[VIDEO] Senior Homepage Editor Reveals Biased Political Agenda at New York Times
Posted: October 18, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Anti-Christian sentiment, Bias, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., journalism, Malpractice, Mike Pence, President of the United States, propaganda, The New York Times, The Washington Post Leave a commentBeing a Journalist is Hard!
- New York Times Senior Home Page Editor, Des Shoe, Admits Company Culture of Blatant Bias at NYT is “widely understood to be liberal-leaning…”
- NYT Journalists: “if we write about him [Trump], and how insanely crazy he is…maybe people will read it and be like…we shouldn’t vote for him.”
- Calls Trump an “oblivious idiot” and Pence “f***ing horrible” Because of Religious Views
- Admits New York Times Report on “what the readers want”
- “They call it the Trump bump” Says Shoe, Regarding the Influx of Subscribers Since Trump’s Presidency Began
- Des Shoe: “The main objective is to grab subscribers. You do that any way that you can.”
(NEW YORK) – Project Veritas has released a video of the New York Times Homepage Editor Des Shoe, who was caught on hidden-camera admitting that the Times has a liberal bias and attacking President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. This is part three of their American Pravda NYT investigation.
When confronted with the notion that during the election, The Times‘ front page, for which she is responsible, was completely focused around Trump. She tells the undercover journalist that NYT reporters tried to influence the election with their reporting:
“I think one of the things that maybe journalists were thinking about is like…Oh, if we write about him, about how insanely crazy he is and how ludicrous his policies are, then maybe people will read it and be like, oh wow, we shouldn’t vote for him.”
She admits that the New York Times has a clearly defined liberal-leaning bias: “The New York Times is not…I mean, it’s widely understood to be liberal-leaning. But, American newspapers are not supposed to claim a bias, they’re supposed to be objective.”
“So the…ahh, but the New York Times is not left?” the Project Veritas journalist asked. Shoe clarified, “I’m not saying that they’re not. I’m saying it’s widely, widely understood to be left-leaning.”
She also tells the undercover journalist that reporting objectively is simply too difficult for the Times: “Our main stories are supposed to be objective. It’s very difficult in this day and age to do that.”
Shoe blames the business model for the New York Times‘ lack of fact-based reporting:
“This is what I was trying to say is like the last couple years it’s changed for the bad…
“I think the business model itself is just… there’s so much panic about what to do that, you know, what else is a company supposed to do?
“That’s the conundrum…is that a business model, in this time is built on what the readers want.”
The New York Times senior homepage editor goes on to explain the positive effect of Trump’s victory: “Since the election, like you know…Speaking on, you know, for The New York Times, our subscriptions have sky-rocketed since…I mean, they call it the Trump bump.”
This sentiment was echoed by Nick Dudich, who was featured in American Pravda Part 1 and Part 2. He explains, “I mean honestly, Trump has driven us more business than anybody else. Anytime he says failing, we add a boost of subscribers.”
The New York Times responded to Part I in a statement, calling Dudich “a recent hire in a junior position.” Later, Executive Editor of the NYT Dean Baquet described Dudich as “a kid…who just started his career in journalism.” The same cannot be said for Ms. Shoe, a senior-level employee who has been with The Times since January of 2009.
Des Shoe claims that the New York Times has to chase clicks in the current media environment, “The Washington Post, people who have paywalls up…The main objective is to grab subscribers. You do that any way that you can.”
When told the New York Times seems more like a ‘click-paper’, Shoe replies:
“I mean, you’re not wrong. Like, I would love to be able to speak my mind completely about…If I ever leave the Times I’ll go back to you guys and tell you exactly what I think. But, I mean, there’s stuff like…And this is what I was trying to say is like the last couple years it’s changed for the bad.”
Shoe finally goes on to explain her personal biases against President Trump, “I feel like Trump is…is just a…is sort of an idiot in a lot of ways. Just an oblivious idiot.” Read the rest of this entry »
Communist Victims Receive Heartfelt Salute from Spunky Young American Leftists
Posted: April 12, 2017 Filed under: Education, Foreign Policy, Mediasphere, Politics, Terrorism, U.S. News | Tags: #BlackLiberationMovemen, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Barack Obama, Black Bolshevik, Commencement speech, Donald Trump, Jewish Defense League, Marxism, Meir Kahane, Mike Pence, Palestine, Palestinian flag, Vice President of the United States, Washington Leave a comment
The obscene action appears to be part of a protest against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s conference, a pro-Israel annual gathering last month where Vice President Mike Pence was a keynote speaker. Outside of the conference, an estimated 1,000 people gathered in Washington DC to protest it and push the idea that Israel should give up more land in an effort to appease hostile neighbors.
