONT that attempted to tar conservatives as Nazis.
“. . . it leaves many people wondering whether Biden even remembers on Friday what he said on Thursday . . .” [Neo]
Yes it does, and it also provides the left with a very timely excuse to point out that Biden really doesn’t mean what he says, even when he is reading a prepared text. Up is down, weakness is strength, senescence is good.
Roger Kimbal has an essay which opens with brief reference to Manichaeism.
It's an important reminder that we have seen this danger not just in the 1930s Nazi regime, but many many times in history.
Link to Roger Kimball:
https://spectatorworld.com/topic/biden-declares-war-on-half-the-country/
Along similar lines, Mollie Hemingway commented upon Jonah Goldberg’s saying that while he thought the speech was a mistake, he agreed with nearly all of what Biden said.
https://twitter.com/MZHemingway/status/1565770328458002432
So as long as your belief system is such that its good to murder anyone who does not think as you do. That in Harris’s mind is “virtue”
This is how utterly morally bankrupt many have become.
And if you follow his logic out (and not that far). Lenin was not particularly virtuous as his publicly stated goal was a collectivist union. Not the starvation of millions of people.
Yet in his stated premise Hitler would have to be incredibly virtuous as his goal was the elimination of the Jews.
I am sure he would dispute those conclusions. And somehow create a justification for them. But it would just be obfuscation.
Kate,
As far as I can tell. TDS is some personal dislike of Trump as a person and his mannerisms.
And every time his actual policies and predictions prove correct. It simply intensifies their anger. Because it further proves their original assumption as incorrect.
I simply do not understand Goldberg. He wrote a good book, which I read and liked. I met him on an NRO cruise in 2008. What happened to him? NR had a donor issue that probably was behind their crazy cover issue blasting Trump. Those magazines need more than subscribers to stay afloat financially so the “Golden Rule” applies. “Who supplies the gold makes the rules.”
That doesn’t explain Goldberg, or maybe it does.
Yeah, as far as I’m aware, Trump never attacked the opposition’s voters in such a blatant and vicious way as Biden did here.
I mean, sure… he said loads of negative things about politicians, bureaucrats, celebrities, journalists, violent criminal illegal aliens, and various media personalities throughout the course of his presidency. But in fairness, most of the time he was just responding to their attacks on him more often than not.
But he never attacked regular voters. I’m almost 100% positive he never publically said anything like what Biden said about tens of millions of regular Americans last Thursday night.
Clearly poor Sam Harris’s brain has been damaged by severe, chronic TDS. Saddly it’s a common affliction among pretentious intelligentsia.
Mike K.
As far as I can tell. It has more to do with being from their “crowd” than anything about Trump.
They came after Palin in the exact same way. And still do.
I’ve heard enough of Sam Harris. He doesn’t seem intellectual at all. Biden did this. If you think if Trump did this, we should repudiate him; then start with the fact that Biden did do this, yet Harris waves it away as a gaffe. At that point, Harris is not making a fair bargain. Harris is asking others do what he refuses to do. That is not intellectual. It is cowardous.
He’s not rolling it back, he is engaging in typical Leftist double-speak.
A full restatement would be, “No MAGA is a terrorist, but everyone who denies my legitimacy and disagrees with me is committing actual violence.”
If I’m not mistaken, Lucianne Goldberg is not a Trump antagonist. Neither is Norman Podhoretz. (John Podhoretz is rather more circumspect and less obsessive in re Trump than is Jonah Goldberg). Jessica Gavora (Mrs. Jonah Goldberg) has done contract work for Nikki Haley, who was at home working for Trump. Is any of this family psychodrama?
Well, well, well– the Big Guy, who now refers to himself as a “car guy,” is planning to attend this year’s auto show in Detroit. Biden said on Friday he plans to attend the Detroit auto show later this month as his administration touts a rising number of investments in electric vehicles and battery manufacturing. “I’ll be there. I’m a car guy – as you kind of noticed,” Biden said at an event. The Commerce Department on Friday awarded $52.2 million to a Detroit regional program called the “Global Epicenter of Mobility” to help Michigan’s automotive sector transition to EVs and autonomous vehicles. . . . This month’s Detroit auto show will be the first time the event has been held since 2019. The show, open to the public from Sept. 17 to Sept. 25, is expected to focus on the shift to EVs.
https://sports.yahoo.com/biden-plans-attend-detroit-auto-231405029.html
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, California is asking EV drivers not to charge their vehicles because of the heat wave: “California residents are being asked not to charge their electric vehicles to conserve energy amid a brutal heatwave — just days after the state announced a plan to ban sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035.” Can we deport JoJo to California if/when he leaves politics?
https://nypost.com/2022/09/01/californians-asked-not-to-charge-electric-cars-amid-heat-wave/
Then wouldn’t the fact that Trump didn’t do something this stupid and disgusting also be a window into his soul? If he was able to avoid such a blunder and Biden wasn’t, then maybe Trump’s not what Harris thinks he is.
