I used to respect Amnesty International. I donated to them. But they are as corrupt and amoral now as NPR. All the nice things genuine Liberals used to think about themselves are gone. Their world is a comfortable suburban lie that conceals among other things open support for rape and the murder of children.
We live in a world where honest people recognize Donald Trump is the best thing going in the realm of politics.
It didnt have to be like this, but it has been a long slide, and the slope seems to be getting more slippery and steeper.
Thinking about this a bit more, there was a time, long long ago—when parents didnt care where their kids were most of the summer and nobody had heard of a bike helmet—that people who called themselves Liberals OPPOSED WAR.
Communist North Vietnam invaded non-Communist South Vietnam, more or less exactly like Russia invaded Ukraine, but with vastly more lies and intentional terrorism—and they said NOT WORTH FIGHTING FOR. Not worth American lives. Nor worth feeding the war machine.
Those same people, now, as they begin to start the process of overloading and bankrupting Social Security and Medicare, now seem to beleiev that as long as a war is not in any way in our national interest, it is worth fighting.
And nuclear war? No longer worried about it. Why? They need to tell me, because I dont know.
These same people also used to oppose gratutous—unnecessary to the plot—violence in media, particularly childrens media. The data was on their side. Media violence decreases empathy, the sense of safety and increases rates of anxiety and depression. But they no longer care. Why? I guess it was just too much work. Now they binge watch Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad.
Morality is about awareness and principle based behavior. What it is NOT is a cloak of sainthood you put on once that sanctifies your every act and thought the rest of your life.
"Diversity! Equity! Inclusion!" - proclaimed by the least diverse, least equitable, and most exclusive group of hypocritical, power-hungry, corrupt people in the world.
Got a few of those yard signs right around the corner from me! And just noticed the first Biden/Harris lawn sign close by as well. My once republican small community gone whacko.
Exactly, it's far easier to stick a sign in the yard proclaiming what you stand for. Than it is to live those ideals in their daily lives. That's why when you interact with them they are mostly unhinged basket cases.
I still get a laugh every time I pass one of those signs, it never gets old, as I picture myself walking to the the door and calmly and rationally explaining my stance on, say, illegal immigration or the second amendment, or trans men in women’s sports and then watching the red faced rage flood out the doors and windows of a home with no hate in it. 🙄
I STILL want to put up a lawn sign saying "ONLY HATERS ARE ALLOWED TO READ THIS SIGN" down the street from one of those stupid love/hate/decaffeinate whatever signs.
My wife STILL threatens to divorce me for even thinking about it...
Remember when a few years back Trump was negotiating with North Korea, and the entire media screamed about chaos and nuclear war?
Not today though! I've yet to see a single headline about Biden bumbling us into two wars, with an open border and depleted Oil Reserves, as our enemies threaten nukes on a weekly basis and send Special Ops people literally walking into our country.
And yet Dems don't back down, don't apologize, don't acknowledge their lies and hysteria, and even here in today's article they are linking to propaganda outlets that hate Jews and don't need to hide it anymore.
And that's why the founding fathers didn't grant everybody the privilege of voting, because most people don't deserve that privilege on either an intellectual or moral level.
Interesting point - I know that nobody would favor reversing suffrage or mail-in balloting in states needing Democrat turnout, but (kidding aside), maybe it would make sense to have a civics test that would be required for voting registration. We need licenses for guns, and that's another right guaranteed in our Bill of Rights...
The people you are talking about aren't liberals. I'm a liberal and certainly not a sheep. They don't even call themselves liberals. They're progressives, which is just a more marketable term than leftist.
In response to your words about war…I’ve been listening for quite a while to Tulsi Gabbert, who the Dem politicians despise for calling them out. She was disgust by the Afghanistan debacle and has had a deep concern about our lack of military leadership since the Russian-Ukraine war, and with her experience and knowledge, I agree with her. I would love to have Trump pick her as a VP. She’s on board with the idea if he were to choose her, but I highly doubt it’ll happen. I heard someone say that it would be in his best interest to pick a VP sooner than later due to the amount of time he’ll be in hearings. She speaks well, has military experience, and could get a whole other group of people on board who wouldn’t otherwise vote for him.
Agreed, but only if the debate moderator forced Harris to stay on topic and actually answer the question. Otherwise, Harris would just make some silly comment about the topic and "pivot" to reading her usual stump speech.
I respect Tulsi Gabbard for her service to our country. That said, I'm suspicious of her. When she was a Democrat I liked the fact that she came off like a regular person and not some calculating politician. On the other hand, you state that she was disgusted by the withdrawal from Afghanistan. When she was running for President she attacked former Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio for being in favor of staying in Afghanistan. She also met with Bashar the Butcher, whether or not she had intended to. That shows a lack of judgement on her part. She also supported Bernie Sanders in 2016, who was the progressive (leftist) in the Democratic Primary that year. Now she talks like your average Trump supporter. Nothing wrong with that if it's genuinely what she believes but going from being on the left of the Democratic Party to sounding like a Trump Republican in the span of just a few years? I find that suspicious. I don't doubt her sincerity when she speaks on military matters. Outside of that…I have no idea what she truly believes.
Unfortunately, the story of Vietnam War is not that straightforward. Vietnamese people in the South didn’t like their corrupt government either, and Viet Kong propaganda used it skillfully. They also didn't like foreigners, Americans included. They had history of beating back French and multiple Chinese invasions.
That was largely true until the first Tet Offensive in 1968. During that NVA Commissars with lists and execution squads went to all the addresses on the list in Hue and shot their politucal opponents. It was something like 4,000 people in total.
That, combined with genuinely meaningful land reform, convinced ARVN to start taking the war seriously. They realized many of them would be executed in the NVA won. And in the event about 250,000 people were shot in cold blood in the first few months of the Norths successful invasion.
By then it was too late. I happen to know closely South Vietnamese people who never left Vietnam. The terror was overwhelming, and people lost will to fight.
Read “A Better War”, by Lewis Sorley, if you want clarity on the history. The rewrite of history started DURING the war and hasny stopped. But we won that war. We had a signed peace deal, negitiated from a position of strength, and the Democrat run—and CIA supported—Imperial Congress vitiated the victory our men won at great cost. The truth is horrifying.
Amnesty is the NPR of NGOs. Several of its employees committed suicide due to a hostile work environment. Amnesty sided with Trudeau against the truckers and said nothing about the flagrant human rights violations during COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
Theres an alternate reality somewhere where they are advocating for the kidnapped Israelis, took a strong stand against COVID lockdowns, and are trying to free Jan.6 political prisoners and Uighurs in Laogai alike.
He speaks calmly and fairly and justly. He calls bastards bastards and many of us love him for that.
Joe Biden is a crook. Trump calls him a crook. Who gets attacked? Trump. That would certainly be a problem for any person of average intelligence who sincerely valued consistency and the well being of the United States and its people.
I agree with you about Amnesty, but don't mistake the woke for all liberals. They're the loudest bunch, and the smallest group, but they don't represent us any more than the MAGA Trump cheerleaders represent all of the right. Both extremists have turned their backs on democracy, liberty and free speech regardless of how much they finger-point to the other side. They're BOTH awful, deplorable human beings. There's a lot of party-switching happening this year. I think it's a toss-up who's going to win.
If true Liberals still exist in meaningful numbers they have been terrorized into silence, by and large. They dont seem to have voices on any major networks.
A case could be made for The Free Press but it an odd exception that has been under Left Wing attack virtually since its inception. I dont doubt it has even been called Right Wing, by liars who are almost never confronted by anyone but conservatives.
True. But I was thinking recently of friends and family members that not that long ago (3-4 years about) whom I was in lock step with politically. Back then I listened to NPR for a few hours a day, and read the NYT many times per day. I’ve since opened my eyes, mostly due to great organizations like TFP and others on Substack (Racket News), and some great Podcasts (Honestly and others). But for my friends and family members who are still all in for Biden and the Dems, I understand that if they only listen to NPR (most still do - I never do, for at least three years), and read the NYT, The Guardian etc. then their rigid beliefs are perfectly understandable. They stubbornly cling to their rigidly narrow beliefs simply because they refuse to open their minds, think independently, consider alternate views. I blame the elites who have radially altered journalism to change it all to activism. Understanding that many friends and family members should be able to recognize how they are being manipulated - yet aware of how easily they are convinced by some very clever propaganda
The way you speak of your Demmy-loving friends and family is the way we were talking about the Trumpists not so long ago....
Didja see the article the other day about NPR? It might not have been on the Freep, it might have been Persuasion, I can't remember. But if you searched for "NPR" on Substack and hit 'posts', I'm sure you'll find it. It was sometime this week (not today).
Yes I did thanks. I read the article and listened to some of Bari’s interview with Uri this morning on Honestly. Not that long ago I was a great fan of NPR. I listened to them constantly, at home, in my car, I really enjoyed their news coverage and programming. I was also 100% convinced (by listening to them and reading the NYT) that the Mueller report would be the end of Trump’s presidency. I was one of the duped. Thankfully my eyes have been opened. Hard to believe that I was once so gullible and that so many Americans remain so
Yeah, me too on the Mueller Report. I'm also rethinking what I thought I knew about COVID (I was a supporter of shutdowns, enforced vaxxes, etc.) and am formulating thoughts about an article I want to write about it soon. One of my subscribers sent me a brief summary which I put aside for later...later is coming soon.
Part of the reason why these crazes fly so easily is because the mass media has abandoned the principles of real journalism and has been overrun by elitist college grad kiddies with ridiculous education bills and very little education to show for it. Social media, of course, is far worse. The sources I used to trust the most as 'least biased' acc to Media Bias FAct Check are no longer the least biased, and I've caught them in lies and misinformation (AP & Reuters). The medical profession, too, has been overrun with activism over what's best for the patient as have the so-called reliable 'science' journals (Scientific American, Nature, Science, etc.)
One used to be able to research something new that sounds weird ("Bush was behind 9/11") and find reliable sources debunking it. Now even Ouchie Fauci can't be trusted.
Our press has become like what it is in the Middle East: Fake news, conspiracy theories, and the government and fanatics coming down hard on anyone who tries to tell the truth.
Yeah, this was me. The only difference is that shortly after 9/11 I started digging in to conspiracy stuff pretty heavily, so I became a "both parties are the same" type of thinker. I still believe that to be mostly the case, but despite all that I held on to my liberal views. Until covid came along and I realized very quickly that things had definitely changed. My conspiracy reading helped me recognize pretty quickly what was going on (though the fear foisted on all of us by the media and governments spokespeople had me in it's grip for the first couple months or so). I suddenly realized that my views on the wrongness of the approach and the total focus on a new vaccine were not in alignment with "correct" thinking at the time. My own family was totally sold on all of it, and I felt like I couldn't speak my mind with people I loved and cared about. That was a real eye opener. All that said, I too was a fan of NPR for many years and listened to it daily on my drive in to work and often after work as well. I used to watch the news hour with my dad when I was still living at home in the early 90's, and felt like it was a pretty unbiased network that believed in real journalism. That went out the window with Trump and covid. Though like you I was sold on the Mueller report at first. I still believe Trump is as corrupt as they come, but seems to at least see where the Dems have taken this country towards an authoritarian system (if we weren't really in one much earlier, which I believe we were....a soft totalitarianism, if you will). Anyway, I'm not surprised that so many are taken in by the propaganda because I was as well for a time. It's just so strange now to talk to close friends and family and pretend to agree with them spouting the propaganda back at me. I do try to slip in bits of truth and anti-propaganda but I don't want them thinking I'm the one who has changed and risking conflict and possible excommunication, because I still love and care about them of course.
Some are terrorized, but our major institutions have been infested with wokenazis who won't *allow* alternative viewpoints like traditional liberal. Cripes, even the NYT is fighting now to tell the truth about Hamas rapes and as TFP reported yesterday, the staff at Guernica resigned because some essayist failed to be sufficiently condemnatory of the Israelis in a story about getting food aid to the Gazans.
I'm sure the far left thinks TFP is somewhere to the far right of The Blaze and Breitbart.
going to extremes seen and heard daily on the left. People really need to mix it up with what they believe to be MAGAs. Attend a Trump rally. It's the polar opposite of what the MSM is feeding you. Similar to their version of Trump they have fed the population for years.
I saw enough Trump speeches and tweets to make my firm opinion of who he is as a person. Tell me who is your friend, and I will know all about you. I wish Republicans used a better human being to advance their political agendas and understood that character matters, because it really does. Even MAGA admit that Trump is a bad person.
Hes a bit over proud and certainly a womanizer. But he was an excellemt President.
And it is my sense most people who talk about character confuse public personas with reality.
Nearly all politicians are awful people. Trump is exactly what he appears to be. I dont think he hides anything. Could that be said of Joe Buden, Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi or Mitch McConnell or nearly anyone in Washington?