The same account belonging to an individual who describes himself as a Black Bolshevik and aligned with the #BlackLiberationMovement and #FreePalestine tweeted out anti-Israel, anti-police, and pro-Palestinian photos of demonstrators just minutes before issuing the photo of a group of people flipping off the memorial. Read the rest of this entry »
Mollie Z. Hemingway: When Did Having Values Become a Bad Bad Thing?
Posted: March 31, 2017 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Religion | Tags: Christianity, Fidelity, Fox News, media, Mike Pence, Mollie Hemingway, video, Washington D.C. Leave a comment
NSA Whistleblower: Spy Agencies Eavesdrop Without Warrants
Posted: March 7, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, White House | Tags: Donald Trump, Donald Trump presidential campaign, Michael T. Flynn, Mike Pence, Military budget, President of the United States, Spying, United States, United States Congress, United States Intelligence Community, Vice President of the United States Leave a comment
‘The IC is becoming more like the Praetorian Guard’
Kerry Picket reports: NSA surveillance program architect and later whistleblower Bill Binney told Sean Hannity on his radio program Monday that the intelligence community routinely listens in on Americans’ conversations without court ordered FISA warrants.
President Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama on Twitter Saturday of wiretapping Trump Tower during the election.
“Under executive order one two triple three, they do surveillance of everybody in the United States without warrants and that’s done through various upstream programs Fairview, Stormbrew, Blarney and also in cooperation with other countries in terms of collection worldwide,” said Binney.
“So it’s all done without warrants and that was testified to by Adrian Kinney and David Murfee Faulk, who were transcribing at Fort Gordon George. They were transcribing conversations between U.S. citizens with no warrant at all.”
ABC News reported in in early October 2009, Murfee Faulk, a Navay Arab linguist, said he and other NSA intercept operators in Baghdad’s Green Zone from late 2003 to November 2007 listened to hundreds of Americans’ private phone conversations.
[Read the full story here, at The Daily Caller]
“Calling home to the United States, talking to their spouses, sometimes their girlfriends, sometimes one phone call following another,” said Faulk.
“Hey, check this out,” Faulk says he would be told, “there’s good phone sex or there’s some pillow talk, pull up this call, it’s really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, ‘Wow, this was crazy’.”
Binney, who resigned from the NSA in 2001 out of disgust wit how the program was being abused, told Hannity, “I will put it this way. The IC is becoming more like the Praetorian Guard. You know, where they’re trying to determine who the emperor is and also influence what the emperor does, so I just think that this is getting out of hand.” Read the rest of this entry »
Frustrated Russian Officials Struggling To Get Any Policies Through Dysfunctional Trump Administration
Posted: February 23, 2017 Filed under: Foreign Policy, Global, Humor, Politics, Russia, White House | Tags: Donald Trump, Michael T. Flynn, Mike Pence, National Security Advisor (United States), Parody, President of the United States, satire, The Onion, Vice President of the United States Leave a comment
MOSCOW—Lamenting that internal disorganization was making it extremely difficult to get anything done, Russian officials voiced their frustration Thursday about continuing struggles to get policies through the dysfunctional Trump administration. “You’d think that after being in the White House for a month, they’d have at least some rudimentary process for rolling out our new proposals, but it’s just been a mess so far,” said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, adding that the recent dismissal of Michael Flynn as national security advisor was “just the tip of the iceberg” in a chaotic White House where internal conflicts and numerous leaks made it hard for the Russians to implement any workable ideas at all. Read the rest of this entry »
How Spooks Played the Game: ‘Kill Mike Flynn’
Posted: February 16, 2017 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics, Russia | Tags: Barack Obama, Central Intelligence Agency, David Petraeus, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Donald Trump, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Michael T. Flynn, Mike Pence, United States, United States National Security Council, Vladimir Putin, White House 1 Comment
‘The knives are out.’