But do any of us really have such an insight into anyone else’s soul? It seems like it’s almost human nature to believe that people you don’t like have evil, twisted, souls. That may be true, but you have to step back from such assumptions and look at them critically, and maybe admit that your knowledge is limited and that you don’t know what other people are like at heart. It’s hard, though, to admit that your opponents are mysterious, rather than easily knowable.
*
Conservatism, Inc. is an ongoing concern. If you’ve taken the courses and seminars and had internships and gone on the cruises, you probably don’t like outsiders poaching on what you think of as your territory. Something like that may explain Jonah Goldberg and Bill Kristol. Then you have people like Kevin Williamson who have been struggling to leave Middle America behind and make it in the Big City. Trump reminds them of everything they want to leave behind.
Don’t be fooled. Obscured by his “walk back” was an insult. FJB considers MAGA to be impotent. After all, HE controls the F-15s.
I think it’s a mistake to dismiss the tone and intent of the speech as anti-MAGA. Trump is the boogey man today, and his movement is the target at hand. It’s the sentiment they’re after, though. There shouldn’t be much doubt that if Trump went away tomorrow, that this campaign would change direction. The tone of the Biden administration is being set, and their mission is to squash dissent, Trump or no Trump.
And regardless of the attempted lame roll-back, nobody is going to forget the dystopian, hellish feel of the speech’s setting, or of Biden with both of his arms raised, shaking his fists at his domestic enemies. He really didn’t say much of substance as a mid-term President in this speech. It was the old man shouting at the clouds. And it’s hard to think that Joe is much of a Hitlerian threat, as a tyrant. Nobody is scared of a senile man in diapers. The Tyranny just hasn’t found its public leader yet. And the off-putting use of the laser-projected deep red and blue lights, with silhouetted military guards in the backdrop, and the stark lines of Liberty Hall: I would bet that Dr. Jill’s keen fashion-design sense had a hand in it – it would be right up her alley, to think that this was a good idea.
The problem here isn’t Trump. The problem is that tyranny has come back into fashion, and there aren’t enough voters rejecting it yet. In addition to the Dante-Orwellian speech settings, there’s also the specter of the Executive Branch and a good bit of the Legislative Branch colluding with Big Media in an active, selective targeting exercise to censor their opposition and muzzle its members’ right to speak freely, revoking access to commonly-available venues – and nobody in the public sector is showing signs of being particularly upset with this development. In fact, more than a few professionals in the media world are either sanguine or pleasantly neutral about it, because it’s happening to people they don’t agree with. And as with all tyrannical periods, that means they are hated and must be destroyed.
Tyranny is back in style, salad days for the Good Germans among us.
It is suggested anita dunn had imput if not wrote the speech entirely she is the mao fan girl whose husband is robert bauer former obama white house counsel yes the tea party was the targer a dozen years the new right 30 years before, i point to kevin phillips book length rant sixty years ago hofstadler was trying to discredit any anti welfare state project
Then you have people like Kevin Williamson who have been struggling to leave Middle America behind and make it in the Big City. Trump reminds them of everything they want to leave behind.
Trump does not remind Kevin Williamson of growing up in Lubbock with this year’s stepfather. Williamson despises people who commonly vote for Trump because they resemble people he knew in Lubbock.
But wait, David French has something to say as the non-atheist “conscience of conservatism” aka the man from Whatever.
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2022/09/03/david-french-talks-about-the-ok-groomer-crowd-getting-upset-over-being-called-semi-fascist/
When you are kicked all the way from india to the states (thats 4,000 miles) youd be grumpy too
Poor Kevin. Traumatized by Lubbock. Tiny violin playing a tiny lament. He could have been a contender?
He was michael lind 2.0 but occassionally lind delivers the goods
Ultimately they do not recognize the prog juggernaut that is the problem
In re Lubbock & Kevin Williamson > I grew up 30 miles from “the big city” — that was in the sixties, and it’s a substantial metropolis now, being the home of Texas Tech University and some innovative businesses (Texas Instruments had a branch there for awhile). Sure, it’s surrounded by farms and ranches, and Tech is noted for its agricultural focus, but the people are down-to-earth patriotic Americans who don’t have much truck with pseudo-intellectuals.
Oh, wait…..
Kidding aside, it is a geographical area that’s flat, dry, windy, and dusty; either you love it (my mother did) or you don’t (I prefer trees to tumbleweeds), and I don’t really know what Williamson has against the place, other than the usual “anything is better than where I grew up” reaction.
