Monday, July 23, 2018

Raising a Black Daughter in a Red State

I was raised in Orange County, in California, one of the reddest of the red states back in the 1970s. I have two sisters. Being a black (mixed-race) person, there's some things you deal with as a racial minority. Unfortunately, you have to deal with racism. We were lucky, though. Our parents were educated and middle class. We had a nice home in a nice area, with good schools. Our family was cultured. We traveled, in the U.S. and to Europe. I don't ever think my parents said it was a "heartbreak" to raise us in California. If anything, my dad thought it was much better than being raised in the South.

But this piece, from Shanita Hubbard at NYT, is a new classic in the genre of geographical polarization. If you're going to face racism, it's not going to be exclusively in "red states." You're just going to experience it and you're going to learn to deal with it, manage it, and make it less debilitating. And America today is nowhere near where it was back in the 1970s when I was growing up. It's much better, so much better, even in the Deep South.

In any case, FWIW, "The Heartbreak of Raising a Black Daughter in a Red State":


Nearly two years ago, I moved with my daughter, who was then 7, from Yonkers to a small town in Pennsylvania. It’s minutes outside of New Jersey, but right in the heart of Donald Trump’s America. Sixty-one percent of the people in my county voted for him.

Drive through most communities in my town and you’ll still see large blue Trump campaign signs on perfectly manicured lawns. Chances are, you’ll spot at least two newer-model pickup trucks with Confederate flag license plate frames. As I, a black woman, move through my daily routine, I exchange nonverbal social pleasantries with my neighbors — gestures that are calculated to avoid the kind of actual conversation that could quickly become uncomfortable. A quick nod. A small smile. But all the unspoken words that haunt my interactions in stores and on sidewalks seem to fall freely from children’s lips on the school playground.

Raising a brown girl in a solidly red area of a red state is giving me a front-row view of the way the current political climate is affecting young children.

In the past few months, it seems, there is a new, sad, pithy hashtag trending every week or so — a white person calling the police on a black family barbecuing, a black boy mowing a lawn or a little black girl selling bottled water. The interactions are dangerous and also send a dangerous message to children: There are people who believe you don’t belong here. That’s the message I worry my daughter will get every time we drive to school behind a car with a Confederate flag bumper sticker, and worse — when she’s with her classmates and I’m not there to protect her.

When I’m feeling particularly optimistic, I imagine that these kids must have been busy playing, out of earshot, when Mr. Trump’s calling African nations “shithole countries” was reported on the evening news. I try to convince myself that if their parents are defending a man who referred to neo-Nazis as “fine people,” it’s after all the children have gone to bed. I hold out a glimmer of hope that any praise for the “Muslim ban” is saved for when the youngest members of the household are preoccupied with screen time. I assure myself that no mother or father would tell a child that migrant kids from Mexico deserve to be separated from their parents and detained because they are “illegal.”

I am consistently jolted back to reality, and not just by evidence on the internet, like a video that surfaced of two white parents teaching children to be “patriotic” by vandalizing a mosque. My reminders come in the form of my daughter’s answers to “How was your school today?” One recent afternoon she reported that two girls she considered friends could no longer play with her. The reason: She’s brown...
I actually don't believe this story, about how kids wouldn't play with her daughter because "she's brown." And if something like this does happen, so what? You can't force people to play with you. Go find someone you like and enjoy being with. The world's not perfect, and it didn't start not being perfect with President Trump. What's wrong with our country today is leftist political correctness. It's so stultifying and hateful. I don't enjoy following politics and teaching politics as much as I used to, for these reasons exactly.

More at the link, FWIW.

Jeanine Pirro, Liars, Leakers, and Liberals

*BUMPED.*

Following-up, "Judge Jeanine Pirro Claims Whoopi Goldberg Treated Her Like a 'Dog' and Told Her to 'F*** Off' (VIDEO)."

At Amazon, Jeanine Pirro, Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy.



Branson Duck Boat Tragedy (VIDEO)

At USA Today, "'Death traps': Federal officials have warned about dangers from duck boats for two decades," and "'I thought I was dead': Branson duck boat passenger who lost 9 family members shares survival story."

And watch, at CBS Evening News, "Video of duck boat's final moments show it struggling to stay afloat," and "Duck boats have a history of deadly accidents."

Also at NYT:


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Saturday, July 21, 2018

Democratic Socialism Rising

I'm glad.

This is a positive development, for leftists can't hide behind the "not really socialism" lie anymore. We can call them as well see them. Hateful, murderous Marxists.