You postulate that only bad people go into politics- that's up to you. To me, a president is an executive over the largest employer in the country. Every manager is best described by the people he chose to be his top lieutenants and who observed him on a daily basis. From Tillerson to Barr, they all are talking to anyone who would listen about how dangerous Trump is in his decision making, how dishonest he is with those who work with him, and how much he despises the rule of law, not even to mention how he despises those "little forgotten people" who adore him. All the above makes him a bad top manager of the largest employer in the country.
Bill Barr refused to investigate any of hundreds of credible claims of voting fraud and lied aboutvtheir existence. He also failed to reaffirm the authenticity of Hunter Bidens laptop—which contained good evidence he and Joe were crooks—after dozens of supposedly honest intrlligence professionals committed their names and reputation to a clearly fraudulent claim the laptop was Russian propaganda.
Trump was stabbed in the back by nearly everyone. But surely that is obviously the opposite of an endorsement of the schemea of Permanent Washington? Our nations Capital is filled with credible sounding lying assholes. Trump is justvthe sort of asshole we need to deal with all that. If he cant there is little hope.
G.S.L’s statement is pure, classic, apologetics; you start off downplaying and misrepresenting your side, then exaggerate the faults of your opposition and try to draw some false equivalence. Then talk about some kind of phony common ground. All to shroud the actual actions of your own side.
People are not deplorable, ideas are; and right now one side has most of the bad ideas (open borders, war, DEI, CRT, soft on crime, drugs & hormones & genital mutilation for kids, indoctrination instead of education, censorship, phony climate issues, late-term abortion (I could go on)). You are what you do and trying to be clever with language won’t save you in the long run.
A bit more journalistic focus on the perps and little less red meat victimhood would be helpful. More solutions based opinion and the development of a truth/fact based American reality might begin to dispel the hyperrealistic lie running cover for the looting of American tax treasure and lives. Chaos is the fascist weapon of choice.
Reports on those American factory workers whose lives, livelihood and communities have been destroyed by BLACKROCK and the D.C. grifters who stand by while it's happening might be a place to start.
I based what I said on hiddentribes.us; a very good website to get a real bead on where Americans are, and I have an article coming out I think next week about how I think more 'traditional conservatives' should be included in their 'Exhausted Majority'. I agree with you on all those evils; but I'm also old enough to remember when conservatism was in the ascendant (the Reagan/Bush I years) and nutty conservatives and vicious Bible-thumpers committed a lot of the same political acts you damn now: A war on the poor, tax breaks for the rich (which accelerated income inequality), Christian censorship of books they didn't like in the schools and libraries (some with sexual themes, but mild by Genderqueer comparison, and mostly they went after classic books which didn't fit their narrow narratives: Like the Diary of Anne Frank, because she called for universal acceptance of others. That was anathema to the Bible-thumping mindset, and of course it birthed the notorious Fred Phelps family.
Then there were their *own* ideological darlings they wanted to force on children in the schools: No sex ed, no learning about their own bodies, and teaching them that homosexuality was sinful. They worked hard to replace evolutionary science with Creationist nonsense. They strove as hard against abortion rights as they did *for* gun rights and now they couldn't give a crap about a mass shooting unless it was done by a trans kid. Racism became cool again, although not as blatantly as under Trump, and he sabre-rattled us very close to nuclear war several times. I can tell you I lived in absolute *terror* back then that we'd all die in a nuclear war.
So your fears today are simply anger that the pendulum has swung to far in the *other* direction, just as it once did in your own forty years ago (and let's remember your own 'trans panic': Except it was called the Satanic Panic) and of course the defeat of the ERA, because nothing terrifies the hardcore conservative more than women with power--especially sexual power.
Relax, your day may be returning soon - Donald Trump is almost everything you could dream of.
May I suggest that you question a few of the shibboleths that you tossed around? Starting with where you find anti free speech and or liberty amongst the MAGAites? Be specific.
Let's see...Greg Lukianoff states in his new book The Cancelling of the American Mind that 40% of the university campus professor firings are done by the right, although usually at smaller/Christian colleges where they get less press. The MAGAites brought us Jan 6th because they didn't get their way; they threaten those who speak out against them; Trump is threatening to get back at all his enemies; and many politicians, election workers or public figures like Fani Willis have reported vicious death treats against them and their families because they dare to hold Trump accountable. But fuck it, since you're too lazy to do your own research I'll throw a few articles your way:
All I'm asking is for you to be honest about your own side; yes, the far left hates free speech (us more traditional, moderate libs don't), but so does the far right, more often via physical intimidation (while rational conservatives don't). Just be genuine and say, "We hate free speech as much as they do; we just can't agree on which speech shouldn't be free."
And the right v left thingee pretty well lost any relevance +/- 30 or so years ago -- maybe more; as it originated with the seating chart for the French assembly at the time of the revolution, it's had a l-o-o-o-ng time to get stale.
So if Joe Biden has been judged too mentally incompetent (senile) to be prosecuted for handling sensitive documents (as was Trump), just WHO in his cabinet is making all these progressive-woke decisions? Is there a lobbyist mafia? Is it the Soros-Gates collective? The CCP? And why ever would congress vote against requiring accountabilty for the billions sent to Ukraine? Seems this would be a good area for some serious investigative reporting.
Too bad Tom Wolfe has passed. Sure would like to see his take on just who directed the National Guard to Martha's Vineyard to remove those illegals arriving on a bus because the million-billionaire residents claimed they lacked resources to help (guess there wasn't room to rest on Obama's acreage). Does anyone recall Radical Chic and Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers? BTW, just who is hiring all that tasteless WH "entertainment"?
The question, for which I don't have an answer, is how do organizations slip down this slide?
Is hypocrisy an unavoidable human condition? What are the signs that they have entered some sort of spiral into the group-think echo chamber? Do they stop arguing with each other? Is it hardening of the arteries?
We can speculate, but I personally think it starts with the first lie that is tolerated for convenience. That is the virus. The immune system that would fight it would be a principle based conscience. But over time, if the toleration of lies continues, the conscience atrophies until, as happened with Trump, people who speak obvious truths unapologetically are hated. Among other things, they remind the now-crooked who they could have been and once aspired to be, oh so long ago.
It’s also a justification for their moral compass or lack thereof. Not religious? Fine. But don’t tell me I’m wrong because I believe in God and have my own solid moral compass. Bending the rules to suit what they feel is justifiable and then virtually annihilating anyone who dares voice opposition to being told he/she must conform to this new altered reality is a dangerous path to follow. It certainly has a stronghold in today’s society but more and more people are waking up, I’m finding, and for that I still have a modicum of hope remaining. At 60-something I may not see it in my time left, but my hope is for my kids and grandkids that they know the America that I knew, with its faults, but still holding true to its founding principles.
I think it's getting to the time we examine lying as the human species first line of defense, attack, and survival. Read any history book, which I've been doing since 1952. I like the ones I agree with. I'm currently reading Jeffrey E. Paul's. Boy! Does he ever name names.
It's the bubble of Ivy League leadership. They all follow the same ideas, people and institutions, because there is one path to power and everyone must pay their dues to the gatekeepers.
Business leaders are so consumed with the priority of financial gain, they by needs must show fealty with predominant ethical ideas, even if those ideas are wildly detached from the rest of the people.
It's a proven fact that positions of power attract sociopaths, and we have a country run by sociopaths who would pretend to believe anything to get more money. They don't actually care if they live under Free Speech or the CCP, as long as their own fortunes grow.
I think it is about much more than just money. The sociopaths in power are cultists and as such display a zealotry that is unexplained by money. They are drunk on power. They use extreme bullying and cancellation as tools to force submission from the unbelievers. So many “ moderates” are now afraid of job loss and being ostracized that 5hey put up and shut up.
The power drunk extremists will stop at nothing to hold on to power and expand their reach
I've seen that phenomenon and those people. But what I am describing is my personal experience of corporate executives over the last five years. They aren't zealots, they view themselves as moderate, and they're often intelligent and thoughtful.
But at the end of the day, their actions will fall in line with what is fashionable and political, because their jobs and their fund-raising depend on it. They empower extremism and government abuse through cowardice, not because they wish for those things.
That's what I see anyway, take it for what it's worth (which is about two cents).
I’m sure you are right.as to the motivations of the executives. Corporate executives are a tiny group of people that influence, even control a large swath of the electorate. Their compliance is therefore less excusable , not more. Leaders are supposed to lead not fall in line.
What we have is a very very strong "system of cultural power" which has been decades in the making. There is a strong strain of class warfare in the mix. The wealthy have been able to rig the legal apparatus to some degree, gov't entities have been colonized, "rules" without discussion have been deployed, politicians are owned for the most part, the police have been defanged, media is colonized to deploy propaganda, constant fear mongering is a strategy (covid, climate, medical issues, etc.), and now they are "killing their young" as even our bodies are the "new frontier." I'm not sure anyone can fix this mess. And in my opinion, we aren't going to vote our way out of it. It's too far gone.
I think some of it comes from being convinced (and having that mindset reinforced thru propaganda/media) that you are morally, educationally and intellectually superior. If you believe that, why would you ever entertain what the knuckle draggers are thinking. You are better than they are. You are more evolved, have higher ideals, and understand what they don't.
See Law, Conquest's. As to why that is so, the paths are legion, though many of them are rooted in the sources and nature of those with nothing better to do who replace those who had the initial fire in their bellies.
Are you saying by implication that those who do not recognize Donald Trump as "the best thing going in the realm of politics" are dishonest? Please.
Donald Trump has always been, and in 2024 will again be, the second worst choice on the ballot, which is a very, very sad commentary on the quality of the field running for the office of President.
Yes, I am. If you are failing to understand fully the scope of the problems that make him necessary, you are lying to yourself.
For example, is it somehow not obvious to you the FBI and CIA are working directly to subvert both the law and democracy? And that both support Joe Biden because they share the gravy train and supporting political objectives? They want a permanent One Party system, which may have a thin patina of legitimacy, but which has fully dispensed with the Will of the People.
I will only offer this. First, every statement a person makes says as much about the author of the statement as it says about the person or subject he is talking about, which is something you might reflect on. Second, labeling people who disagree with you said as "dishonest" and "lying" to themselves is very poor advocacy for whatever idea you happen to be advancing.
Its bad salesmanship, certainly. But Ive been doing this a long time, and in general people who make that argument were not going to agree with me anyway, because for them the shine matters more than the substance. I cant claim Trump is a rhetorically gifted and high minded Statesman of the highest order. He isnt.
But we KNOW the CIA and FBI, in addition to we cant know how many nations and groups, interfered in many ways in the 2020 election. We know they set him up while he was President. Hell, we know he is being set up now. This Stormy Daniels stuff is quite possibly the worst case ever prosecuted in New York. Multiple other orosecutors already walked away from it.
Anyone who fails to see the problems here—and the enirmous threat they oresent to all of us—is either stupid or dishonest. If you want to disagree, trll me why? Have you even studied the Alvin Bragg case? Have you listened to the Mike Benz interview with Tucker Carlson? Was it somehow not obvious to you that both imoeachments were bullshit?
Add to the list of Amnesty International "achievements": in 2022, after Russian atrocities in Ukraine were already widely publicized, it accused Ukrainian army of war crimes, but spared Russian army. Reason: Ukrainian army punished their misbehaving soldiers, so AA had access to data, while Russian military didn't give them access to data. This is Amnesty International for you, ladies and gentlemen!
"Rihanna posed in a nun’s habit for a racy new photoshoot. Between this cover and the new Sydney Sweeney horror film Immaculate, everyone should begin preparing for Hot Nun Summer."
Imagine writing this about bundled-up Muslim women.
Spinelessness. They know the Pope won't send a troop of Swiss guards to impale them on their lances, blow them up or shoot them as they did with Charlie Hebdo. You'll never find real courage among the woke crowd
Well, some Catholics - maybe even a bishop with time on his hands - might get on X or Substack and say it's tacky, and that's VIOLENCE and RACISM, so obviously Rihanna is an incredibly brave risk-taker here.
Is Donald Trump’s latest statement on abortion, in which he said the issue should be left to the states, smart politics or a lie? Maybe it’s both. (Reason/Vox)
Is Joey Biden continually yammering on about being a devout catholic while denying church tenets on abortion and other issues smart politics, delusion or a lie? Definitely a lie
Just read their comical screed on the link. "Pregnant people?" Using such idiotic terms should be grounds for immediate confinement in a mental institution.
Vox isn't journalism, it is advocacy. Which explains why so many of their articles are subtitled as "an explainer." I don't need stories "explained " to me, just give me the facts.
This is a thing I don't understand with Catholicism. To be a Catholic, don't you have to believe and follow the dogma of the Catholic church? Including that the pope is infallible? For other denominations, disagreeing with leadership (aside from, you know, Jesus) doesn't negate your status as a Christian.
That said, I don't think Biden is a Catholic or a Christian. But ultimately that isn't for me to judge (but I do).