@ Edward > “Have you noticed that the Patriot Front has disappeared since they were recognized as a false flag FRONT that attempted to tar conservatives as Nazis.”
Just biding their time until the right moment.
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2022/08/30/leaked-patriot-front-video-shows-the-members-training-for-war/
Why is the Right saying today “he walked it back” based on a quote snippet? He walked NOTHING back. The full quote makes this very clear, that if you support what Biden claims Trump supports then you are an enemy of “democracy”:
Come on! Look, guys. You keep trying to make that case. I don’t consider any Trump supporter to be a threat to the country. I do think anyone who calls for the use of violence, fails to condemn violence when it’s used, refuses to acknowledge when an election has been won, insists upon changing the way in which we rule and count votes. That is a threat to democracy. Democracy! Everything we stand for, everything we stand for rests on the platform of democracy. People voted for Donald Trump, support him now, they weren’t voting for attacking the Capitol. They weren’t voting for overruling an election. They were voting for a philosophy he put forward. So I am not talking about anything other than: it is inappropriate. It’s not only happening here, but other parts of the world, where there’s a failure to recognize and condemn violence, whenever that means for political purposes. Failure to condemn the manipulation — attempts to manipulate electoral outcomes, failure to acknowledge when elections were won or lost.
Never underestimate Brandon’s ability to “F” everything up.
Frederick, the minions in the Brandon junta may not be as inept as Brandon, but I doubt that anyone is taking them as any less of a threat since Friday.
Brandon lies, always, and he and his junta are a threat to this country.
Art Deco: “Is any of this family psychodrama?”
I went to school with Donna Gavopra and her sister Mary. I only met Donna’s husband, Paul, once on a trip to Alaska but was well aware of his success and their wonderful story. May they both R.I.P.
I was in contact with Mary and her husband, Bob, quite frequently after Jonah married Jessica. Mary and her husband were small business owners and quite conservative. Donna and Mary were both proud of having Jonah Goldberg as a member of the family.
Mary and her husband were on my e-mail list for conservative info, jokes, and cartoons for many years. They often sent me some of Jonah’s writings and I appreciated his sense of humor and the way he fit in the family. I also enjoyed his book, “Liberal Fascism.” I thought the ideas were pretty good and told them so.
When Jonah turned against Trump, Mary and Bob did too. They didn’t like anything I sent that was favorable to Trump. So, I backed off. We still e-mail on occasion, but Trump is off limits. Sadly, TDS has affected relationships among conservatives.
Sam Harris’s podcast lives up to its title, Making Sense, and is worthwhile on many topics.
In this episode on Youtube from November, 2020, he inadvertently provides a fascinating look into TDS. He rationalizes peoples’ attraction to Trump as a desire for a “Fat Jesus” who will not judge their inadequacies. That he proclaimed this condescending insult as an insight into understanding Trump voters makes me wonder if his real problem is that people who do not share his opinions get the same one vote he does. It is only eight minutes long and worth the listen.
@ Matthew M > “He rationalizes peoples’ attraction to Trump as a desire for a “Fat Jesus” who will not judge their inadequacies.”
Funny how people who make pronouncements like this can never be bothered to gather any supporting evidence.
FWIW, I can give about 20 data points that refute it from my family & friends who I’ve talked to about the reasons why we support Trump — all of them turn on policy, not personality.
I wonder what motives Harris ascribes to people who support Biden, Hillary, and Obama — and what his own reasons are.
Biden’s follow up statement was neither walk back nor forgetfulness. It was pure gaslighting so he can still claim to be a “uniter” after condemning half the country. He can get away with it because MFM.
and I don’t really know what Williamson has against the place, other than the usual “anything is better than where I grew up” reaction.
It’s where his mother spent her life, it’s where his estranged wife grew up, there isn’t much of a market for the legitimate theatre there, and it’s aesthetically unappealing (as are most places; most people are utilitarian about the built environment in this country).
It should be clear at this point that no one should believe “Biden”…just as no one should believe what oozes from the Mainstream Corrupt Media / Info-tech….
Consider: “I may have poured out the gasoline…and I may have lit the match…but I had absolutely no intention of burning down that forest…scout’s honor…no malarkey…you can count on me…I never told a lie in my life…”
Indeed, you CAN count on “Biden”….
ALWAYS.
– – – – – –
Regarding:
“…But do any of us really have such an insight into anyone else’s soul?…”
…I think someone else pointed out the sheer hilarity of an atheist talking about “soul”.
OTOH, it’s pretty clear that Harris is referring to “soul” in a non-religious sense (as “character”, “personality”, “essence”); but he’s making an utter fool of himself in the “he’s judge, prosecutor, jury AND executioner” sense.