At AP, "Democratic socialism rising in the age of Trump":

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A week ago, Maine Democrat Zak Ringelstein wasn’t quite ready to consider himself a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, even if he appreciated the organization’s values and endorsement in his bid to become a U.S. senator.

Three days later, he told The Associated Press it was time to join up. He’s now the only major-party Senate candidate in the nation to be a dues-paying democratic socialist.

Ringelstein’s leap is the latest evidence of a nationwide surge in the strength and popularity of an organization that, until recently, operated on the fringes of the liberal movement’s farthest left flank. As Donald Trump’s presidency stretches into its second year, democratic socialism has become a significant force in Democratic politics. Its rise comes as Democrats debate whether moving too far left will turn off voters.

“I stand with the democratic socialists, and I have decided to become a dues-paying member,” Ringelstein told AP. “It’s time to do what’s right, even if it’s not easy.”

There are 42 people running for offices at the federal, state and local levels this year with the formal endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America, the organization says. They span 20 states, including Florida, Hawaii, Kansas and Michigan.

The most ambitious Democrats in Washington have been reluctant to embrace the label, even as they embrace the policies defining modern-day democratic socialism: Medicare for all, a $15 minimum wage, free college tuition and the abolition of the federal department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Congress’ only self-identified democratic socialist, campaigned Friday with the movement’s newest star, New York City congressional candidate Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old former bartender who defeated one of the most powerful House Democrats last month.

Her victory fed a flame that was already beginning to burn brighter. The DSA’s paid membership has hovered around 6,000 in the years before Trump’s election, said Allie Cohn, a member of the group’s national political team.

Last week, its paid membership hit 45,000 nationwide.

There is little distinction made between the terms “democratic socialism” and “socialism” in the group’s literature. While Ringelstein and other DSA-backed candidates promote a “big-tent” philosophy, the group’s constitution describes its members as socialists who “reject an economic order based on private profit” and “share a vision of a humane social order based on popular control of resources and production, economic planning, equitable distribution, feminism, racial equality and non-oppressive relationships.”
These are bad people. Very bad.

Keep reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "'I believe that in a modern, moral and wealthy society, no person in America should be too poor to live...' (VIDEO)."

Robert Spencer, The History of Jihad

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Robert Spencer, available August 7th, The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS.


Elizaveta Tchigvintseva

Wow, what a name, heh.

At Editorials Fashions Trends, "Elizaveta Tchigvintseva by Alexey Trifonov."

Apply the Same Rules to James Gunn

If you were on Twitter yesterday (where else?), you probably heard about the James Gunn controversy. It turns out the dude, who's the creator and director of "Guardians of the Galaxy," posted thousands of tweets (allegedly jokingly) promoting pedophilia, sexual assault, and other racist or taboo comments.

He's now been fired by the Walt Disney Company. See the Wrap, "Disney Drops James Gunn From 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Franchise After Offensive Tweets."


A number of conservatives were defending Gunn, saying that he shouldn't have been fired for offensive tweets. Personally, I'm glad he was fired. We're in an attack culture. Gunn was apparently a vicious member of "the resistance" against President Trump. I see no reason to carve out an exception for someone like this when conservatives are constantly harassed, deplatformed, fired, and demonetized simply for expressing conservative viewpoints. And as someone whose personal livelihood (and person) was viciously attacked by diabolical leftists for years, I'm still in the war mode. Fuck 'em.

In any case, AoSHQ, who is no longer posting on Twitter, wrote a series of posts yesterday about the story.

See, "Marvel/Disney Director James Gunn in Twitter Flap." And especially this part:
What complicates this, of course, is that Disney fired Roseanne Barr for making a joke that the left claimed was racist, but will not, I assume, fire James Gunn for making pedophilia jokes.

Incidentally, I believe both Roseanne Bar and James Gunn. I think Roseanne Barr did not know Valerie Jarrett was black for a simple reason: Because I didn't know that myself.

She says she assumed Jarrett was Iranian; I believe that, because I assumed that too. I always heard of Valerie Jarrett's family's close relations to Iran; I assumed that meant they were Iranian.

I also think James Gunn was just making a lot of edgy jokes.

But Disney did fire Barr -- so should Gunn be spared the Social Justice whip?

Although one might say two wrongs don't make a right, let me explain the wrong I care about avoiding: the wrong in which liberals are permitted to say whatever they like without consequence, but where I will be fired and hounded out of civil society for saying the same sort of thing.

I will not put up with that, and yeah, I think I'll demand a bullshit firing of James Gunn, because I will insist on the #SameRules applying to both liberals and myself.

So yeah, fire this pedo-normalizing monster.
Also, "Report: James Gunn Fired from Guardians of the Galaxy," and "I Was Wrong. James Gunn Was a Scalp-Hunting SJW Himself."