Nope. There is one large institution (the Roman church) and others Polish Catholics and a variety of independent Catholics. So as the book title says, not all Catholics are Roman.
Then there is a difference between what people believe and what the RC church tells them to believe. Sociologist and priest Andrew Greeley used to study that, but not sure who does it now. So we have Roman Catholics who disagree with the Pope and institutional church about women priests, we also have ones who disagree with the current Pope on the utility of the Latin Rite. Diversity is a thing, and generally considered to be good.
Diversity is fine. I mean when it comes to religion I think there are boundaries on that. Believing Christ doesn't exist would be a diverse opinion amongst Christians. I would argue that belief means you are in fact not a Christian.
So, based on what you said, what makes someone a Catholic? To me, the whole point of narrowing down what kind of Christian you are is to inform people of your specific Christian beliefs. Saying I am a Baptist, but I don't really believe in that whole Baptism thing ends up making the label meaningless. Is there a % of dogma you have to adhere to or is it like being a woman where anyone can lay claim to it? I know I am being somewhat dismissive, but I am honestly curious how we apply the label. Increasingly I am finding that words and labels mean less and less.
My Ancient Christianities prof said that for the purposes of our course, any group that considered themselves Christian would be Christian for our purposes. Because there is no universal body that gets to decide what’s in and what’s out. Maybe what you’re observing is that abstractions can be less than meaningful in the real world. What matters is what that individual believes, what that spiritual community does, and so on.
Well that's the way it is suppose to work and did work before congress abdicated their responsibilities to the executive branch who with a pen and a phone concoct unconstitutional executive orders.
NPR's response is predictable twaddle. I used to listen to NPR, especially on weekends, when painting. I loved the short stories and All Things Considered and parts of Prairie. I, an independent, and a definitely left of center friend were disaffected before Trump. My friend, when cancelling his generous donations to NYC/ NPR, questioned how it was that what is now the virus of wokism framed nearly all reportage and interviews.
Berliner singles out a fault that has long irked me- the replete failure of the overtaken media to admit flagrant misreporting and slurs that go on for years. We get a "never mind" - if that, no lesson or humility learned and then on to the next godlike and biased pronouncements. It's maddening and it's one of the reasons they're a joke.
The NPR CEO's complete, flat denial of everything, in the light of her undeniable partisanship and lack of diverse perspectives, says everything.
They fully believe in one party political rule. They see nothing wrong with it because everyone on the other side is evil. They are small minded bigots who think they are educating the planet, and it's time to shame them into irrelevance.
I felt this way about Berliner’s piece. He suddenly now admits that there was trouble at NPR when it is convenient for him to do so. Where was he standing up for fair and equal reporting the last 25 years? His cowardice shines through.
Every liberal has trouble renouncing their faith in the poisonous fruit of Uncle Karl. But every one who does, becomes a voice for liberty. Better to welcome than condemn them .
That includes many of us here. Most human, in general, have a hard time admitting fault. Even moreso when our social climate does not allow for forgiveness or absolution. I can't totally fault people for not having the courage to be willing to tank their careers and lives. I don't know that I could. So instead I choose to celebrate the courageous and avoid entrenched cowards (as opposed to those who want to be better but feel trapped).
Individuals must be empowered to speak up. If enough people do it, that's the only thing that stops poison like Nazism. And when it comes to the business and obligation of reporting the news in a factual manner in a liberal democracy, it is, as Jefferson said, essential. I don't excuse people, in the news, who don't insist on doing it.
That is a VERY fair point. So much so I want to amend my statement. While I do understand someone wanting to keep their job, when you have an important job, where Integrity is a foundation, like a Journalist or Cop or Politician, then I do think you have an obligation based on your station, do do and be better. If you kept your head down at a PUBLIC news org rather than try to make it better, you are part of the issue and need to go, along with all of the other people.
The power lever this system of power wields is stopping the federal money to NPR and NPR, in turn, would fire Berliner if he went public. Same with doctors who. no longer are independent and who now work for companies who hire them. Ditto in most industries now. Speak out and lose your job. Refuse the covid jab and lose your job. Look at all the very reputable disciplinary scientists who have been culled--even through they were in premier universities/colleges, had long publishing records, etc.--for speaking out about the climate scam. In their place, we have 'interdisciplinary scientists" who are feeding at the climate trough. It is a powerful "system of cultural power" that is literally destroying our republic, breaking all its systems, and now seriously harming citizens--which is what I mean about "killing its young." No one will be left to buy the various products.
They're making it harder to undo the damage because they're stacking the corporate and college boards or trustees. Five years ago, maybe ten, the trustees would have said this is completely outrageous,we've got to fix it. That's no longer the case. That's why they made it such a priority to "diversify" -capture them to one ideology/monoculture. Those left who may not agree are bullied into it.
And NPR's pushback was basically "we know there's no conservatives here and we like it that way but believe us when we say we can present conservative viewpoints but why should we?"
And of course the big news in the UK is the quietly damning Cass Report -- all 388 pages of it. No robust evidence for saying 'transitioning prevents suicide' etc. They are now going to do a review of all adult services as well. ‘The evidence is weak and clinicians have told us they are unable to determine with any certainty which children and young people will go on to have an enduring trans identity.’ And' The systematic review showed no clear evidence that social transition in childhood has any positive or negative mental health outcomes, and relatively weak evidence for any effect in adolescence. However, those who had socially transitioned at an earlier age and/or prior to being seen in clinic were more likely to proceed to a medical pathway.'
The papers over here are full of articles today about the enablers. Victoria Atkins, the Health Minister is now going to force the Adult clinics to cough up the data they withheld. And there has been a review ordered into the practices of the adult clinics....
The WPATH practioners have remained silent on the WPATH files. They are hoping it will all blow over. The Free Press much to my dismay is contributing to this by its own silence on the subject. Wh6 did TFPress break the whistleblower stories and now refuse to report on the scandal?
Why has The Free Press backed away from this important issue that Bari and company helped bring to the world’s attention?
TFPress published the 2 whistleblowers and 5he Finnish psychiatrist, all three gave first hand accounts of the lies and grossly unethical practices that are standards of the gender clinics for minors. What now is TFPress deliberately not even mentioning this growing scandal even as a side mention?
I agree -- the FP should be doing more. The scandal is awful. The people who should have protecting highly vulnerable children were not doing so. They used the threat of suicide as a slogan when there was no evidence that what they were advocating actually helped.
In the UK, the review is now going to look at Adult Clinics, the same clinics who refused to cooperate with Cass. What is the betting that some very unsavoury things have been going on, again without 'robust evidence' of benefit?
It is good that the UK is finally waking up and dealing with this harmful breach of all standard of medical care.
The US is still largely silent on the scandal. I saw that DR OHziL is airing a show today or tomorrow with 2 whistleblowers( Dr Haim and Read). Maybe that will create the necessary groundswell to force a shutdown of this industry. The lack of a health care system in this country is contributing to this lack of action. Congress should have called an emergency hearing( on air) to deal with this. The Free Press’s silence is ominous
One would hope that they will start to take notice of the evidence base and what Cass has said. If they don't, hopefully the medical malpractice insurance will and will put up premiums to unsustainable levels.
I think people have naively trusted that the 'innovative' clinicians did not cut corners and had a proper evidence base. It is clear from the interim and now the final report that Cass thought she'd discover the research etc was robust, not weak to non-existent.
It is really important for people to read the Cass Report and understand what has been happening and how no country has clear guidelines and the evidence which should underpin isn't there. Also about how these practice appear to circumvent normal childhood development research which does have a robust evidence base.
That market is preying on children--especially in poor urban neighborhoods where children already have mental issues. It's a sign of the rot that has infected this country.
It is a sign of the rot which has infected Western civilization.
The increase in children's mental health issues is a big issue that people have been ignoring. Why are these mental health issues increasing at such an alarming rate? Why instead of getting less thanks to interventions, are they increasing? What is the link with parental (both maternal and paternal) mental health?
The point was made in the report -- transitioning does not appear to alleviate the mental health issues and in some cases makes them worse.
"clinicians have told us they are unable to determine with any certainty which children and young people will go on to have an enduring trans identity.’
One way to determine who is actually suffering from gender dysphoria would be to set those kids up for gender reassignment surgeries. We'd see the majority of them jumping the social contagion ship like drowning rats.
Unfortunately that is what they did -- the earlier someone is 'transitioned' the more likely it is that they go on to medical remedies.
The evidence base for the guidelines governing clinical practice is simply not there. It should have been. It should have been hugely robust. It wasn't.
And even if inflation moderates, it does so at the expense of sky high interest rates. Moreover, all that past inflation is baked in the cake; never to go away. Biden's "economy" is arguably good for those who own assets. For the working class and the working poor,, it is a heavy burden.
Bidenomics is terrible for those who own assets such as the retirement accounts which they’ve contributed to for decades. The dollar has lost 20% of its purchasing power forever, and now we have a 20% baked in reduction in our material standard of living for the rest of our lives. Thanks a lot Joe; can you share a little of your Burisima money with me?
So true Bruce my daughter and her husband can barely pay their bills right now! Both college educated, she went part time after her second baby because cost of daycare is now cost prohibitive! Luckily they have parents who help
I love the clip of Bill Maher mocking all the stupid little people who think the economy is bad. Why would you care about a 40% increase in food when GDP is high!?
Why wouldn't you appreciate lower inflation just because you lost 20% of your buying power in just four years?
Why would you care that your retirement isn't enough anymore, when corporate Democrat profits are up??
Yeah there aren't a lot of corporate Republicans left, and that's richly ironic because Republicans explicitly believe in trickle-down economics of corporate profit, while Democrats call that a disgusting lie and then lead their companies to bigger profits by cutting out the US middle class.
So one side there is being politically and ethically consistent, and the other side are willful hypocrites condemning their own behavior while making the problems worse.
I think there was some legitimacy at one time to the notion that pro-business (corporate) meant voting Republican. But I think that is long past. Entities like Black Rock and Vanguard are slurping up control of corporate boards like cats lap cream and they are decidedly not conservatively oriented. Nor are the tech, financial, pharmaceutical, nor health business industries. There has been a paradigm shift.
wow, thanks. But it’s easy to fool people into believing food inflation is ONLY a few percent.
Those of us who shop know better. So do people running restaurants. The price of a sandwich and iced tea should not be $17 in my small town, but it is.
I am assuming there must be places that throw off the numbers. Cost of living can be very different from place to place. Like, if food was already really high in a big city and for some reason inflation didn't raise them up a ton from that already high point, it would throw off the total averages even if huge swaths of the country saw a huge rise.
I'm assuming it is something like that.
Also, inflation is not a static thing. My understanding is that 6.2% food inflation means that food costs are going up by 6.2%, ongoing. So every period of time (I don't know if it is monthly or annually or whatever), the costs go up again by that much. So if inflation stayed at 6% for 5 years, the difference in prices from year 1 and year 5 would be more than 6%.
The current mantra is that inflation is down. By a lot. But it is just down from its peak. Compare January 2020 prices with today's prices. Add in the decreased value of the dollar and no wonder way too many people are struggling. I guess learning to code did not work out well for them.
Democrats conveniently skip over a very important word: rate.....the rate of inflation is down from a peak, but until we have price reduction, we continue to have inflation.
Is their spin intentional, or are they just plain dumber than a basket of eggs?
Some of column A and some of column B. I have no doubt that the actual decision makers understand...or have people around them that do. But their rank and file...they are all egg basket morons or they wouldn't be there any more.
The rate of inflation is down, and that doesn't change the fact that most Americans lost about 20% of their wealth in the last five years.
But wealthy multi-millionaire Democrats on late night TV can't possibly understand why people aren't thrilled with our economy, which would collapse overnight if we cut back on our unsustainable federal deficit spending.
“The organization throws its weight behind the likes of Walid Daqqah but pulled support for the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny because of “concerns relating to discriminatory statements.””
———————————————————
Well, I mean, Navalny did call Muslims cockroaches. Not that Señor Daqqah is helping with this particular viewpoint.
I think people don’t know this. But he did in fact call Muslims cockroaches in a political video.
It’s okay though, he’s a Devout Catholic Democrat Hero now because he apologized, and we all know that if Tom Cotton had called Muslims “cockroaches” 10 years ago it would be a non-issue as long as he apologized.
Prior to October 7, your typical Israeli was enjoying life, thinking about work, the next startup, and the upcoming vacation. They had forgotten they were surrounded by the savage, fanatical terror organizations Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and ISIS.
In America, since the anarchy of Black Lives Matter and its acceptance by the media and politicians — with calls to ‘defund the police’ listened to more than ‘lock up the criminals’ — we have seen craziness spread in America. Muslims now lead hate rallies at universities, break up city council meetings, march in our streets, and even disrupt Congress with calls of ‘Death to Israel!’ ‘Death to America!’ Jews are accosted by blacks and Muslims in numbers that were unthinkable ten years ago.