IOW, an intellectual’s intellectual!!…of the Orwellian kind—a one-person “echo chamber”!…
(And PROUD of it!!)
– – – – – – – –
Regarding “…Then you have people like Kevin Williamson who have been struggling to leave Middle America behind and make it in the Big City. Trump reminds them of everything they want to leave behind.”
Wouldn’t Trump represent—like almost no-one else—“Big City”?
Perhaps you meant, “make it as a Big City Intellectual”?
In any case, EVEN MORE than “Big City”, Trump represents “the classic OUTSIDER, beholden to NO ONE”…whose positive outlook and pugilistic stance (in 2016) buttressed by his successful policies (in 2020) would likely have been the source of his across-the-board appeal—in fact, in 2020 he garnered SO MANY VOTES that Biden had to “come up” with a “record number of ‘votes'” so as to be “elected” “president”…. Took him a few days to do this, certainly, but as Hillary warned us, ‘YOU HAD BETTER WAIT UNTIL ALL THE “VOTES” ARE “COUNTED”!!!…’)
TRUMP’s soul?
Hmmm… Oh, “never mind”….
Here’s Lee Smith on the twisted “SOUL” of the Democratic Party and the politics of perversity proudly placed on GLOBAL DISPLAY by the party’s Politburo (AKA “Biden”):
“Why Did the FBI Raid Mar-a-Lago?
“Trump’s ‘stash of nuclear secrets’ is this summer’s Kremlin collusion conspiracy. But the latest chapter of Russiagate may end with a bang.”—
https://instapundit.com/540846/
Key grafs (RTWT):
“…a remake of the January 2017 intelligence community assessment which claimed, without evidence, that Vladimir Putin wanted to put Trump in the Oval Office…. What was true for the original Russiagate holds here, too: The redactions are designed to hide not state secrets, but government corruption.
“The Mar-a-Lago raid feels like Russiagate because, well, it is Russiagate: a conspiracy theory weaponized by the country’s courtier class to serve the interests of a delirious and deracinated oligarchy, spawning daily prophesies of doom fed by an endless supply of national security “leaks” asserting that the former commander-in-chief really was and is a secret Russian agent. And proof of the president’s treachery, chant the priestly keepers of the “collusion” mysteries, will soon be revealed to the public. It is their blanket justification for every past crime and every new banana republic-style abuse of power, accompanied by a drumbeat of ever more outlandish and violent threats.….” [Emphasis mine; Barry M.]
Art Deco detailed some of Jonah Goldberg’s finances in an earlier post. And it’s worth remembering that Goldberg and Trump had disputes going back a ways, well before Trump came down the escalator. There’s a bit of the personal in it, I think.
But what really happened, with Goldberg, Kristol and the rest, is that someone convinced National Review to do a 100 percent anti-Trump issue in early 2016. And after that, then what? Back to cadging a few tens of thousands from the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson?
Right then, I think, is that Pierre Omidyar and other wealthy lefty tech folks decided to throw money at the intellectual GOPe. And suddenly, it was millions, instead of thousands.
Otherwise, I would have expected Jonah to be similar to Kurt Schlichter, who was making some coin being a go-to critic of Trump on MSNBC. He was until one day when he said, “You know, I don’t care about his tweets. He’s got the right ideas.” That was Kurt’s last appearance.
I think, absent big money from the left, Goldberg would have had a similar reckoning.
Ah, so you’re saying that Goldberg’s NEXT BIG THING will be titled:
“Conservative Whoredom”?
Politico reports the execrable Jon Meacham wrote Thursday’s awful speech. It was weeks in the making.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/03/biden-speech-democracy-trump-maga-00054764
Biden is backtracking and saying that just voting for Trump doesn’t make one a threat to the country. It’s not “acknowledging an election” that makes one a threat. Biden didn’t make that distinction in his speech. In the speech the distinction was between MAGA Republicans and Mainstream Republicans and everyone else. He wasn’t distinguishing between types of Trump-voting Republicans. And of course, he was lying and illogical when he said, “I don’t consider any Trump supporters a threat to the country,” since he obviously did. The point seems to be to make MAGA a dirty word and an enemy of democracy and then weasel out of the implications afterwards.
I would say that in January 2016 probably most National Review readers probably thought Trump was a joke, a threat, or a mystery, so it’s no surprise that the writers did as well. I don’t think the “Never Trump” issue needs much explaining. The problem isn’t so much why people at the magazine or in Conservatism, Inc thought that way then. It’s why they continued to think that way months and years later.
And yes, when I mentioned Williamson and the “Big City” I was thinking about the world of urban journalism. Williamson’s main ambition in life seems to be to leave the Texas Panhandle far behind and be accepted by his peers. I would note that while Trump is a quintessential New Yorker, 86% of Manhattan went for Biden, so if you work there and want to make it in any number of different white collar professions, it’s probably not easy to be vocally for Trump.