Richard Pollock reports: National Security Advisor Gen. Michael T. Flynn (ret.) — who resigned Monday — was the victim of a “hit job” launched by intelligence operatives, Obama government holdovers and former Obama national security officials, according to former intelligence officials who spoke with The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group.
“There are individuals who are well versed in information operations — we used to call that propaganda. They know how to do it. It’s deliberately orchestrated.”
The talk within the tight-knit community of retired intelligence officers was that Flynn’s sacking was a result of intelligence insiders at the CIA, NSA and National Security Council using a sophisticated “disinformation campaign” to create a crisis atmosphere. The former intel officers say the tactics hurled against Flynn over the last few months were the type of high profile hard-ball accusations previously reserved for top figures in enemy states, not for White House officials.
“This was a hit job,” charged retired Col. James Williamson, a 32-year Special Forces veteran who coordinated his operations with the intelligence community.
Noting the Obama administration first tried to silence Flynn in 2014 when the former president fired him as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Williamson called Monday’s resignation, “stage Two of ‘Kill Mike Flynn.”
Former intelligence officials who understand spy craft say Flynn’s resignation had everything to do with a “disinformation campaign” and little to do with the December phone conversation he had with the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
[Read the full story here, at The Daily Caller]
They charge officials from America’s top spy counsels leaked classified government intercepts of Flynn and President Trump’s conversations with world leaders and had “cutouts” — friendly civilians not associated with the agency — to distribute them to reporters in a coordinated fashion.
The issue of leaks was a prime topic for Trump when he tweeted Wednesday, “Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?).Just like Russia.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Retired Col. James Waurishuk, who spent three decades in top military intelligence posts and served at the National Security Council, said in an interview with TheDCNF. “We’ve never seen to the extent that those in the intelligence community are using intelligence apparatus and tools to be used politically against an administration official,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Japan, U.S. Affirm Senkakus Defense Under Article 5
Posted: February 10, 2017 Filed under: Diplomacy, Foreign Policy, Japan, Mediasphere | Tags: ABC News, Associated Press, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Mike Pence, Okinawa Prefecture, President of the United States, United States, United States Capitol Leave a comment
WASHINGTON — Yujiro Okabe reports: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday afternoon (early Saturday JST) before they held a press conference together.
Regarding the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, Abe said during the press conference, “We have affirmed that they are within the scope of Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty,” which obliges U.S. forces to defend Japan.
Trump stressed, “We are committed to the security of Japan.”
Abe also revealed that they have agreed to start holding a dialogue headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso and Vice President Mike Pence, aiming to expand trade and investment between the two countries. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Trump’s Protest Based Stimulus Plan
Posted: February 3, 2017 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Austin Bragg, Donald Trump, Jon Voight, Make America Great Again, Mike Pence, Protest, Reason (magazine), Reason.tv, Riots, satire, Toby Keith, United States presidential inauguration Leave a comment
The Trump administration is working hard to make America great again, by bringing jobs and opportunity back to our shores. Written and Produced by Austin Bragg.
[VIDEO] OH YES HE DID: Armchair Conspiracy Theorist Robert Reich Implicates Breitbart in False-Flag Operation at Berkeley
Posted: February 3, 2017 Filed under: Education, Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Black bloc, Breitbart News, CNN, College Republicans, Crackpot, Donald Trump, Donald Trump presidential campaign, False Flag, Free speech, Left Wing, LinkedIn, Martin Shkreli, Mike Pence, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paranoia, Progressivism, Radical Left, Ralph Hexter, Riots, Socialism, UC Berkeley 1 Comment
On CNN Thursday, UC Berkeley professor and former Democratic Secretary of Labor Robert Reich suggested the anti-Trump riots on campus were actually a right-wing plot to delegitimize liberals.
“There’s rumors that they actually were right-wingers. They were a part of a kind of group that was organized and ready to create the kind of tumult and danger you saw that forced the police to cancel the event … I wouldn’t bet against it. I saw these people. They all looked very– almost paramilitary.”
“I was there for part of last night, and I know what I saw and those people were not Berkeley students,” Reich said. “Those people were outside agitators. I have never seen them before.”