So yes, in America as in Israel, more people who would not have considered owning a gun are now buying them and taking shooting lessons to feel more secure at home in a less secure time.
In reading Mr. Friedman's essay, there are several instances he writes with a certainty about the attitudes of his countrymen. The average Israeli considers guns and the army neccessary evils. All my friends feel that... l don't know anyone who... We just expected someone else to protect us.... He goes on to relate exactly why the surge in gun ownership is happening. This brings to mind some Hillary Clinton supporters who were unable to process the election of Trump in 2016. I would never vote for him or any evil Republican.... He is not my president because l don't know anyone who voted for him. He's illegitimate because none of my friends.... Yet here we are. It wouldn't hurt to consider that perhaps we don't have all the answers, the really smart people in charge may not have any idea what they're doing, not all your deeply held convictions are The Truth. And a very large portion of The People rightly see things very differrently.
Sunny Hostin is the picture in the dictionary for definition of stupid woke person.
Abortion at state rights level. Well if our brave elected leaders in Congress, etc. have no courage to address the issue, like border control, then the state is probably the right place. Don't scream about having to go to another state folks. You see that everyday over stupid policies and taxes, people move. Get over it.
Parents in MI probably deserved the sentence, haven't paid attention. However; how about the parents of all the gang banger's at such young ages car jacking and shooting folks. Shouldn't the rules apply to all?
Elon against that well documented bastion of free speech, equal opportunity, stable free government, and peaceful cities. I will take Elon for $20.
Amnesty International is really woke hipsters embarrassing all of the causes that if came true, would result in them being put against a wall. Just like the ACLU and others, dark money propaganda mouth pieces.
"Sunny Hostin is the picture in the dictionary for definition of stupid woke person."
According to Wikipedia: "Hostin began her career as a law clerk to retired Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals Robert M. Bell and later became a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. Hostin left the Antitrust Division to become a federal prosecutor, specializing in child sex crimes. Hostin was awarded a Special Achievement Award for her successful prosecution of sex offenders. Hostin was also a Managing Director of Business Intelligence and Investigations at Kroll Inc., the world’s leading risk-consulting company, where she led groups of investigators all over the world to investigate and uncover fraud."
This suggests to me that she has learned to be stupid after getting into the journalistical industry, rather than being born unintelligent.
Supposedly her son attends an Ivy League - if intelligence is hereditary he must have a whip smart dad because Sunny fails him in that area. Then again, it could be Affirmative Action!?
Supposedly her son attends an Ivy League - if intelligence is hereditary he must have a whip smart dad because Sunny fails him in that area. Then again, it could be Affirmative Action!?
This suggests to me that she was an equity candidate. I have seen the earthquake/eclipse/
cicada clip (which she did not know how to pronounce) and the look of complete bewilderment on her face. That is not indicia of a loss of intelligence. That is indicia of not being well informed to begin with. And lawyers need to be not only well informed but also well-reasoned.
Smart enough to use DEI to get ahead but not smart enough to know when she should just keep her mouth shut, which to me means she's not smart at all but just a race-baiting tool.
I don't think she's stupid. She may be on to something.....the moon has had its fill of the sun warming us, and the sun getting ll the attention.
So the moon took action and decided to block out the sun, but only in red states like Ohio. Maybe a blue state or two as well. It skipped the Arctic and Antarctica. No global warming there; no need to waste valuable energy.
That raises a question....what was the reason for the solar eclipse 100 million years ago?
The State is the right place for most issues if we are talking State vs Federal. The federal gov should have very little direct impact on most people's lives. Heck, they placed DC in a swamp specifically because they didn't want people needing or wanting to convene that regularly.
More twaddle from the (not)Wiseman. Right off the bat, he offers a polemic from Vox - a nonsensical leftist propaganda organ - on Trump's alleged abortion stance. Their polemic starts "But her state’s high court has now abruptly placed all abortion providers at risk of imprisonment; the law mandates two to five years of incarceration for anyone who aids in an abortion, unless that procedure is necessary to save the life of the pregnant person." Pregnant person? Do fools and nitwits who say such things actually exist? Well apparently they do. And Wiseman gobbles it up.
Connecticut Democrat state legislators last week spent the better part of an hour arguing over “pregnant person” vs. “expectant mother.” It was delightful watching these dimwits duke it out.
It's nonsensical after they publish the NPR article that Wiseman links to Vox and a Daily Beast article, too. Please: No More Oliver Wiseman. Or at the very least, no more of his top ten stories. Who cares who is dressed as a nun.
Do you think that the pathetic Olly Wiseman has a clue which administration supports the repressive party in Brazil that's trying to crush free speech? By his own hand, Biden makes it crystal clear that he's a pal of the Socialist goon and criminal, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The Brazilian left is silencing and imprisoning their right wing opposition.
The American Democrats are doing the same.
Oliver and his ilk have no business criticizing other political entities for free speech violations, when they continue to openly support the people pushing those human rights abuses here at home.
Nonono...read what Oliver posted...they are imprisoning FAR RIGHT people. And that makes it ok to a lot of people. They think "Oh, people who goosestep every where they go" and not "My neighbor who is a decent person that I might disagree with on some political points".
When they've rebranded around half the country to be "far right." Presumably, their idea of "center" is somewhere where 5% of the population or less sit.
No Labels stand for nothing. The idea that Americans want someone “fiscally conservative and socially liberal” is such a tripe. What does that mean?
The socially liberal/fiscal conservative is who or for what? Are they for socialized medicine, helping the poor, reduced cost of college, medicare for all, not cutting social security, abortion (and its costs) , public education, saving the climate, free speech, and a balanced budget.
Socially liberal positions wildly expensive and hence the opposite of fiscal conservatism.
Libertarians however at least come close. They are for limited to no Govt oppose income taxes but believe individuals have the right to do pretty much whatever they want that doesnt harm others .
Of course mist people think Libertarians are nuts or delusional.
In any event the reality is that “socially lberal / fiscally conservative “ is the equivalent of “hope and change” from a campaign not so long ago. A mindless lazy definition of “ whatever i decide it means”
The perfect candidate positioning allows voters to see the office seeker as exactly what they want. The role of journalism in this domain is to force disclosure with aggressive questioning. Somehow that thread seems to have been lost.
Socially liberal/fiscally conservative in essence means limited government, especially federal government. Few laws that impact social behavior and few programs requiring government spending. Hence small government.
Socially liberal means that they are at least ok with someone being treated equally and fairly regardless of who or what they are. Fiscally conservative means the government spending less.
To me, what that means is, you want the government to butt out of your life. Allow you to do what you want and be who you are while taking less money from you to spend on other things.
Which I think many people agree with in principal...until they want something done. And then suddenly they are ok with the government building a stadium for their favorite sport or giving other people's money to the needy. Or preventing people from marrying based on their religious beliefs or want to be able to have access to other's children so they can indoctrinate them.
Last week the world glommed on to a WSJ graphic showing what $100 bought in 2019, and what it buys today. Absolutely criminal was the accompanying story, audaciously titled “ What’s Wrong With the Economy? It’s You, Not the Data.” It was written by their chief economics reporter Greg Ip, hereafter to be known as Greg Oops. After factually stating inflation now stood at 3.2 percent, Ip went on to say: “for the average person, inflation went down.” Say, what?! This is the equivalent of the swamp denizens trying to convince the world that reducing spending growth from 6 percent to 5 percent is a budget cut. Even rookies don’t make those errors. Back to Econ 101 for you, Mr. Ip. I expect better from the Journal. Alas, there’s my problem.
Let's say your food costs $100 in 2020. The next year it costs $150. That was inflation of 50%. The next year it costs $210. That's inflation of 40%. So even though the price of your food went up more than the year before (an increase of $60 instead of $50), and it's now more than twice what it was 2 years ago, inflation technically "went down."
I used to respect Amnesty International. I donated to them. But they are as corrupt and amoral now as NPR. All the nice things genuine Liberals used to think about themselves are gone. Their world is a comfortable suburban lie that conceals among other things open support for rape and the murder of children.
We live in a world where honest people recognize Donald Trump is the best thing going in the realm of politics.
It didnt have to be like this, but it has been a long slide, and the slope seems to be getting more slippery and steeper.
Thinking about this a bit more, there was a time, long long ago—when parents didnt care where their kids were most of the summer and nobody had heard of a bike helmet—that people who called themselves Liberals OPPOSED WAR.
Communist North Vietnam invaded non-Communist South Vietnam, more or less exactly like Russia invaded Ukraine, but with vastly more lies and intentional terrorism—and they said NOT WORTH FIGHTING FOR. Not worth American lives. Nor worth feeding the war machine.
Those same people, now, as they begin to start the process of overloading and bankrupting Social Security and Medicare, now seem to beleiev that as long as a war is not in any way in our national interest, it is worth fighting.
And nuclear war? No longer worried about it. Why? They need to tell me, because I dont know.
These same people also used to oppose gratutous—unnecessary to the plot—violence in media, particularly childrens media. The data was on their side. Media violence decreases empathy, the sense of safety and increases rates of anxiety and depression. But they no longer care. Why? I guess it was just too much work. Now they binge watch Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad.
Morality is about awareness and principle based behavior. What it is NOT is a cloak of sainthood you put on once that sanctifies your every act and thought the rest of your life.
"Hate Has No Home Here" - proclaimed by the most hateful cretins the world has known.
Only OUR brand of hate is welcome.
"Diversity! Equity! Inclusion!" - proclaimed by the least diverse, least equitable, and most exclusive group of hypocritical, power-hungry, corrupt people in the world.
Got a few of those yard signs right around the corner from me! And just noticed the first Biden/Harris lawn sign close by as well. My once republican small community gone whacko.
All those signs, including the Biden signs, are just virtue signaling: "look at how nice we are!"
Not sure that "virtue" is what they're signalling.
It's helpful to know which of your neighbors you CAN'T count on during an emergency, much less social disorder.
Exactly, it's far easier to stick a sign in the yard proclaiming what you stand for. Than it is to live those ideals in their daily lives. That's why when you interact with them they are mostly unhinged basket cases.
Maybe I'll make millions, making a sticker to slap on those Biden signs saying, "Of COURSE I'm good with a Kamala presidency by '25!"
I want “Vacuous Slogans Have No Home Here”. But I like my windows unbroken.
I'll take "stupid" for $500 on that one, sir.
I want one that says, "In this house, we believe that what you believe is none of our business, and we want to keep it that way."
I still get a laugh every time I pass one of those signs, it never gets old, as I picture myself walking to the the door and calmly and rationally explaining my stance on, say, illegal immigration or the second amendment, or trans men in women’s sports and then watching the red faced rage flood out the doors and windows of a home with no hate in it. 🙄
I STILL want to put up a lawn sign saying "ONLY HATERS ARE ALLOWED TO READ THIS SIGN" down the street from one of those stupid love/hate/decaffeinate whatever signs.
My wife STILL threatens to divorce me for even thinking about it...
Remember when a few years back Trump was negotiating with North Korea, and the entire media screamed about chaos and nuclear war?
Not today though! I've yet to see a single headline about Biden bumbling us into two wars, with an open border and depleted Oil Reserves, as our enemies threaten nukes on a weekly basis and send Special Ops people literally walking into our country.
And yet Dems don't back down, don't apologize, don't acknowledge their lies and hysteria, and even here in today's article they are linking to propaganda outlets that hate Jews and don't need to hide it anymore.
This is all being pushed from the top. Your average liberal is just a sheep.
You average citizen, worldwide, is just a sheep.
And that's why the founding fathers didn't grant everybody the privilege of voting, because most people don't deserve that privilege on either an intellectual or moral level.
Interesting point - I know that nobody would favor reversing suffrage or mail-in balloting in states needing Democrat turnout, but (kidding aside), maybe it would make sense to have a civics test that would be required for voting registration. We need licenses for guns, and that's another right guaranteed in our Bill of Rights...
The people you are talking about aren't liberals. I'm a liberal and certainly not a sheep. They don't even call themselves liberals. They're progressives, which is just a more marketable term than leftist.
In response to your words about war…I’ve been listening for quite a while to Tulsi Gabbert, who the Dem politicians despise for calling them out. She was disgust by the Afghanistan debacle and has had a deep concern about our lack of military leadership since the Russian-Ukraine war, and with her experience and knowledge, I agree with her. I would love to have Trump pick her as a VP. She’s on board with the idea if he were to choose her, but I highly doubt it’ll happen. I heard someone say that it would be in his best interest to pick a VP sooner than later due to the amount of time he’ll be in hearings. She speaks well, has military experience, and could get a whole other group of people on board who wouldn’t otherwise vote for him.
Love and agree with all your other topics.
I have no interest in watching Trump and Biden debate, but I’d definitely watch Gabbard and Harris debate.
I would be a replay of the 2020 primary when Tulsi shut down Kamala hard.
Gabbard would eat Harris for breakfast
That would be fascinating.