Politico reports the execrable Jon Meacham wrote Thursday’s awful speech. It was weeks in the making.
Meacham’s last act as editor of Newsweek was to attempt to turn it into a version of The New Republic or The Atlantic. So, we all got to see their writers state their political and cultural opinions explicitly. You noticed two things: what a monovox collection they all were, and how jejune were their viewpoints. You had to respect Martin Peretz and William Whitworth for having assembled a staff capable of producing pieces with a passably argued thesis and conclusion distinguished enough that you might be interested in reading what they had to say. Meacham’s crew produced pap that read like the author had never heard or listened to another argument.
I would say that in January 2016 probably most National Review readers probably thought Trump was a joke, a threat, or a mystery, so it’s no surprise that the writers did as well. I don’t think the “Never Trump” issue needs much explaining. The problem isn’t so much why people at the magazine or in Conservatism, Inc thought that way then. It’s why they continued to think that way months and years later.
I didn’t read the issue. Was a single cautious or contrary viewpoint offered?
When Jonah turned against Trump, Mary and Bob did too. They didn’t like anything I sent that was favorable to Trump. So, I backed off. We still e-mail on occasion, but Trump is off limits. Sadly, TDS has affected relationships among conservatives.
These people are oddities in this respect. There is no popular NeverTrump strand large enough to be detected with conventional polling. It’s all Capitol Hill, K Street, and opinion journalists (most of whom have liberal patrons). When Mona Charen talks about ‘the NeverTrump movement’, she’s discussing something that does not exist. Note that there is an abiding palaeo strand among Republican voters. It’s small – maybe 4% of the total, but it is there, and palaeo candidates can on occasion attract much more interest than that (see Pat Buchanan’s performance in 1996). Larry Hogan enters the Republican presidential donnybrook, the smart money says his campaign will be as vigorous as George Pataki’s was in 2016, and he’s their absolute best shot.
Many of the writers speak up here. Maybe that was what was in the magazine, followed by the editorial. The articles in the rest of the issue are also probably available online if you search with the date and the names of the author and magazine.
At the time they though opposing Trump was being cautious. Given what was known and assumed at the time they had sound reasons for thinking and writing as they did. Trump was a big spender. He wasn’t associated with their conservative movement. He didn’t have presidential gravitas. He said outrageous things. He didn’t display much knowledge of how government actually worked.
But the ideal conservative candidate they were hoping for didn’t show up. The election came down to Trump or Clinton. Trump turned out to be a pretty good president. Most of them came around to support him. Some didn’t. Some did but then recanted. It took a while to realize that Trump was a credible candidate for president, so I’m not going to begrudge people who also didn’t see it at first — all the more so since Trump isn’t really very focused now and isn’t doing what he needs to do to win next time.
Harry Logan, governor of MD, as Dan Bongino calls him. One of Brandon’s kind of Republicans. Although MSNBC has proclaimed that all Republicans are evil and deserve what is comming to them. Harry Logan, beware.
I wonder what MSNBC has in mind? A visit from the Welcome Wagon?
There is one form of voter ID leftists and Democrats are in favor of, those who are a threat to “our democracy.”™
Who could allow those to vote?
M Smith:
Indeed. I think many people forget that the NR folks opposed Trump’s nomination, back when others still had a chance. One of the reasons was that they thought it would lead to Hillary’s victory.
I felt the same way at the same time. A completely understandable point of view.
I don’t believe that most of NR went full Bulwark into supporting Hillary or the Democrats. I could be wrong about that, but that’s my recollection.
I don’t believe that most of NR went full Bulwark into supporting Hillary or the Democrats. I could be wrong about that, but that’s my recollection.
It seems to me they published a forum before the most recent Presidential election and only one person indicated he would be voting for the President. I could have that wrong.
Please note that NR‘s donors jerked the chain and the board replaced Richard Lowry (a multidirectional placator) with Ramesh Ponnuru and Charles CW Cooke (a libertarian who is not invested much in particular politicians) with Philip Klein. Both Ponnuru and Klein are hostile to Trump.
And, of course, Jonah Goldberg and David French drew handsome salaries from the NR for quite a number of years. (See some of their 990 filings).