“They were not from the campus. I don’t want to say factually, but I’ve heard …”
“There’s rumors that they actually were right-wingers. They were a part of a kind of group that was organized and ready to create the kind of tumult and danger you saw that forced the police to cancel the event,” Reich insisted. “So Donald Trump, when he says Berkeley doesn’t respect free speech rights, that’s a complete distortion of the truth.”
“You think it’s a strategy by [Milo Yiannopoulos] or right-wingers?” asked host Don Lemon….(read more)
“… I’ve heard there was some relationship here between these people and the right wing and the right-wing movement that is affiliated with Breitbart News.”
From The Corner,
…Reich proposed that a shadowy group of right-wingers posing as left-wing “anti-fascist” belligerents were responsible. “There’s rumors that they actually were right-wingers,” he suggested. “They were a part of a group that were organized and ready to create the kind of tumult and danger you saw that forced the police to cancel the event.”
Applying the classic tactic of the demagogue, Reich abandoned all journalistic standards with his use the phrase, “there’s rumors.” Moreover, he made a faint appeal to his own on-the-scene reporting by saying, “I was there for part of last night, and I know what I saw, and those people were not Berkeley students.” Of course, it has been widely reported that the “black bloc” rioters were indeed from outside the university, and that they were exploiting the campus event to advance their anti-capitalist “resistance.” They have no connection to Breitbart.
Reich went on: “And I’ve heard — again, I don’t want to say factually, but I’ve heard there was some relationship here between these people and the right wing and the right-wing movement that is affiliated with Breitbart News.” Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Tucker Carlson Eric Swalwell Full Interview Debate on Trump Supreme Court Pick Neil Gorsuch
Posted: February 1, 2017 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Abortion, Abortion in the United States, Abortion-rights movements, Administration of federal assistance in the United States, Anti-abortion movements, Donald Trump, Guttmacher Institute, March for Life (Washington, Mike Pence, Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court of the United States Leave a comment
Carlson: He (Gorsuch) wrote in a book about ethics, “All human beings are intrinsically valuable and the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong.” Do you believe that?
Swalwell: All human beings are intrinsically valuable. However, Roe v. Wade says that a woman has a right to make a decision about her own healthcare.
Carlson: I’m not asking you about Roe v Wade. I’m asking you to assess what he said here…as a general statement. ”All human beings are intrinsically valuable,” you agree with that. The second part is, “The taking of human life by private persons is always wrong,” do you agree with that or not?
Swalwell: The most personal decision a person can make is a woman with her a doctor about her own body and a person who is terminally ill about whether they want to die in peace and he [Gorsuch] has chosen that the government should intervene.
Carlson: Will you answer my question? “The intentional taking of of human life by private persons is always wrong.” Now if you can’t agree on that…
Swalwell: The Constitution says…”
Carlson: I’m not talking about the Constitution. What do you think…I’m not talking about women’s rights. “The intentional taking of human life by private persons.” That’s what he said, and I want to know whether you agree with that statement or not.
Swalwell: What he has shown in his legal career…
Carlson: (Laughs) Are you really afraid to say that the intentional taking of life is wrong?
Swalwell: No, of course not. I was a prosecutor and I prosecuted people for intentionally taking life.
[Read the full story here, at National Review]
Carlson: But you won’t agree with this because you are afraid of the abortion lobby, like “Woo, you are anti-abortion if you are against the taking of human life.” I mean, come on!
Swalwell: A woman has the right to make her own decision about her own healthcare.
Carlson: Do you think it is the taking of human life? Abortion?
Swalwell: I think that right now…before viability, a woman should be able to make her own decision. After viability, in the case of her own psychological health, in the case of rape or incest, she should also be able to make that decision.
Carlson: Okay, but is it the taking of human life?
Swalwell: That is a woman’s personal decision. Read the rest of this entry »
George Will: ‘Alternative Facts’ & Safe Spaces Come from Similar Intellectual Problems
Posted: January 29, 2017 Filed under: Education, Think Tank | Tags: Apollo program, Barack Obama, college, Donald Trump, George Will, Harvard Extension School, Michael T. Flynn, Mike Pence, Naval War College, Rhode Island, Special Snowflake, The Chronicle Review, United States, University, University of Chicago 1 Comment
Myriad intellectual viruses are thriving in academia. Carried by undereducated graduates, these viruses infect the nation’s civic culture.