Note that Ace is being entirely consistent with his earlier position on attack politics and its consequences. Go back to this post from last year, "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum -- Again":
It is imperative we begin emulating the left in its tactics.

A couple of years ago, I suggested a completely different strategy: I wanted to pursue a kinder path. I wanted an end to the speech wars and social media mobs and boycotts and all the rest of it.

But that path has been tried, and it has failed. Passive resistance -- moral resistance -- can only work when dealing with opponents with morality and honor, or who, at least, see you as more than subhuman.

Gandhi's tactics would not have worked had India been colonized by, say, China.

Many on the right, or even liberals who lean to the left but who still hold to classic liberal traditions, have called, endlessly, for an end to the Speech Wars.

That failed.

We've been trying this for years. Two or three years in my own case.

Has this sweet music of reason had any positive effect of soothing the passions of the beast?

Well, watch this video of the Empowered Mob demanding more firings at Evergreen college last week, and tell me the path of merely condemning mob lunacy is having any effect at all.

The Empowered, Privileged Mob demanded -- demanded! -- that white people absent themselves from their space, and this is what happened to those who said, "No, that's racist, and teaching class is my job."

Embarrassed by their own repulsive behavior, the Privileged Mob is now demanding -- demanding! again, like emotionally unstable toddlers -- that this video be taken down and that consequences be visited on whoever "stole" it.

This is not working.

People calling for an end to the Speech Wars have a good end in mind -- most people would just love it if not every single minor consumer transaction were not politicized, if not every single public faux pas were not a call to the Social Justice Wolves to come and feed -- but the current strategy, championed by most who want to get to this end-point, is not working.

The dispute I have with them now is not over their preferred end-state -- I deeply desire the end-state they seek, where people actually have freedom to think and speak as they want, and not every fucking mundane movie-ticket purchase is either a Cause or a Crisis -- but the current policy of "unilateral disarmament, and hope that the Monster Babies will learn from our example" is a total, dismal, catastrophic failure.

In order to learn at all, it is required that someone first believe that he has anything to learn at all, and we know that progressives do not see conservatives as people from whom anything can be learned -- they see us as subhumans to be re-educated and reconstructed into civilized savages who at least won't embarrass them as we tend their gardens...
RTWT.

And note that it's Mike Cernovich who really did the work to bring this guy down. At the Wrap, "Meet Mike Cernovich, the Right-Wing Provocateur Who Got James Gunn Fired."

And on Twitter below:



Emily Ratajkowski Bikini in Greece

Oh to be young again!

Nice Cap

It's beach weather. Get out there and check out some fabulous women!


Friday, July 20, 2018

Pro-Life Groups Mobilize the Ground Game

I love this.

At NYT, "‘I’m Doing It for the Babies’: Inside the Ground Game to Reverse Roe v. Wade":


AVON, Ind. — Armed with sunscreen, doorknob fliers and a mission 50 years in the making, the team of activists sporting blue “I Vote Pro-Life” T-shirts fanned out into a web of cul-de-sacs in a subdivision just west of Indianapolis, undeterred by towering rain clouds and 90-degree heat.

It was exactly a week after President Trump had named Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to be his nominee for the Supreme Court, and the group was joking that they had a new sport: Extreme Canvassing.

In short surveys, the teams ask voters about their hopes for Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation and their opposition to abortion funding. Canvassers have knocked at nearly 1.2 million homes nationwide in recent months, and by November, they are slated to reach their goal of 2 million.

“Whenever I’m feeling tired, I say, ‘I’m doing it for the babies,’” said Kaiti Shannon, 19, as she consulted a mobile app to determine which porch with wind chimes to approach...
More.

Hailey Clauson Explains What it Takes to Be a Model (VIDEO)

Well, it helps to have some tight honking hooters, lol.

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:




Margot Robbie Wet Swimsuit

At Drunken Stepfather, "Margot Robbie Wet Swimsuit of the Day."

Ariel Winter in Her Pajamas

At Taxi Driver, "Ariel Winter in her PJ's."

Judge Jeanine Pirro Claims Whoopi Goldberg Treated Her Like a 'Dog' and Told Her to 'F*** Off' (VIDEO)

Heh. This is the best.

Hot Air had a good and related post yesterday, "“Say Goodbye!”: Judge Jeanine’s Appearance on “The View” Goes as Well as Expected; Update: “Get The F*** Out”."

And on Hannity's last night:



USA Today Fires Cheri Jacobus

She's a vile woman and Never Trumper who's got me blocked on Twitter, so lol it's appropriate that she got fired for her vile mouthing-off on Twitter.