Art Deco:
My point is that their famous no-Trump issue was prior to the 2016 nomination, and that as far as I know the magazine never endorsed Hillary or Biden. This article written in 2020 contains both a summary of the NR writers’ positions (about evenly split between voting for Trump and not voting for him, with only one of them voting for Biden) and also a statement of why the author isn’t voting for Trump or for Biden.
https://www.morrisonfuneraldirectors.com/obituaries/darrell-williamson
Kevin Williamson’s brother died a few months ago. It appears from his obituary that Kevin Williamson has remarried and decamped to Dallas.
the real crux of the issue, is a publication that pretends to be the standard bearer for conservatism, should have no truck with any progressive figure, and give support to the one who most fulfills right objectives, maybe googles donations has some imput in this, maybe it’s o’sullivan’s law manifest,
yes happy hogan, as i’ve dubbed him, doesn’t get the point, he does most everything wrong from continuing the lockdowns, to going along with the gun
grabs, along with sununu, but they do the mildest reproaches, how about the mouth of the platte, from nebraska, he does his best basenghi act, this bad outtake from the producers was terrible, but the raid on maralago was worse, the pirates they have let loose on the body politic, likewise,
Many of my National Review colleagues and contributors have weighed in already on voting Trump: Andy McCarthy (Yes), Conrad Black (Hell, Yes), Victor Davis Hanson (also a yes), Jack Fowler (Biden, Never) Charlie Cooke (Maybe), Jay Nordlinger (Vote Your Conscience), Ramesh Ponnuru (No), and Kevin Williamson (Hell, No).
Note that Victor Davis Hanson is no longer associated with NR. They pay a fee to recycle his syndicated column, but do not mention he’s no longer on the masthead. Jack Fowler and Charles CW Cooke are no longer employed by the publication, though they’re still contributors. Conrad Black’s last submission to them was in April of 2021.
call it corporatism, call it sysgy, (an old hungarian word,)
https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/02/the-biden-regime-collapses-the-public-private-distinction/
Art Deco:
I didn’t say they were still there. We’re talking about NR in 2020.
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/09/04/adam-kinzinger-heads-to-the-fainting-couch-again-n622770
Greetings from the North 40 Neo. No TV here but cell service.
Ok, I promised myself I wouldn’t, but I’m going to anyway. You might remember what the mention of Logic, hallowed be its name, does to me. No self restraint.
So regarding Dr. Sam Harris, neurologist, and supposedly degreed in philosophy as well: please note this excerpt from a justly famous debate which he had with William Lane Craig on the predicate foundations of an adequate theory of objective morality.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NxwjTcPW_78
Harris not only has his ass handed to him by Craig in this brief excerpt, but later during the wind-up ( of the full video) makes a complete fool of himself by indulging in a shocking, and almost plaintive, question begging ( in the technical sense) exercise … As those who had the stamina to watch that two hour debate at Notre Dame, done a decade ago, will have noticed.
It’s fascinating to watch these free-of-all-illusions, down-with-science, moral clowns, invite in through the back door unacknowledged ( as you, and even C.S. Lewis before you, mention), principles which they have ostentatiously ushered out the front. In less enlightened times, such stunts were called hypocrisy, or even fraud.
If anyone is interested in observing the actual workings of Sam Harris’ mind, the original debate will be well worth watching.
One other thing. We often imagine that ground breaking and paradigm shifting works of brilliance ( as popularly judged in their season) are not likely to be examples of ulterior or motivated reasoning.
Until we recall the admission of, say, Bertrand Russell in his dotage, as to how he had found praise and flattery so sweet. Or, recall the remark of Christopher Hitchens regarding the great joy he derived from being recognized on the street; or, the admission made once he lost it, of the once pleasurable conceit generated by sound of his own voice.
Though, as we all know, because Freud assured us of it, religion is nothing more than the self consolation of life’s losers; whereas contrarily, men are only atheists because the evidence drives them inexorably to that honest simon pure conviction …
Except of course when it didn’t and it doesn’t …
@ Kate > “Politico reports the execrable Jon Meacham wrote Thursday’s awful speech. It was weeks in the making.”
Meacham only merited a single sentence; the intent of the post was clearly to convince us that Biden really really wrote it himself no malarkey, or at least contributed all the important parts Fat, and he’s been thinking about it literally for years, while jousting with the dog-faced pony soldiers.
Politico seems to have bought one of the Babylon Bee’s industrial washing machines, because the spin on their article is cyclonic.
I bet they were concerned.
BTW, the spin got started with their lead picture, in which the red of the central lighting on Biden is actually blacked out. However, he still looks like a caricature of One Angry Man — if they couldn’t find a better head-shot, I bet there wasn’t one to be had. Although that might have been the look they were going for, based on the text, it’s not a good antidote to the Dork Brandon images.
* from above:
Sounds like there must have been dozens of dead officers, doesn’t it? One of the reasons our Democrat friends and family never get over their Never Trump TDS is because their media continually repeats debunked Talking Points, and their readers literally (and I mean that literally) never see the contrary evidence.