George Will writes: In 2013, a college student assigned to research a deadly substance sought help via Twitter: “I can’t find the chemical and physical properties of sarin gas someone please help me.” An expert at a security consulting firm tried to be helpful, telling her that sarin is not gas. She replied, “yes the [expletive] it is a gas you ignorant [expletive]. sarin is a liquid & can evaporate … shut the [expletive] up.”
“College, in an earlier time, was supposed to be an uncomfortable experience because growth is always a challenge.”
— Tom Nichols, professor at the U.S. Naval War College and the Harvard Extension School
Tom Nichols, professor at the U.S. Naval War College and the Harvard Extension School, writing in The Chronicle Review, says such a “storm of outraged ego” is an increasingly common phenomenon among students who, having been taught to regard themselves as peers of their teachers, “take correction as an insult.” Nichols relates this to myriad intellectual viruses thriving in academia. Carried by undereducated graduates, these viruses infect the nation’s civic culture.
“Unearned praise and hollow successes build a fragile arrogance in students that can lead them to lash out at the first teacher or employer who dispels that illusion, a habit that carries over into a resistance to believe anything inconvenient or challenging in adulthood.”
— Tom Nichols
Soon the results include the presidential megaphone being used to amplify facially preposterous assertions, e.g., that upward of 5 million illegal votes were cast in 2016. A presidential minion thinks this assertion is justified because it is the president’s “long-standing belief.”
[Read the full story here, at National Review]
“College, in an earlier time,” Nichols writes, “was supposed to be an uncomfortable experience because growth is always a challenge,” replacing youthful simplicities with adult complexities. Today, college involves the “pampering of students as customers,” particularly by grade inflation in a context of declining academic rigor: A recent study showed “A” to be the most commonly awarded grade, 30 percent more frequent than in 1960.
“Rather than disabuse students of their intellectual solipsism,” Nichols says, “the modern university reinforces it.”
— Tom Nichols
And a 2011 University of Chicago study found that 45 percent of students said that in the previous semester none of their courses required more than 20 pages of writing and 32 percent had no class that required more than 40 pages of reading in a week. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Inauguration Protests, Police Injured, 95 Arrested as Donald Trump Takes Office
Posted: January 20, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Cannabis (drug), Donald Trump, Mike Pence, National Mall, New York City, Presidential Inaugural 2017, Trump Tower (New York City), United States presidential inauguration, Washington Leave a commentCNN reports: A pair of police officers were injured and 95 protesters arrested after they smashed windows, damaged cars and threw rocks at police near Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Friday in Washington, D.C.
“We’re here to take a stand against the ideas that Trump spouted throughout the course of this campaign — sexism, Islamophobia, his bigotry and nationalism.”
— Protester Jed Holtz, from New York City
Two DC police officers and one other person were taken to the hospital for undetermined injuries after run-ins with protesters, DC Fire Spokesman Vito Maggiolo told CNN. The injuries are non-life threatening.
“I think Donald Trump is a fascist, and it’s very easy for people, especially people who are in pain, to slip into fascism.”
— Protester Lysander Reid-Powell, a 20-year-old student from New Mexico
After the swearing-in ceremony, demonstrators near 12th and K streets threw rocks and bottles at police, who were clad in riot gear and attempting to disperse the crowd. A large 
number of police were on scene and used smoke and flash-bang devices to try to scatter the protesters.
Acting DC Police Chief Peter Newsham told CNN that there were several hundred protestors who were confronting police, while he praised the thousands of other demonstrators who behaved in a peaceful fashion to get their point across.
“We have been pointing out all along that this is a very isolated incident and by and large everything is going peacefully and a lot of folks have come to the city to enjoy this historic day, not only the Capitol but walking all around the city,” Newsham said.
In a statement earlier, the DC police said protesters “acting in a concerted effort engaged in acts of vandalism and several instances of destruction of property. More specifically, the 
group damaged vehicles, destroyed the property of multiple businesses, and ignited smaller isolated fires while armed with crowbars, hammers, and asps.”
Police said there had been 95 arrests as of 2 p.m.
“Pepper spray and other control devices were used to control the criminal actors and protect persons and property,” police said.