Agreed, but only if the debate moderator forced Harris to stay on topic and actually answer the question. Otherwise, Harris would just make some silly comment about the topic and "pivot" to reading her usual stump speech.
Don't forget her favorite, go-to response--the nervous cackle!
It would take a pretty strong moderator, you're right though she would try to get out of answering the question.
Trump doesn't want someone smarter, better looking, more intelligent than he is, and that severly limits his choices.
Based on those prerequisites, name someone who you think qualifies for Trump’s VP just so I have an idea of what to be looking for.
I have no idea. It would have to be someone like Pence, who'd be willing to say yes sir all the time. Tim Scott might fill that bill.
I completely agree. She is my choice of who is left.
When I need to go to my happy place, I fantasize about a Musk/Gabbard ticket.
President Musk, leader of the free world, first African president of the USA. Mmmmm....so wonderful
Yip great dream love Musk
I respect Tulsi Gabbard for her service to our country. That said, I'm suspicious of her. When she was a Democrat I liked the fact that she came off like a regular person and not some calculating politician. On the other hand, you state that she was disgusted by the withdrawal from Afghanistan. When she was running for President she attacked former Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio for being in favor of staying in Afghanistan. She also met with Bashar the Butcher, whether or not she had intended to. That shows a lack of judgement on her part. She also supported Bernie Sanders in 2016, who was the progressive (leftist) in the Democratic Primary that year. Now she talks like your average Trump supporter. Nothing wrong with that if it's genuinely what she believes but going from being on the left of the Democratic Party to sounding like a Trump Republican in the span of just a few years? I find that suspicious. I don't doubt her sincerity when she speaks on military matters. Outside of that…I have no idea what she truly believes.
Money changes everything.
Unfortunately, the story of Vietnam War is not that straightforward. Vietnamese people in the South didn’t like their corrupt government either, and Viet Kong propaganda used it skillfully. They also didn't like foreigners, Americans included. They had history of beating back French and multiple Chinese invasions.
That was largely true until the first Tet Offensive in 1968. During that NVA Commissars with lists and execution squads went to all the addresses on the list in Hue and shot their politucal opponents. It was something like 4,000 people in total.
That, combined with genuinely meaningful land reform, convinced ARVN to start taking the war seriously. They realized many of them would be executed in the NVA won. And in the event about 250,000 people were shot in cold blood in the first few months of the Norths successful invasion.
By then it was too late. I happen to know closely South Vietnamese people who never left Vietnam. The terror was overwhelming, and people lost will to fight.
Read “A Better War”, by Lewis Sorley, if you want clarity on the history. The rewrite of history started DURING the war and hasny stopped. But we won that war. We had a signed peace deal, negitiated from a position of strength, and the Democrat run—and CIA supported—Imperial Congress vitiated the victory our men won at great cost. The truth is horrifying.
Wow! Smokin' summary. Perfect!
Amnesty is the NPR of NGOs. Several of its employees committed suicide due to a hostile work environment. Amnesty sided with Trudeau against the truckers and said nothing about the flagrant human rights violations during COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
TFP should conduct an investigation: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-control-your-souls-desire
Theres an alternate reality somewhere where they are advocating for the kidnapped Israelis, took a strong stand against COVID lockdowns, and are trying to free Jan.6 political prisoners and Uighurs in Laogai alike.
And in that universe Donald Trump speaks calmly and eloquently, with respect and charity for his opposition.
Heh, I almost laughed out loud trying to type that out
He speaks calmly and fairly and justly. He calls bastards bastards and many of us love him for that.
Joe Biden is a crook. Trump calls him a crook. Who gets attacked? Trump. That would certainly be a problem for any person of average intelligence who sincerely valued consistency and the well being of the United States and its people.
I agree with you about Amnesty, but don't mistake the woke for all liberals. They're the loudest bunch, and the smallest group, but they don't represent us any more than the MAGA Trump cheerleaders represent all of the right. Both extremists have turned their backs on democracy, liberty and free speech regardless of how much they finger-point to the other side. They're BOTH awful, deplorable human beings. There's a lot of party-switching happening this year. I think it's a toss-up who's going to win.
If true Liberals still exist in meaningful numbers they have been terrorized into silence, by and large. They dont seem to have voices on any major networks.
A case could be made for The Free Press but it an odd exception that has been under Left Wing attack virtually since its inception. I dont doubt it has even been called Right Wing, by liars who are almost never confronted by anyone but conservatives.
A problem is the debauch of the language. George Washington was a liberal; a conservative at the time was a monarchist. Now we're the liberals.
Anybody who believes in the Constitution is a liberal.
It has flipped.
True. But I was thinking recently of friends and family members that not that long ago (3-4 years about) whom I was in lock step with politically. Back then I listened to NPR for a few hours a day, and read the NYT many times per day. I’ve since opened my eyes, mostly due to great organizations like TFP and others on Substack (Racket News), and some great Podcasts (Honestly and others). But for my friends and family members who are still all in for Biden and the Dems, I understand that if they only listen to NPR (most still do - I never do, for at least three years), and read the NYT, The Guardian etc. then their rigid beliefs are perfectly understandable. They stubbornly cling to their rigidly narrow beliefs simply because they refuse to open their minds, think independently, consider alternate views. I blame the elites who have radially altered journalism to change it all to activism. Understanding that many friends and family members should be able to recognize how they are being manipulated - yet aware of how easily they are convinced by some very clever propaganda
The way you speak of your Demmy-loving friends and family is the way we were talking about the Trumpists not so long ago....
Didja see the article the other day about NPR? It might not have been on the Freep, it might have been Persuasion, I can't remember. But if you searched for "NPR" on Substack and hit 'posts', I'm sure you'll find it. It was sometime this week (not today).
Yes I did thanks. I read the article and listened to some of Bari’s interview with Uri this morning on Honestly. Not that long ago I was a great fan of NPR. I listened to them constantly, at home, in my car, I really enjoyed their news coverage and programming. I was also 100% convinced (by listening to them and reading the NYT) that the Mueller report would be the end of Trump’s presidency. I was one of the duped. Thankfully my eyes have been opened. Hard to believe that I was once so gullible and that so many Americans remain so
Yeah, me too on the Mueller Report. I'm also rethinking what I thought I knew about COVID (I was a supporter of shutdowns, enforced vaxxes, etc.) and am formulating thoughts about an article I want to write about it soon. One of my subscribers sent me a brief summary which I put aside for later...later is coming soon.
Part of the reason why these crazes fly so easily is because the mass media has abandoned the principles of real journalism and has been overrun by elitist college grad kiddies with ridiculous education bills and very little education to show for it. Social media, of course, is far worse. The sources I used to trust the most as 'least biased' acc to Media Bias FAct Check are no longer the least biased, and I've caught them in lies and misinformation (AP & Reuters). The medical profession, too, has been overrun with activism over what's best for the patient as have the so-called reliable 'science' journals (Scientific American, Nature, Science, etc.)
One used to be able to research something new that sounds weird ("Bush was behind 9/11") and find reliable sources debunking it. Now even Ouchie Fauci can't be trusted.
Our press has become like what it is in the Middle East: Fake news, conspiracy theories, and the government and fanatics coming down hard on anyone who tries to tell the truth.
Yeah, this was me. The only difference is that shortly after 9/11 I started digging in to conspiracy stuff pretty heavily, so I became a "both parties are the same" type of thinker. I still believe that to be mostly the case, but despite all that I held on to my liberal views. Until covid came along and I realized very quickly that things had definitely changed. My conspiracy reading helped me recognize pretty quickly what was going on (though the fear foisted on all of us by the media and governments spokespeople had me in it's grip for the first couple months or so). I suddenly realized that my views on the wrongness of the approach and the total focus on a new vaccine were not in alignment with "correct" thinking at the time. My own family was totally sold on all of it, and I felt like I couldn't speak my mind with people I loved and cared about. That was a real eye opener. All that said, I too was a fan of NPR for many years and listened to it daily on my drive in to work and often after work as well. I used to watch the news hour with my dad when I was still living at home in the early 90's, and felt like it was a pretty unbiased network that believed in real journalism. That went out the window with Trump and covid. Though like you I was sold on the Mueller report at first. I still believe Trump is as corrupt as they come, but seems to at least see where the Dems have taken this country towards an authoritarian system (if we weren't really in one much earlier, which I believe we were....a soft totalitarianism, if you will). Anyway, I'm not surprised that so many are taken in by the propaganda because I was as well for a time. It's just so strange now to talk to close friends and family and pretend to agree with them spouting the propaganda back at me. I do try to slip in bits of truth and anti-propaganda but I don't want them thinking I'm the one who has changed and risking conflict and possible excommunication, because I still love and care about them of course.
Some are terrorized, but our major institutions have been infested with wokenazis who won't *allow* alternative viewpoints like traditional liberal. Cripes, even the NYT is fighting now to tell the truth about Hamas rapes and as TFP reported yesterday, the staff at Guernica resigned because some essayist failed to be sufficiently condemnatory of the Israelis in a story about getting food aid to the Gazans.
I'm sure the far left thinks TFP is somewhere to the far right of The Blaze and Breitbart.
I have yet to see MAGAs
going to extremes seen and heard daily on the left. People really need to mix it up with what they believe to be MAGAs. Attend a Trump rally. It's the polar opposite of what the MSM is feeding you. Similar to their version of Trump they have fed the population for years.
I saw enough Trump speeches and tweets to make my firm opinion of who he is as a person. Tell me who is your friend, and I will know all about you. I wish Republicans used a better human being to advance their political agendas and understood that character matters, because it really does. Even MAGA admit that Trump is a bad person.
Hes a bit over proud and certainly a womanizer. But he was an excellemt President.
And it is my sense most people who talk about character confuse public personas with reality.
Nearly all politicians are awful people. Trump is exactly what he appears to be. I dont think he hides anything. Could that be said of Joe Buden, Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi or Mitch McConnell or nearly anyone in Washington?
You postulate that only bad people go into politics- that's up to you. To me, a president is an executive over the largest employer in the country. Every manager is best described by the people he chose to be his top lieutenants and who observed him on a daily basis. From Tillerson to Barr, they all are talking to anyone who would listen about how dangerous Trump is in his decision making, how dishonest he is with those who work with him, and how much he despises the rule of law, not even to mention how he despises those "little forgotten people" who adore him. All the above makes him a bad top manager of the largest employer in the country.
Bill Barr refused to investigate any of hundreds of credible claims of voting fraud and lied aboutvtheir existence. He also failed to reaffirm the authenticity of Hunter Bidens laptop—which contained good evidence he and Joe were crooks—after dozens of supposedly honest intrlligence professionals committed their names and reputation to a clearly fraudulent claim the laptop was Russian propaganda.
Trump was stabbed in the back by nearly everyone. But surely that is obviously the opposite of an endorsement of the schemea of Permanent Washington? Our nations Capital is filled with credible sounding lying assholes. Trump is justvthe sort of asshole we need to deal with all that. If he cant there is little hope.
See the response I just posted a little above this. List of MAGA violent threats against free speech and actions.
G.S.L’s statement is pure, classic, apologetics; you start off downplaying and misrepresenting your side, then exaggerate the faults of your opposition and try to draw some false equivalence. Then talk about some kind of phony common ground. All to shroud the actual actions of your own side.
People are not deplorable, ideas are; and right now one side has most of the bad ideas (open borders, war, DEI, CRT, soft on crime, drugs & hormones & genital mutilation for kids, indoctrination instead of education, censorship, phony climate issues, late-term abortion (I could go on)). You are what you do and trying to be clever with language won’t save you in the long run.
A bit more journalistic focus on the perps and little less red meat victimhood would be helpful. More solutions based opinion and the development of a truth/fact based American reality might begin to dispel the hyperrealistic lie running cover for the looting of American tax treasure and lives. Chaos is the fascist weapon of choice.
Reports on those American factory workers whose lives, livelihood and communities have been destroyed by BLACKROCK and the D.C. grifters who stand by while it's happening might be a place to start.
I based what I said on hiddentribes.us; a very good website to get a real bead on where Americans are, and I have an article coming out I think next week about how I think more 'traditional conservatives' should be included in their 'Exhausted Majority'. I agree with you on all those evils; but I'm also old enough to remember when conservatism was in the ascendant (the Reagan/Bush I years) and nutty conservatives and vicious Bible-thumpers committed a lot of the same political acts you damn now: A war on the poor, tax breaks for the rich (which accelerated income inequality), Christian censorship of books they didn't like in the schools and libraries (some with sexual themes, but mild by Genderqueer comparison, and mostly they went after classic books which didn't fit their narrow narratives: Like the Diary of Anne Frank, because she called for universal acceptance of others. That was anathema to the Bible-thumping mindset, and of course it birthed the notorious Fred Phelps family.