Wikipedia cranks up the spin of course, but still admits there were only 4 police suicides and Sicknick’s stroke afterward, though they echo the Democrats’ blaming the stress and trauma of the day’s events. Of the rioters, who are NOT mentioned by Politico, Wiki counts 1 rioter shot, one possibly trampled (they still claim a drug overdose despite negative statements by her mother, and don’t acknowledge at all the videos showing she was beaten by cops), and 2 natural deaths afterward.
You can read dueling fact checks if you want, but Biden was still making the same claim in March of this year, & again in September before the Red Speech, that “Fact Check” put out in November 2021, which is basically the same as Wikipedia:
https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/claim-biden-says-jan-6-capitol-rioters-murdered-five-cops-fact-check-very-false/
“SUPERIOR, WI – Either by design or by chance, President Joe Biden falsely accused Jan. 6 rioters of killing five police officers during the melee at the U.S. Capitol.
In a speech ostensibly about infrastructure funding, he was even able to assume the protest inspired Putin to invade Ukraine and that the riot is the cause of division in the United States.”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2022/09/01/biden-claim-about-j6-officers-killed-n2612552
“Despite the record being set straight months later by an autopsy report, some outlets never updated their stories while Democrats continued spreading the false claim.
In fact, President Biden has been among the worst offenders. Speaking about the Safer America Plan, Biden relayed a conversation he had with a counterpart at the 47th G7 Summit in England last June, suggesting Trump supporters killed “several police officers.” ”
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/11/how-many-died-as-a-result-of-capitol-riot/
The post from Law Enforcement Today was the top of my search results, although some of the usual pundits showed up further on down.
They have lots of stories at their home page, if you are interested in True Crime drama from the LEO POV, and also some more political fare.
https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/
Repeat offender with 28 convictions, arrested again after car chase, was wanted for recent sexual assault
September 3, 2022
Democrat-run Chicago: Man faces no criminal charges in Chicago for stealing an ambulance
September 3, 2022
“The list you don’t want to be on”: Here are the top ten worst states in America to be a cop in.
August 16,2022
New plan for police-defunded NYC: Detectives will be posted as ‘scarecrows’ to deter crime
July 28, 2022
Bombshell study shows that the vast majority of non-fatal shootings don’t end in an arrest
July 27, 2022
PA Democrat Senate nominee John Fetterman has two convicted murderers working on his campaign team
September 4, 2022
You were warned: One of the leaders of Black Lives Matter being sued by its local chapters for stealing $10 million
September 4, 2022
Shocking number of terror watchlist suspects found at southern border under Biden
September 3, 2022
Reading around the webz, here is a story with almost the exact same picture of Biden as Politico had. So, the blacking out of the front appears to be what the lighting actually looked like, and both have blue wings (no white that I can tell), but the TH Biden looks calm and almost normal as opposed to the clearly angry ranter at Politico.
Odd choice of photos by Politico, IMO.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2022/09/04/these-networks-refused-to-air-bidens-hateful-speech-because-it-was-too-political-n2612646?utm_campaign=rightrailsticky3
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/03/biden-speech-democracy-trump-maga-00054764
Matt Taibbi was not a happy camper, although he’s one of the few, like Jonah Goldberg, that had good words about Biden’s speech over-all.
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/biden-brings-the-war-on-terror-home
The rest is behind his Paywall, but you can see more excerpts here.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2022/09/04/is-biden-preparing-to-criminalize-trumpism-n1626866
(quoting Taibbi)
I love what Scott Johnson said about the Politico story.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/09/i-the-people.php
John Hinderaker at Powerline airs the Citizens for Sanity ad via a Sky News report, without having to go to the Tweet.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/09/best-ad-of-the-cycle.php
Ed Driscoll compares it to an earlier classic response to the murder & mayhem sponsored by the Democrat Party and embeds both the current and older ads.
https://instapundit.com/540796/
‘So as long as your belief system is such that its good to murder anyone who does not think as you do. That in Harris’s mind is “virtue”…’
Well…not exactly.
FIRST, your opponent MUST be UTTERLY DEMONIZED. SEMI-FASCISTIZED. SEMI-NAZIFIED. CONSTANTLY VILLIFIED. CARICATURIZED. DEHUMANIZED. LIED ABOUT UNCEASINGLY…with all the tools that the STATE has at its disposal, together with the eager assistance of a COLLUDING MEDIA and INFO-TECH.
Once that step is successfully accomplished, THEN, you can do with that opponent whatever you wish—and you will be VIRTUOUS. ABSOLUTELY MORAL. Whatever you do will be A BLESSING. A GOOD DEED.
Whatever you do, you will be DOING GOOD, PURSUING JUSTICE, SAVING DEMOCRACY and THE COUNTRY.