Earlier, a few blocks from the White House, demonstrators shattered building windows, vandalized police cars and other vehicles, and toppled news stands. One business owner told CNN there were as many as several hundred protesters who swept through the area, some dressed in black.
At one point, police used pepper spray as a group of protesters, many of them wearing masks, ran down 13th Street.
“I think Donald Trump is a fascist, and it’s very easy for people, especially people who are in pain, to slip into fascism,” said protester Lysander Reid-Powell, a 20-year-old student from New Mexico.
At one checkpoint, about 50 protesters sat down in the street in an attempt to block Trump supporters from entering a secure area to watch the swearing-in ceremony and speech. Not far away, a group of immigration backers staged a “pop up” protest near another check point.
“We’re here to take a stand against the ideas that Trump spouted throughout the course of this campaign — sexism, Islamophobia, his bigotry and nationalism,” said protester Jed Holtz, from New York City. Read the rest of this entry »
After Donald Trump Kills CNN Reporter with Death-Ray, Media Debates Use of Top-Secret Military Weapons Against Civilians
Posted: January 12, 2017 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: -elect, Barack Obama, Central Intelligence Agency, Death Ray, Democratic National Committee, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, Fact checker, Hillary Clinton, John Podesta, Mike Pence, New York Post, Parody, RUSSIA, satire, The New York Times, The Washington Post Leave a comment
Michael Goodwin writes: An old proverb sums up how Donald Trump handled the last two days: “The dogs bark but the caravan moves on.”
The dogs of the Democratic media were absolutely howling yesterday over sordid, unverified allegations involving Russia, but the president-elect and his team put on a master class in self-defense. They hit back forcefully, with press secretary Sean Spicer calling publication of the allegations “disgraceful” and Vice President-elect Mike Pence calling it a case of “fake news” that aims to “delegitimize the president-elect.”
It was a strong warm-up, and Trump then took the stage to completely deny the charges, and repeated the denials in response to numerous questions. By the end of the press conference, he had managed to turn the spotlight away from himself and on to the lack of integrity in both the media and government intelligence agencies — where it also belongs.
That was no mean feat, and his performance was a reminder that Trump is not and never will be a pushover. He fights fire with fire and is getting increasingly more disciplined in making his case.
[Read the full story here, at New York Post]
Pulling it off was not as easy as he made it look. The run-up to his first press conference since winning the election had the air of crisis that was routine in the long campaign. Then, every week or two, many geniuses predicted that something Trump had said or done would be the final straw and he would have to drop out.
Similarly, the salacious allegations he faced yesterday packed a potential to seriously wound him before he takes office. Anything less than complete denial would have created a firestorm, but after his no-wiggle-room statements, the allegations withered, at least for now. That had to disappoint the dead-enders who hoped they had finally found the kill shot.
Instead, Trump emerged intact and even stronger as he made news on two other fronts: He released extensive plans on how he is severing himself from his company and nominated a new secretary of the troubled Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Read the rest of this entry »
Schumer Accidentally Tweets ‘Don’t Make America Great Again’
Posted: January 9, 2017 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: -elect, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Party leaders of the United States Senate, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Republican Party (United States), United States Department of Health and Human Services 1 Comment
Caitlin Yilek reports: Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accidentally tweeted “Don’t Make America Great Again” on Monday.
[Read more at the Washington Examiner]
The New York senator was promoting the Democrats’ fight to protect Obamacare, calling on his followers to add the Senate Democrats account on Snapchat to follow along.
“Starting tonight, @SenateDems are on @Snapchat. Add to hear more on our fight to protect healthcare & tell GOP: Don’t #MakeAmericaGreatAgain,” Schumer tweeted, then deleted.
Starting tonight, @SenateDems are on Snapchat. Add to hear more on our fight to protect healthcare & tell GOP: Don’t #MakeAmericaSickAgain pic.twitter.com/S60iMxUVXA
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 9, 2017
Joe Perticone, a congressional reporter for the Independent Journal Review, made a screenshot of the tweet before it was deleted. Read the rest of this entry »
Winston Churchill Bust Set for Oval Office Return by Incoming President Donald Trump
Posted: January 7, 2017 Filed under: Art & Culture, Diplomacy, History, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, George W. Bush, Mike Pence, Oval Office, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President of the United States, Republican Party (United States), The Washington Post, Winston Churchill 3 Comments
Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he intends to rip up Barack Obama’s legacy when he takes office – ending the Trans-Pacific Partnership, redrawing Obamacare and loading up Guantanamo with “some bad dudes”.