Then there were their *own* ideological darlings they wanted to force on children in the schools: No sex ed, no learning about their own bodies, and teaching them that homosexuality was sinful. They worked hard to replace evolutionary science with Creationist nonsense. They strove as hard against abortion rights as they did *for* gun rights and now they couldn't give a crap about a mass shooting unless it was done by a trans kid. Racism became cool again, although not as blatantly as under Trump, and he sabre-rattled us very close to nuclear war several times. I can tell you I lived in absolute *terror* back then that we'd all die in a nuclear war.
So your fears today are simply anger that the pendulum has swung to far in the *other* direction, just as it once did in your own forty years ago (and let's remember your own 'trans panic': Except it was called the Satanic Panic) and of course the defeat of the ERA, because nothing terrifies the hardcore conservative more than women with power--especially sexual power.
Relax, your day may be returning soon - Donald Trump is almost everything you could dream of.
I'm glad I'm living in Canada.
I’m glad you’re living in Canada, too.
Me too!
May I suggest that you question a few of the shibboleths that you tossed around? Starting with where you find anti free speech and or liberty amongst the MAGAites? Be specific.
Let's see...Greg Lukianoff states in his new book The Cancelling of the American Mind that 40% of the university campus professor firings are done by the right, although usually at smaller/Christian colleges where they get less press. The MAGAites brought us Jan 6th because they didn't get their way; they threaten those who speak out against them; Trump is threatening to get back at all his enemies; and many politicians, election workers or public figures like Fani Willis have reported vicious death treats against them and their families because they dare to hold Trump accountable. But fuck it, since you're too lazy to do your own research I'll throw a few articles your way:
https://www.vox.com/23899688/2024-election-republican-primary-death-threats-trump
https://news.yahoo.com/biden-speech-denouncing-trump-maga-ideology-sparks-threats-calls-for-violence
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/trump-s-threats-against-opponents-are-getting-increasingly-violent/ar-BB1kVKGm
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/blame-abc-news-finds-17-cases-invoking-trump/story?id=58912889
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/07/politics/threats-us-public-officials-democracy-invs/index.html
https://www.cfr.org/blog/violent-far-right-terrorist-threat-republican-party-and-american-conservatism
All I'm asking is for you to be honest about your own side; yes, the far left hates free speech (us more traditional, moderate libs don't), but so does the far right, more often via physical intimidation (while rational conservatives don't). Just be genuine and say, "We hate free speech as much as they do; we just can't agree on which speech shouldn't be free."
Saved me a spot o' typing, ya did!
And the right v left thingee pretty well lost any relevance +/- 30 or so years ago -- maybe more; as it originated with the seating chart for the French assembly at the time of the revolution, it's had a l-o-o-o-ng time to get stale.
So if Joe Biden has been judged too mentally incompetent (senile) to be prosecuted for handling sensitive documents (as was Trump), just WHO in his cabinet is making all these progressive-woke decisions? Is there a lobbyist mafia? Is it the Soros-Gates collective? The CCP? And why ever would congress vote against requiring accountabilty for the billions sent to Ukraine? Seems this would be a good area for some serious investigative reporting.
Too bad Tom Wolfe has passed. Sure would like to see his take on just who directed the National Guard to Martha's Vineyard to remove those illegals arriving on a bus because the million-billionaire residents claimed they lacked resources to help (guess there wasn't room to rest on Obama's acreage). Does anyone recall Radical Chic and Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers? BTW, just who is hiring all that tasteless WH "entertainment"?
Then those Liberals, like moderate Muslims, need to speak up.
The question, for which I don't have an answer, is how do organizations slip down this slide?
Is hypocrisy an unavoidable human condition? What are the signs that they have entered some sort of spiral into the group-think echo chamber? Do they stop arguing with each other? Is it hardening of the arteries?
We can speculate, but I personally think it starts with the first lie that is tolerated for convenience. That is the virus. The immune system that would fight it would be a principle based conscience. But over time, if the toleration of lies continues, the conscience atrophies until, as happened with Trump, people who speak obvious truths unapologetically are hated. Among other things, they remind the now-crooked who they could have been and once aspired to be, oh so long ago.
It’s also a justification for their moral compass or lack thereof. Not religious? Fine. But don’t tell me I’m wrong because I believe in God and have my own solid moral compass. Bending the rules to suit what they feel is justifiable and then virtually annihilating anyone who dares voice opposition to being told he/she must conform to this new altered reality is a dangerous path to follow. It certainly has a stronghold in today’s society but more and more people are waking up, I’m finding, and for that I still have a modicum of hope remaining. At 60-something I may not see it in my time left, but my hope is for my kids and grandkids that they know the America that I knew, with its faults, but still holding true to its founding principles.
I think it's getting to the time we examine lying as the human species first line of defense, attack, and survival. Read any history book, which I've been doing since 1952. I like the ones I agree with. I'm currently reading Jeffrey E. Paul's. Boy! Does he ever name names.
I think the NPR article yesterday illustrates the issues perfectly. Essentially abandonment of open mindedness.
It's the bubble of Ivy League leadership. They all follow the same ideas, people and institutions, because there is one path to power and everyone must pay their dues to the gatekeepers.
Business leaders are so consumed with the priority of financial gain, they by needs must show fealty with predominant ethical ideas, even if those ideas are wildly detached from the rest of the people.
It's a proven fact that positions of power attract sociopaths, and we have a country run by sociopaths who would pretend to believe anything to get more money. They don't actually care if they live under Free Speech or the CCP, as long as their own fortunes grow.
I think it is about much more than just money. The sociopaths in power are cultists and as such display a zealotry that is unexplained by money. They are drunk on power. They use extreme bullying and cancellation as tools to force submission from the unbelievers. So many “ moderates” are now afraid of job loss and being ostracized that 5hey put up and shut up.
The power drunk extremists will stop at nothing to hold on to power and expand their reach
Know thine enemy
I've seen that phenomenon and those people. But what I am describing is my personal experience of corporate executives over the last five years. They aren't zealots, they view themselves as moderate, and they're often intelligent and thoughtful.
But at the end of the day, their actions will fall in line with what is fashionable and political, because their jobs and their fund-raising depend on it. They empower extremism and government abuse through cowardice, not because they wish for those things.
That's what I see anyway, take it for what it's worth (which is about two cents).
I’m sure you are right.as to the motivations of the executives. Corporate executives are a tiny group of people that influence, even control a large swath of the electorate. Their compliance is therefore less excusable , not more. Leaders are supposed to lead not fall in line.
What we have is a very very strong "system of cultural power" which has been decades in the making. There is a strong strain of class warfare in the mix. The wealthy have been able to rig the legal apparatus to some degree, gov't entities have been colonized, "rules" without discussion have been deployed, politicians are owned for the most part, the police have been defanged, media is colonized to deploy propaganda, constant fear mongering is a strategy (covid, climate, medical issues, etc.), and now they are "killing their young" as even our bodies are the "new frontier." I'm not sure anyone can fix this mess. And in my opinion, we aren't going to vote our way out of it. It's too far gone.
I think some of it comes from being convinced (and having that mindset reinforced thru propaganda/media) that you are morally, educationally and intellectually superior. If you believe that, why would you ever entertain what the knuckle draggers are thinking. You are better than they are. You are more evolved, have higher ideals, and understand what they don't.
See Law, Conquest's. As to why that is so, the paths are legion, though many of them are rooted in the sources and nature of those with nothing better to do who replace those who had the initial fire in their bellies.
I was thinking of O'Sullivan's First Law: All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.
aka Conquest's 2nd law. Dunno who said it first.
Thanks for the gentle correction/update.
Are you saying by implication that those who do not recognize Donald Trump as "the best thing going in the realm of politics" are dishonest? Please.
Donald Trump has always been, and in 2024 will again be, the second worst choice on the ballot, which is a very, very sad commentary on the quality of the field running for the office of President.
Yes, I am. If you are failing to understand fully the scope of the problems that make him necessary, you are lying to yourself.
For example, is it somehow not obvious to you the FBI and CIA are working directly to subvert both the law and democracy? And that both support Joe Biden because they share the gravy train and supporting political objectives? They want a permanent One Party system, which may have a thin patina of legitimacy, but which has fully dispensed with the Will of the People.
I will only offer this. First, every statement a person makes says as much about the author of the statement as it says about the person or subject he is talking about, which is something you might reflect on. Second, labeling people who disagree with you said as "dishonest" and "lying" to themselves is very poor advocacy for whatever idea you happen to be advancing.
Its bad salesmanship, certainly. But Ive been doing this a long time, and in general people who make that argument were not going to agree with me anyway, because for them the shine matters more than the substance. I cant claim Trump is a rhetorically gifted and high minded Statesman of the highest order. He isnt.
But we KNOW the CIA and FBI, in addition to we cant know how many nations and groups, interfered in many ways in the 2020 election. We know they set him up while he was President. Hell, we know he is being set up now. This Stormy Daniels stuff is quite possibly the worst case ever prosecuted in New York. Multiple other orosecutors already walked away from it.
Anyone who fails to see the problems here—and the enirmous threat they oresent to all of us—is either stupid or dishonest. If you want to disagree, trll me why? Have you even studied the Alvin Bragg case? Have you listened to the Mike Benz interview with Tucker Carlson? Was it somehow not obvious to you that both imoeachments were bullshit?
Follow the money. My guess is that they get significant funding from the likes of Qatar...
Bingo!
Add to the list of Amnesty International "achievements": in 2022, after Russian atrocities in Ukraine were already widely publicized, it accused Ukrainian army of war crimes, but spared Russian army. Reason: Ukrainian army punished their misbehaving soldiers, so AA had access to data, while Russian military didn't give them access to data. This is Amnesty International for you, ladies and gentlemen!
"Rihanna posed in a nun’s habit for a racy new photoshoot. Between this cover and the new Sydney Sweeney horror film Immaculate, everyone should begin preparing for Hot Nun Summer."
Imagine writing this about bundled-up Muslim women.
“Rihanna posed in a vest rigged with plastic explosives for a racy new photoshoot.”
Spinelessness. They know the Pope won't send a troop of Swiss guards to impale them on their lances, blow them up or shoot them as they did with Charlie Hebdo. You'll never find real courage among the woke crowd
Well, some Catholics - maybe even a bishop with time on his hands - might get on X or Substack and say it's tacky, and that's VIOLENCE and RACISM, so obviously Rihanna is an incredibly brave risk-taker here.
Well, whoever posed in that photoshoot would probably get murdered by angry Islamists.
I can’t believe that cover would ever be considered racy. Ewww.
I didn't look, but just on the concept, everyone who wants to see Rihanna naked or partly-naked already has.
There's always someone who hasn't seen her naked, or for that matter seen her. I wouldn't recognize her if she were standing in front of me.
Count me in.
If you wanted to, you'd have seen her.
I hope you didn't click on the link, as I stupidly did.
Nope. Thanks for your concern!
Is Donald Trump’s latest statement on abortion, in which he said the issue should be left to the states, smart politics or a lie? Maybe it’s both. (Reason/Vox)
Is Joey Biden continually yammering on about being a devout catholic while denying church tenets on abortion and other issues smart politics, delusion or a lie? Definitely a lie
Vox is such a scummy liberal rag.
Just read their comical screed on the link. "Pregnant people?" Using such idiotic terms should be grounds for immediate confinement in a mental institution.
Yes, absolutely.
Vox isn't journalism, it is advocacy. Which explains why so many of their articles are subtitled as "an explainer." I don't need stories "explained " to me, just give me the facts.
Or, give me your opinion. But don't conflate one with the other.
Very true, mom.
This is a thing I don't understand with Catholicism. To be a Catholic, don't you have to believe and follow the dogma of the Catholic church? Including that the pope is infallible? For other denominations, disagreeing with leadership (aside from, you know, Jesus) doesn't negate your status as a Christian.
That said, I don't think Biden is a Catholic or a Christian. But ultimately that isn't for me to judge (but I do).
A pope is only infallible on church doctrine or something. Climate change doesn’t count. Secular crap doesn't count.
Joey is a gluttonous greedy amoral cretin
https://www.catholic.com/tract/papal-infallibility
Nope. There is one large institution (the Roman church) and others Polish Catholics and a variety of independent Catholics. So as the book title says, not all Catholics are Roman.
Then there is a difference between what people believe and what the RC church tells them to believe. Sociologist and priest Andrew Greeley used to study that, but not sure who does it now. So we have Roman Catholics who disagree with the Pope and institutional church about women priests, we also have ones who disagree with the current Pope on the utility of the Latin Rite. Diversity is a thing, and generally considered to be good.
Diversity is fine. I mean when it comes to religion I think there are boundaries on that. Believing Christ doesn't exist would be a diverse opinion amongst Christians. I would argue that belief means you are in fact not a Christian.