At the Wrap, and the USA Today statement below:


Thursday, July 19, 2018

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Halsey in White

At Taxi Driver, "Halsey Nipples See-Through in White."

The Surreal Helsinki Summit (VIDEO)

Stephen Cohen a professor of history and Russian expert who is married to Katrina vanden Heuvel, the publisher and editor of the far-left magazine the Nation.

Cohen's been a strong critic of U.S. foreign policy toward Russia, arguing that U.S. provocations --- such as the expansion of NATO to the border of the Russian federation, and the American bombing war in Kosovo in the 1990s --- is responsible for hostile U.S.-Russia relations and the every-ready risk of war.

He argues that we're in a new cold war at the video below, an interview with Tucker Carlson from earlier this week.



And here's Ms. Katrina's essay at the Nation yesterday, "Parsing the Surreal From the Sensible in Trump’s Helsinki Performance":
Donald Trump, that self-described “very stable genius,” delivered a remarkably unhinged performance in his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin after their Helsinki summit. Trump used the global stage to savage Democrats and to attack the Mueller investigation and his own intelligence officials, while once more boasting about his election victory. Putin, clearly pleased to be accorded Trump’s public respect, noted that as “major nuclear powers, we bear special responsibility for maintaining international security.”

Not surprisingly, Trump’s remarks triggered a furious reaction. Former CIA director John Brennan called them “treasonous.” The liberal activist group MoveOn echoed the charge. Republican Senator John McCain called it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi suggested that Trump’s behavior “proves” that the Russians “must have something on the president.”

In this toxic atmosphere, it is worth parsing the inane from the sensible in what the president said. Trump’s bizarre comments on Russian interference in the 2016 election made it clear that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation should continue....

Although he was widely reviled for it, Trump is also not wrong to say that both powers have contributed to the deteriorating relations. Leaders of the US national-security establishment protest our country’s innocence regarding the tensions in Georgia and Ukraine. But it was perhaps the wisest of them, the eminent diplomat George Kennan, who warned in 1998 that the decision to extend NATO to Russia’s borders was a “tragic mistake” that would eventually provoke a hostile response. “I think it is the beginning of a new cold war,” Kennan said presciently. “I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies.”
RTWT.


#NATO's Challenge is Germany, Not America

From VDH, at American Greatness:

During the recent NATO summit meeting, a rumbustious Donald Trump tore off a thin scab of niceties to reveal a deep and old NATO wound—one that has predated Trump by nearly 30 years and goes back to the end of the Cold War.

In an era when the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact are now ancient history, everyone praises NATO as “indispensable” and “essential” to Western solidarity and European security. But few feel any need to explain how and why that could still be so.

Does NATO still protect the West? Does it prevent destructive European feuding? Does it ensure the postwar global order of free trade, commerce, travel, and communications? And is NATO—or the United States and its leadership of NATO—the real reason there has not been a World War III or a return to global tribalism and chaos?

NATO’s post-Cold War expansion to 29 nations and to the border of Russia meant the alliance became more expansive at the very time the old existential Soviet threat disappeared. Larger membership tended to weaken common ties, even as common dangers disappeared.

The result was that the idea of NATO membership became more important to the countries that are part of it than the reality and responsibility of actual military readiness.

Polls show that in most NATO countries, the idea of fighting on behalf of another country receives scant public support. The notion that the Dutch would march into Estonia to save its capital, Tallinn, from Russia is a cruel joke.

NATO’s 21st-century problem is not the United States, which provides a large percentage of its wherewithal, but Germany. As the most populous and most affluent of European nations, Germany still insidiously dominates Europe as it has since its inception in 1871.

Berlin sends ultimatums to the indebted Southern European nations. Berlin alone tries to dictate immigration policy for the European Union. Berlin establishes the tough conditions under which the United Kingdom can exit the European Union. And when Berlin decides it will not pony up the promised 2 percent of GDP for its NATO contribution, other laggard countries follow its example. Only six of the 29 NATO members (other than the United States) so far have met their promised assessments.

Germany’s combination of affluence and military stinginess is surreal. Germany has piled up the largest trade surplus in the world at around $300 billion, including a trade surplus of some $64 billion with its military benefactor, the United States, yet it is poorly equipped in terms of tanks and fighter aircraft.

Ostensibly, NATO still protects Europe from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, just as it once kept the Soviet Red Army out of West Germany. But over the objections of its Baltic neighbors and the Ukraine, Germany just cut a gas pipeline deal with Russia—the purported threat for which its needs U.S.-subsidized security.

Stranger still is Germany’s growing animosity toward the United States...
More.