However, one expected action is likely to be less controversial, certainly in Britain: that of restoring the bust of Winston Churchill to the Oval Office.
Mr Trump, who has frequently professed his admiration for Britain’s wartime leader, was asked earlier this week whether he was considering returning the bust, sculpted by Jacob Epstein, to the White House.
“I am, indeed, I am,” he said, during an interview at the New York Times, at which he was sitting in front of a picture of Churchill.
Mr Obama replaced the Churchill bust with one of Martin Luther King in the Oval Office in 2009, soon after he took over the presidency, causing outrage on both sides of the Atlantic.
Boris Johnson controversially wrote earlier this year, while he was Mayor of London, that Mr Obama’s decision to send the bust back to the British embassy in Washington had been a “snub to Britain”.
Mr Johnson, who is now Foreign Secretary, suggested it might have been linked to Mr Obama’s “ancestral dislike of the British Empire”.
However, Mr Obama later explained that he had a second sculpture of Churchill, who had an American mother and was the only person ever granted an honourary US passport, in his private quarters.
Guy Benson: How Could Anyone Have Possibly ‘Misunderstood’?
Posted: January 5, 2017 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, White House | Tags: Associated Press, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Republican Party (United States), White House Leave a comment
Lies of the Year.
Guy Benson writes: President Obama huddled with Congressional Democrats on Wednesday to discuss best practices for fending off Republican efforts to repeal and replace his failingsignature domestic legislation once Donald Trump is sworn into office. Mike Pence, meanwhile, has met with Republicans on the Hill to plot the path forward to repeal. Both discussions were closed-door, but details quickly leaked out — and this one made me literally laugh out loud:
McCaskill said Obama “took responsibility for some of the failures to make sure people understood the changes in the health care system”
— Bridget Bowman (@bridgetbhc) January 4, 2017
Heavens, how could anyone have possibly “misunderstood” the degree to which there would be unwelcome changes to the healthcare system under Obamacare? Might it have anything to do with this very same president repeatedly and brazenly lying, assuring everyone that their satisfactory arrangements wouldn’t change at all, and that all other conceivable changes for everyone else would be universally positive? Virtually every single promise he made, and certainly all the big ones, have been violated.
[Read the full story here, at TownHall.com]
Perhaps the most egregious (tied with lower costs and “affordability“) was Obama’s infamous “keep your plan and doctor” whopper, which was rated by left-leaning Politifact as the 2013 Lie of the Year. And wouldn’t you know it? Obama is still lying about Obamacare, which remains unpopular. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Senator Ben Sasse on the Heart of America and Its Founders
Posted: December 18, 2016 Filed under: History, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Ben Sasse, D.C., Donald Trump, Mike Pence, President's Club, The Heritage Foundation, United States, United States Department of Defense, video, Washington Leave a comment
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., speaks at The Heritage Foundation‘s 2016 President’s Club Meeting about America, its founders, and today’s youth.
Deranged by Trump Victory, Orange Coast College Professor Olga Perez Stable Cox Captured on Video Going Cuckoo Bananas
Posted: December 10, 2016 Filed under: Education, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Activism, Americans, College Professor, College Republicans, Costa Mesa, Donald Trump, Gay, Hillary Clinton, Human sexuality, Left Wing, Mike Pence, Olga Perez Stable Cox, Orange County, Washington Post Leave a comment
An Orange Coast College professor is under scrutiny for post-election classroom comments disparaging Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
Peter Holley reports: The Orange Coast College Republicans in Costa Mesa, Calif., are filing a complaint against human sexuality professor Olga Perez Stable Cox after video shows her criticizing the outcome of the election.
Like many Americans, Olga Perez Stable Cox has strong feelings about the outcome of this year’s presidential election.
“It’s alarming. It’s scaremongering. It’s irrational. It’s a rant. And it doesn’t belong in the classroom.”
Unlike many Americans, her job offers the convenience of a captive audience with whom she can share those feelings.