So, based on what you said, what makes someone a Catholic? To me, the whole point of narrowing down what kind of Christian you are is to inform people of your specific Christian beliefs. Saying I am a Baptist, but I don't really believe in that whole Baptism thing ends up making the label meaningless. Is there a % of dogma you have to adhere to or is it like being a woman where anyone can lay claim to it? I know I am being somewhat dismissive, but I am honestly curious how we apply the label. Increasingly I am finding that words and labels mean less and less.
My Ancient Christianities prof said that for the purposes of our course, any group that considered themselves Christian would be Christian for our purposes. Because there is no universal body that gets to decide what’s in and what’s out. Maybe what you’re observing is that abstractions can be less than meaningful in the real world. What matters is what that individual believes, what that spiritual community does, and so on.
It is also a lie that Biden can impact abortion post Dobbs unless and until Congress acts.
Well that's the way it is suppose to work and did work before congress abdicated their responsibilities to the executive branch who with a pen and a phone concoct unconstitutional executive orders.
Sigh. True.
NPR's response is predictable twaddle. I used to listen to NPR, especially on weekends, when painting. I loved the short stories and All Things Considered and parts of Prairie. I, an independent, and a definitely left of center friend were disaffected before Trump. My friend, when cancelling his generous donations to NYC/ NPR, questioned how it was that what is now the virus of wokism framed nearly all reportage and interviews.
Berliner singles out a fault that has long irked me- the replete failure of the overtaken media to admit flagrant misreporting and slurs that go on for years. We get a "never mind" - if that, no lesson or humility learned and then on to the next godlike and biased pronouncements. It's maddening and it's one of the reasons they're a joke.
The NPR CEO's complete, flat denial of everything, in the light of her undeniable partisanship and lack of diverse perspectives, says everything.
They fully believe in one party political rule. They see nothing wrong with it because everyone on the other side is evil. They are small minded bigots who think they are educating the planet, and it's time to shame them into irrelevance.
Yup...that pretty much answers the question of whether she will improve things as Uri hoped. If you can admit fault, you can't correct issues.
I felt this way about Berliner’s piece. He suddenly now admits that there was trouble at NPR when it is convenient for him to do so. Where was he standing up for fair and equal reporting the last 25 years? His cowardice shines through.
Every liberal has trouble renouncing their faith in the poisonous fruit of Uncle Karl. But every one who does, becomes a voice for liberty. Better to welcome than condemn them .
Every ideological adherent has trouble challenging his deeply-held assumptions!
That includes many of us here. Most human, in general, have a hard time admitting fault. Even moreso when our social climate does not allow for forgiveness or absolution. I can't totally fault people for not having the courage to be willing to tank their careers and lives. I don't know that I could. So instead I choose to celebrate the courageous and avoid entrenched cowards (as opposed to those who want to be better but feel trapped).
Individuals must be empowered to speak up. If enough people do it, that's the only thing that stops poison like Nazism. And when it comes to the business and obligation of reporting the news in a factual manner in a liberal democracy, it is, as Jefferson said, essential. I don't excuse people, in the news, who don't insist on doing it.
That is a VERY fair point. So much so I want to amend my statement. While I do understand someone wanting to keep their job, when you have an important job, where Integrity is a foundation, like a Journalist or Cop or Politician, then I do think you have an obligation based on your station, do do and be better. If you kept your head down at a PUBLIC news org rather than try to make it better, you are part of the issue and need to go, along with all of the other people.
I wondered if NPR's pro-Palestinian stance finally pushed him over the edge.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
The power lever this system of power wields is stopping the federal money to NPR and NPR, in turn, would fire Berliner if he went public. Same with doctors who. no longer are independent and who now work for companies who hire them. Ditto in most industries now. Speak out and lose your job. Refuse the covid jab and lose your job. Look at all the very reputable disciplinary scientists who have been culled--even through they were in premier universities/colleges, had long publishing records, etc.--for speaking out about the climate scam. In their place, we have 'interdisciplinary scientists" who are feeding at the climate trough. It is a powerful "system of cultural power" that is literally destroying our republic, breaking all its systems, and now seriously harming citizens--which is what I mean about "killing its young." No one will be left to buy the various products.
They're making it harder to undo the damage because they're stacking the corporate and college boards or trustees. Five years ago, maybe ten, the trustees would have said this is completely outrageous,we've got to fix it. That's no longer the case. That's why they made it such a priority to "diversify" -capture them to one ideology/monoculture. Those left who may not agree are bullied into it.
Agree. But that is how a system of cultural power works, especially when it has become ungrounded from all ethics or morals or history or science.
Power
Right.
I'm caught between what you say here and what Bruce Miller says below...
And NPR's pushback was basically "we know there's no conservatives here and we like it that way but believe us when we say we can present conservative viewpoints but why should we?"
I just hope that the "painting" you do on the weekend is more like oil on canvas and not baby blue on the bedroom walls!
And of course the big news in the UK is the quietly damning Cass Report -- all 388 pages of it. No robust evidence for saying 'transitioning prevents suicide' etc. They are now going to do a review of all adult services as well. ‘The evidence is weak and clinicians have told us they are unable to determine with any certainty which children and young people will go on to have an enduring trans identity.’ And' The systematic review showed no clear evidence that social transition in childhood has any positive or negative mental health outcomes, and relatively weak evidence for any effect in adolescence. However, those who had socially transitioned at an earlier age and/or prior to being seen in clinic were more likely to proceed to a medical pathway.'
Primary sources are so important thus read the report and draw your own conclusions: https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/
It is a huge and growing medical scandal which most of the main stream media ignored under the guise of 'being kind'.
So, once again, "the science" fails to support the mantra of the Left?
Yes, this is true. It is jaw-dropping. No robust evidence. All those lives potentially ruined.
It's shocking to me anyone thought it would be any different.
The papers over here are full of articles today about the enablers. Victoria Atkins, the Health Minister is now going to force the Adult clinics to cough up the data they withheld. And there has been a review ordered into the practices of the adult clinics....
I wonder if we should change that to "Has science ever supported the mantra of the left to begin with?"
And here in the states we have the sickening WPATH files.
The WPATH practioners have remained silent on the WPATH files. They are hoping it will all blow over. The Free Press much to my dismay is contributing to this by its own silence on the subject. Wh6 did TFPress break the whistleblower stories and now refuse to report on the scandal?
If you look at the report, WPATH guidelines get given a red card for not being v robust. Cass doesn't think much of them.
Why has The Free Press backed away from this important issue that Bari and company helped bring to the world’s attention?
TFPress published the 2 whistleblowers and 5he Finnish psychiatrist, all three gave first hand accounts of the lies and grossly unethical practices that are standards of the gender clinics for minors. What now is TFPress deliberately not even mentioning this growing scandal even as a side mention?
I agree -- the FP should be doing more. The scandal is awful. The people who should have protecting highly vulnerable children were not doing so. They used the threat of suicide as a slogan when there was no evidence that what they were advocating actually helped.
In the UK, the review is now going to look at Adult Clinics, the same clinics who refused to cooperate with Cass. What is the betting that some very unsavoury things have been going on, again without 'robust evidence' of benefit?
It is good that the UK is finally waking up and dealing with this harmful breach of all standard of medical care.
The US is still largely silent on the scandal. I saw that DR OHziL is airing a show today or tomorrow with 2 whistleblowers( Dr Haim and Read). Maybe that will create the necessary groundswell to force a shutdown of this industry. The lack of a health care system in this country is contributing to this lack of action. Congress should have called an emergency hearing( on air) to deal with this. The Free Press’s silence is ominous
I see that Ben Domenech has made the Cass Report his lead story in the Transom.
The FP had first mover status in many ways, but I agree that they have not kept up the pressure.
Even the Guardian are now covering the story over here (front page): https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/10/thousands-of-children-unsure-of-gender-identity-let-down-by-nhs-report-finds
The science is not settled as certain people would have it, not by a long shot.
Shellenberger did...
And every pediatric hospital in the country continues pushing “gender affirming care”
This needs to stop!!!
One would hope that they will start to take notice of the evidence base and what Cass has said. If they don't, hopefully the medical malpractice insurance will and will put up premiums to unsustainable levels.
I think people have naively trusted that the 'innovative' clinicians did not cut corners and had a proper evidence base. It is clear from the interim and now the final report that Cass thought she'd discover the research etc was robust, not weak to non-existent.
It is really important for people to read the Cass Report and understand what has been happening and how no country has clear guidelines and the evidence which should underpin isn't there. Also about how these practice appear to circumvent normal childhood development research which does have a robust evidence base.
England is falling.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/04/the-nhs-is-killing-us.php
That market is preying on children--especially in poor urban neighborhoods where children already have mental issues. It's a sign of the rot that has infected this country.
It is a sign of the rot which has infected Western civilization.
The increase in children's mental health issues is a big issue that people have been ignoring. Why are these mental health issues increasing at such an alarming rate? Why instead of getting less thanks to interventions, are they increasing? What is the link with parental (both maternal and paternal) mental health?
The point was made in the report -- transitioning does not appear to alleviate the mental health issues and in some cases makes them worse.
"clinicians have told us they are unable to determine with any certainty which children and young people will go on to have an enduring trans identity.’
….......................................................
One way to determine who is actually suffering from gender dysphoria would be to set those kids up for gender reassignment surgeries. We'd see the majority of them jumping the social contagion ship like drowning rats.
Unfortunately that is what they did -- the earlier someone is 'transitioned' the more likely it is that they go on to medical remedies.
The evidence base for the guidelines governing clinical practice is simply not there. It should have been. It should have been hugely robust. It wasn't.
The report is damning.
6.2% food inflation? Last week the WSJ had a article about a basket of food items that cost $100 in 2019. Today those same items cost $136.
Math is such a pain in the ass.
And even if inflation moderates, it does so at the expense of sky high interest rates. Moreover, all that past inflation is baked in the cake; never to go away. Biden's "economy" is arguably good for those who own assets. For the working class and the working poor,, it is a heavy burden.
Bidenomics is terrible for those who own assets such as the retirement accounts which they’ve contributed to for decades. The dollar has lost 20% of its purchasing power forever, and now we have a 20% baked in reduction in our material standard of living for the rest of our lives. Thanks a lot Joe; can you share a little of your Burisima money with me?
So true Bruce my daughter and her husband can barely pay their bills right now! Both college educated, she went part time after her second baby because cost of daycare is now cost prohibitive! Luckily they have parents who help
Yah. Where the hell are these people living? They should visit some grocery stores in metro Boston and around Boston. Fucking clowns. 🤡
I love the clip of Bill Maher mocking all the stupid little people who think the economy is bad. Why would you care about a 40% increase in food when GDP is high!?
Why wouldn't you appreciate lower inflation just because you lost 20% of your buying power in just four years?
Why would you care that your retirement isn't enough anymore, when corporate Democrat profits are up??
Coporatate Republican profits are also up. A high tide floats all boats.
Yeah there aren't a lot of corporate Republicans left, and that's richly ironic because Republicans explicitly believe in trickle-down economics of corporate profit, while Democrats call that a disgusting lie and then lead their companies to bigger profits by cutting out the US middle class.
So one side there is being politically and ethically consistent, and the other side are willful hypocrites condemning their own behavior while making the problems worse.
Have you ever worked for someone else? Been in someone else's employ?
Then you benefitted from 'trickle down' economics.
Don't like it? Start your own business. It's still a free country.....for now.
I ha mve always found it curious that trickle down economics is decried but trickle down entitlements are not.
What corporate Republicans? O & G maybe. But even that is a stretch. Shell is shutting down a 1000 gas stations to make way for charging stations.
All the corporate Republicans who run corporations. I don't have a list at hand but not all corporations are run by Democrats.
I think there was some legitimacy at one time to the notion that pro-business (corporate) meant voting Republican. But I think that is long past. Entities like Black Rock and Vanguard are slurping up control of corporate boards like cats lap cream and they are decidedly not conservatively oriented. Nor are the tech, financial, pharmaceutical, nor health business industries. There has been a paradigm shift.
It's per year. Still an underestimate.
I think that number is the annualized rate. Which is absolutely terrible. But it’s saying that’s the pace food gets more expensive every year.
Yes, $100 compounded at 6.3% for 5 years =$136
wow, thanks. But it’s easy to fool people into believing food inflation is ONLY a few percent.
Those of us who shop know better. So do people running restaurants. The price of a sandwich and iced tea should not be $17 in my small town, but it is.
I am assuming there must be places that throw off the numbers. Cost of living can be very different from place to place. Like, if food was already really high in a big city and for some reason inflation didn't raise them up a ton from that already high point, it would throw off the total averages even if huge swaths of the country saw a huge rise.
I'm assuming it is something like that.
Also, inflation is not a static thing. My understanding is that 6.2% food inflation means that food costs are going up by 6.2%, ongoing. So every period of time (I don't know if it is monthly or annually or whatever), the costs go up again by that much. So if inflation stayed at 6% for 5 years, the difference in prices from year 1 and year 5 would be more than 6%.