The process of demonization—of Donald Trump and then of his supporters—begun by Hillary Clinton, continued by the state apparatus under the twisted leadership of Obama, Biden, “By-the-Book” Susan Rice, Brennan, Clapper, Comey and the entire slate of alphabet agencies under their control—and ALL deliriously and hysterically supported and magnified by a viciously corrupt media—has accelerated from that starting point—let’s call it “GROUND ZERO”—such that Trump was—AND IS—cast, as essentially a “semi-Fascist” (read “semi-Nazi”)
And so are his supporters, i.e., half the country.
Such that those doing the demonizing—those demonizing “semi-Nazis”—MUST BE, BY DEFINITION, PEOPLE OF VIRTUE!!!
Which is precisely WHY Trump et al. MUST be demonized. (Rather circular, ain’t it?!)
Once Trump et al. are thus branded, “open season” may be declared on all of them without shame, without any hesitation, quite openly, respectably—and MORALLY. They can all be targeted; and those doing the targeting are THE MORALLY UPRIGHT; THE CUTTING EDGE OF ETHICS.
Remember the old question:
“What would you have done if you could have killed Hitler in, say the 20s or early 30s…before he came to power?”
America must be “cleansed” of “her enemies”….
And so here we are…as the huge number of people who call themselves LIBERAL and view themselves as good, decent people, virtuous exemplars—the cream of the country, the elite, the intelligent, caring, wonderful—have been TRANSFORMED into a foaming-at-the-mouth, hateful, hate-filled, seething posse of vigilantes bent on PURSUING JUSTICE, drunk on saving America by destroying those who they perceive as America’s enemies.
And they are justified because they MUST STAMP OUT THE EVIL THAT TRUMP represents—the EVIL that THEY HAVE BEEN TOLD, and continue to be told, 24/7 that Trump represents.
Yes, that message has been driven home…and continues to be DRIVEN HOME.
The 24/7/52 HATE by the VIRTUOUS, the CARING, the LOVING, the DECENT, the BEST and the BRIGHTEST….
To save the country….
All this courtesy of the political party that brought you Russiagate, Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal, the COVID-19 debacle, Nov. 2020, Jan. 6, hyperinflation, the border crisis, the recent MAL raid, and all those other extraordinary achievements….
Roger Kimball, continued…
Following AF’s link above, here’s Kimball, the day after:
“Biden Puts the ‘Total’ in Totalitarianism;
“America has come perilously close to the edge of the point of no return.”
https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/03/biden-puts-the-total-in-totalitarianism/
H/T Zerohedge.
This is the best op-ed on Biden’s speech that I’ve read so far.
A good summary, punchy rhetoric, and apt warning.
https://amac.us/no-laughing-matter-bidens-speech-is-neither-honest-nor-normal/
By David P. Deavel
Deavel gives excellent answers to each of Biden’s accusations.
Most of the stories I’ve read only quote Biden without addressing his claims.
In the Trump Demonization Olympics, here’s another “expert” who made it to the finals:
“Judge Tosses Lawsuit By Hitler-Praising, TDS-Stricken Fired Yale Psychiatrist”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/judge-tosses-lawsuit-hitler-praising-tds-stricken-yale-psychiatrist
Good to see you, DNW!
“Good to see you, DNW!”
Good morning “Rufio”. ( Why do I when seeing the name Rufus, always think of the Miles Gloriosus fellow, and the song from “A Funny Thing…”)
Anyway, I still look in on Neo’s blog. But in general, like Hubert, I basically came to the realization that having zero interest in political persons per se, I had shot my bolt, and said everything, and repeatedly, that interested me, and was tolerable to, Neo’s regulars.
Breaking the habit, or having it broken for me, did me some good.
Nonetheless, Sam Harris and philosophy and logic? And as a bonus I’m not the one who brought it up …
Funny how foundational philosophy will intrude its head into current affairs whether welcomed by the socially vigilant gatekeepers of acceptable topics or not.
Next thing you know Neo will offend by delving into the interesting implications which the philosophical attack on logocentrism has had on our society and its core ( or agrred upon) ontology; and the curious relation which that doctrine of the Logos developed from its various original manifestations; Greek, Hellenistic-Jewish, and ultimately Christian, has had for our understanding of the world, of mankind, of social relations, morals, and even the possibility of Science™.
Sdffer ( Sp?) and a few others could no doubt offer some insights.
Be well, all. No Sandhill Cranes roaming the fields today. But some turkeys were about, and the deer are avidly gobbling up the feral apple trees’ windfall. The radii from the trunks to the drip line look as though they have been mowed in a circle, so trampled is the grass beneath the limbs.
Enjoy what’s left of your summer. I have a tractor tire to work on. That damned calcium.chloride ballast rotted the valve stem and may have ruined the rim too …