The current mantra is that inflation is down. By a lot. But it is just down from its peak. Compare January 2020 prices with today's prices. Add in the decreased value of the dollar and no wonder way too many people are struggling. I guess learning to code did not work out well for them.
Democrats conveniently skip over a very important word: rate.....the rate of inflation is down from a peak, but until we have price reduction, we continue to have inflation.
Is their spin intentional, or are they just plain dumber than a basket of eggs?
Some of column A and some of column B. I have no doubt that the actual decision makers understand...or have people around them that do. But their rank and file...they are all egg basket morons or they wouldn't be there any more.
I concur with Sghoul.
The rate of inflation is down, and that doesn't change the fact that most Americans lost about 20% of their wealth in the last five years.
But wealthy multi-millionaire Democrats on late night TV can't possibly understand why people aren't thrilled with our economy, which would collapse overnight if we cut back on our unsustainable federal deficit spending.
“The organization throws its weight behind the likes of Walid Daqqah but pulled support for the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny because of “concerns relating to discriminatory statements.””
———————————————————
Well, I mean, Navalny did call Muslims cockroaches. Not that Señor Daqqah is helping with this particular viewpoint.
I think people don’t know this. But he did in fact call Muslims cockroaches in a political video.
It’s okay though, he’s a Devout Catholic Democrat Hero now because he apologized, and we all know that if Tom Cotton had called Muslims “cockroaches” 10 years ago it would be a non-issue as long as he apologized.
The Satanic Verses is not a religion. It is a medieval death cult of violence and repression.
Prior to October 7, your typical Israeli was enjoying life, thinking about work, the next startup, and the upcoming vacation. They had forgotten they were surrounded by the savage, fanatical terror organizations Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and ISIS.
In America, since the anarchy of Black Lives Matter and its acceptance by the media and politicians — with calls to ‘defund the police’ listened to more than ‘lock up the criminals’ — we have seen craziness spread in America. Muslims now lead hate rallies at universities, break up city council meetings, march in our streets, and even disrupt Congress with calls of ‘Death to Israel!’ ‘Death to America!’ Jews are accosted by blacks and Muslims in numbers that were unthinkable ten years ago.
So yes, in America as in Israel, more people who would not have considered owning a gun are now buying them and taking shooting lessons to feel more secure at home in a less secure time.
The left is more concerned protecting thugs than they are about the protection of law abiding citizens.
How can any intelligent person vote Dem/Soc. I am beginning to believe that only those with a mental disorder vote Dem/Soc.
The mental disorder has a diagnosis, it's called TDS.
We bought several after the Summer of Love.
🎯
“He blasted the X CEO for “obstruction of Brazilian justice,””
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Brazilian Justice is very similar to the Brazilian Bikini Wax given that in both cases there are lots of whores involved.
“The Arizona Supreme Court yesterday reinstated a 160-year-old near-total ban on abortion”
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Since the border is wide open, maybe Arizona can repurpose their Border Patrol agents to hunt down Planned Parenthood employees.
Call them……….Aborter Patrol.
I see what you did there and you did again! You’re on fire today😂
In reading Mr. Friedman's essay, there are several instances he writes with a certainty about the attitudes of his countrymen. The average Israeli considers guns and the army neccessary evils. All my friends feel that... l don't know anyone who... We just expected someone else to protect us.... He goes on to relate exactly why the surge in gun ownership is happening. This brings to mind some Hillary Clinton supporters who were unable to process the election of Trump in 2016. I would never vote for him or any evil Republican.... He is not my president because l don't know anyone who voted for him. He's illegitimate because none of my friends.... Yet here we are. It wouldn't hurt to consider that perhaps we don't have all the answers, the really smart people in charge may not have any idea what they're doing, not all your deeply held convictions are The Truth. And a very large portion of The People rightly see things very differrently.
Sunny Hostin is the picture in the dictionary for definition of stupid woke person.
Abortion at state rights level. Well if our brave elected leaders in Congress, etc. have no courage to address the issue, like border control, then the state is probably the right place. Don't scream about having to go to another state folks. You see that everyday over stupid policies and taxes, people move. Get over it.
Parents in MI probably deserved the sentence, haven't paid attention. However; how about the parents of all the gang banger's at such young ages car jacking and shooting folks. Shouldn't the rules apply to all?
Elon against that well documented bastion of free speech, equal opportunity, stable free government, and peaceful cities. I will take Elon for $20.
Amnesty International is really woke hipsters embarrassing all of the causes that if came true, would result in them being put against a wall. Just like the ACLU and others, dark money propaganda mouth pieces.
"Sunny Hostin is the picture in the dictionary for definition of stupid woke person."
According to Wikipedia: "Hostin began her career as a law clerk to retired Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals Robert M. Bell and later became a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. Hostin left the Antitrust Division to become a federal prosecutor, specializing in child sex crimes. Hostin was awarded a Special Achievement Award for her successful prosecution of sex offenders. Hostin was also a Managing Director of Business Intelligence and Investigations at Kroll Inc., the world’s leading risk-consulting company, where she led groups of investigators all over the world to investigate and uncover fraud."
This suggests to me that she has learned to be stupid after getting into the journalistical industry, rather than being born unintelligent.
And her family owned slaves.
We are all immigrants……..who are responsible for slavery even though we are immigrants and just got here.
Don't disagree. But something about glass houses and stones comes to mind.
This changes everything!!!!!!!!
😂
And the way she treated Coleman Hughes when he was a guest on "The View" was classlessness personified.
I agree.
She’s Hispanic but was surprised her ancestors came from Spain. What an idiot.
Supposedly her son attends an Ivy League - if intelligence is hereditary he must have a whip smart dad because Sunny fails him in that area. Then again, it could be Affirmative Action!?
Hmm, I think Ivy League means nothing anymore.😏
It's a horticultural institute, or is that whore-to-culture institute?
“You can lead a whore to culture, but you can’t make her think.”
-Dorothy Parker
Supposedly her son attends an Ivy League - if intelligence is hereditary he must have a whip smart dad because Sunny fails him in that area. Then again, it could be Affirmative Action!?
I think that was simply dishonest.
She’s still an idiot.
This suggests to me that she was an equity candidate. I have seen the earthquake/eclipse/
cicada clip (which she did not know how to pronounce) and the look of complete bewilderment on her face. That is not indicia of a loss of intelligence. That is indicia of not being well informed to begin with. And lawyers need to be not only well informed but also well-reasoned.
Journalism will do that to you.
Smart enough to use DEI to get ahead but not smart enough to know when she should just keep her mouth shut, which to me means she's not smart at all but just a race-baiting tool.
That suggests to me a very good publicist and a puffed up resume.
Looking a little more into her history, I see a striver with a gift for self-promotion.
I don't think she's stupid. She may be on to something.....the moon has had its fill of the sun warming us, and the sun getting ll the attention.
So the moon took action and decided to block out the sun, but only in red states like Ohio. Maybe a blue state or two as well. It skipped the Arctic and Antarctica. No global warming there; no need to waste valuable energy.
That raises a question....what was the reason for the solar eclipse 100 million years ago?
Maybe Sunny can explain next week.
The State is the right place for most issues if we are talking State vs Federal. The federal gov should have very little direct impact on most people's lives. Heck, they placed DC in a swamp specifically because they didn't want people needing or wanting to convene that regularly.
More twaddle from the (not)Wiseman. Right off the bat, he offers a polemic from Vox - a nonsensical leftist propaganda organ - on Trump's alleged abortion stance. Their polemic starts "But her state’s high court has now abruptly placed all abortion providers at risk of imprisonment; the law mandates two to five years of incarceration for anyone who aids in an abortion, unless that procedure is necessary to save the life of the pregnant person." Pregnant person? Do fools and nitwits who say such things actually exist? Well apparently they do. And Wiseman gobbles it up.
Also, the supreme Court of Arizona simply said that the laws on the books stand. That's how a lawful society is supposed to function.
Now the legislature needs to go clean up the laws and fix an ancient law that was never updated. That's their job. We pay them for it.
But instead of doing their job, they lie and dramatize the situation for the sake of division and hatred.
And Oliver supports that by linking to them, driving traffic to them, and supporting their nonsense and hysteria.
Please, Oliver, be part of the solution and not the problem.
Anyone who uses the words "pregnant person" is unserious and not worth listening to.
Connecticut Democrat state legislators last week spent the better part of an hour arguing over “pregnant person” vs. “expectant mother.” It was delightful watching these dimwits duke it out.
Expectant Mothers 1
Pregnant Persons 0
They are expecting to be mothers, rather than expecting to be persons. They are already persons.
It's nonsensical after they publish the NPR article that Wiseman links to Vox and a Daily Beast article, too. Please: No More Oliver Wiseman. Or at the very least, no more of his top ten stories. Who cares who is dressed as a nun.
Do you think that the pathetic Olly Wiseman has a clue which administration supports the repressive party in Brazil that's trying to crush free speech? By his own hand, Biden makes it crystal clear that he's a pal of the Socialist goon and criminal, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/08/16/readout-of-president-joe-bidens-call-with-president-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva-of-brazil/
Birds of a feather, repress together. Remove the stench in 2024.
The Brazilian left is silencing and imprisoning their right wing opposition.
The American Democrats are doing the same.
Oliver and his ilk have no business criticizing other political entities for free speech violations, when they continue to openly support the people pushing those human rights abuses here at home.
Nonono...read what Oliver posted...they are imprisoning FAR RIGHT people. And that makes it ok to a lot of people. They think "Oh, people who goosestep every where they go" and not "My neighbor who is a decent person that I might disagree with on some political points".
Ah yes, they're only imprisoning dangerous far-right people like Elon Musk and Russel Brand.
Sadly, the wokies have done a good job in painting both of those people as far right...
Did you mean Oily Wiseman?
Herr, you're on a roll this morning
When they've rebranded around half the country to be "far right." Presumably, their idea of "center" is somewhere where 5% of the population or less sit.
No Labels stand for nothing. The idea that Americans want someone “fiscally conservative and socially liberal” is such a tripe. What does that mean?
The socially liberal/fiscal conservative is who or for what? Are they for socialized medicine, helping the poor, reduced cost of college, medicare for all, not cutting social security, abortion (and its costs) , public education, saving the climate, free speech, and a balanced budget.
Socially liberal positions wildly expensive and hence the opposite of fiscal conservatism.
Libertarians however at least come close. They are for limited to no Govt oppose income taxes but believe individuals have the right to do pretty much whatever they want that doesnt harm others .
Of course mist people think Libertarians are nuts or delusional.
In any event the reality is that “socially lberal / fiscally conservative “ is the equivalent of “hope and change” from a campaign not so long ago. A mindless lazy definition of “ whatever i decide it means”
The perfect candidate positioning allows voters to see the office seeker as exactly what they want. The role of journalism in this domain is to force disclosure with aggressive questioning. Somehow that thread seems to have been lost.
Socially liberal/fiscally conservative in essence means limited government, especially federal government. Few laws that impact social behavior and few programs requiring government spending. Hence small government.
Socially liberal means that they are at least ok with someone being treated equally and fairly regardless of who or what they are. Fiscally conservative means the government spending less.
To me, what that means is, you want the government to butt out of your life. Allow you to do what you want and be who you are while taking less money from you to spend on other things.
Which I think many people agree with in principal...until they want something done. And then suddenly they are ok with the government building a stadium for their favorite sport or giving other people's money to the needy. Or preventing people from marrying based on their religious beliefs or want to be able to have access to other's children so they can indoctrinate them.
I think socially liberal/ fiscally conservative people are the antithesis of the doooooo sooooomething!!!! crowd.
"No Labels stand for nothing."
Could that be why they call it "No Labels?"
Re. rising food prices.
Last week the world glommed on to a WSJ graphic showing what $100 bought in 2019, and what it buys today. Absolutely criminal was the accompanying story, audaciously titled “ What’s Wrong With the Economy? It’s You, Not the Data.” It was written by their chief economics reporter Greg Ip, hereafter to be known as Greg Oops. After factually stating inflation now stood at 3.2 percent, Ip went on to say: “for the average person, inflation went down.” Say, what?! This is the equivalent of the swamp denizens trying to convince the world that reducing spending growth from 6 percent to 5 percent is a budget cut. Even rookies don’t make those errors. Back to Econ 101 for you, Mr. Ip. I expect better from the Journal. Alas, there’s my problem.
https://www.wsj.com/economy/consumers/whats-wrong-with-the-economy-its-you-not-the-data-cfa911e6
Let's say your food costs $100 in 2020. The next year it costs $150. That was inflation of 50%. The next year it costs $210. That's inflation of 40%. So even though the price of your food went up more than the year before (an increase of $60 instead of $50), and it's now more than twice what it was 2 years ago, inflation technically "went down."
"
(These numbers are exaggerated to make a point).
If you're trying to explain math to liberals it's not gonna work cause you're racist. Or a bigot. Or a hater. Or a republican. Or white. Or Christian.
Liberals don't do math. It has no feelings