Cox, a professor at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Calif., did exactly that days after the election while standing in front of her students in a class — unleashing a multi-minute, hyperbole-filled harangue in which she called Donald Trump’s election an “act of terrorism,” referred to the president-elect as a “white supremacist” and said “we have been assaulted.”
“This is a place that prides itself on being a diverse student college, and her comments go against all of that. You’re dealing with a diverse population, and when she states that ‘we are the majority,’ she’s not taking into account that there may be Republican students in he class of over 200 students — she’s not being inclusive.”
Cox — a psychology professor who teaches a class on human sexuality — referred to Vice President-elect Mike Pence as “one of the most anti-gay humans in the country.” She also told her students that the nation is as divided now as it was “in Civil War times.”
Steele sent the following letter to Harkins, the school president:
“First of all, we are the majority; more of us voted to not have that kind of leadership, and we didn’t win because of the way our electoral college is set up, but we are the majority, and that’s helping me to feel better,” she said. “I’m relieved that we live in California. It is one of the best states and I love that and I love living here, but I’m especially proud of our legislature who did put out a message.”
Cox’s comments were recorded by a conservative student in her class who found her statements offensive and decided to share the video with the Orange Coast College Republicans, according Joshua Recalde-Martinez, a political science major and president of the campus Republicans group.
[Read the full story here, at The Washington Post]
Recalde-Martinez said his group decided to publicize the video this week after OCC President Dennis Harkins failed to address Cox’s behavior or respond to the group’s complaint “in a timely manner.” Recalde-Martinez said a handful of conservative students were present for Cox’s comments and many felt ostracized by her words and afraid that their grades might be affected by freely speaking their minds.
The student who filmed the video has asked to remain anonymous for fear of facing retribution in Cox’s classroom, Recalde-Martinez said.
The Orange Coast College Republicans plan to file a formal complaint with the school and have hired an attorney, Shawn Steele, who is a past chairman of the California Republican Party. Read the rest of this entry »
The Left Loses its Mind Over Conservative Group’s ‘Professor Watch List’
Posted: December 1, 2016 Filed under: Education, Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, Think Tank | Tags: Academia, Brandon Victor Dixon, Charlie Kirk, CNN, Communism, Donald Trump, Frankfurt School, Hysteria, Left Wing, Leftism, Marxism, Mike Pence, President of the United States, Professor, professorwatchlist.org, propaganda, Rebecca Schuman, Slate Magazine, Socialism, TPUSA, Twitter, United States, University 1 Comment
Trolling Success Level 100%
Annabel Scott reports: Turning Point USA, a conservative organization made up of high school and college students, has compiled a website database of more than 200 professors at universities across the nation that “discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.”
“This list watches over us at our country’s darkest turning point, poised to inflame the tinder-dry, gasoline-soaked pitchforks of a mob that has just stepped boldly into the light.”
— Slate author Rebecca Schuman, hyperventilating at keyboard
The website, professorwatchlist.org, doesn’t list just any professor — TPUSA requires proof.
[Read the full story here, at The Daily Caller]
“This watchlist is an aggregated list of pre-existing news stories that were published by a variety of news organizations,” the website states. “While we accept tips for new additions on our website, we only publish profiles on incidents that have already been reported by a credible source.”
“Intentionally or not, the Professor Watchlist, simply by being a self-styled watch list, has aligned itself with the ugly, frightening new political status quo. This is, indeed, a turning point in our country, a time of fear unprecedented on this continent since the Second World War. Fear of being placed on a list, targeted as undesirable, and subjected to whatever happens next.”
— Slate author Rebecca Schuman
The website also says that TPUSA is not attempting to silence the professors on the list, but instead they are exposing “specific incidents and names of professors that advance a radical agenda in lecture halls.”
“The website has thin information in its entries and a less-than-smooth search function. That could be a reflection of how rapidly it was created to capitalize on the political climate, particularly after the election of Donald J. Trump as president.”
— Julio C. Pino, an associate professor history at Kent State
Since its recent debut, the list has seen no shortage of harsh criticism.
Slate author Rebecca Schuman deemed the watchlist “grotesque,” and called it “a stock agency for photos of self-satisfied young white people.”
“If the professors are so scared of what’s going on in their lecture halls being made public then that is their problem, not ours. We’re not trying to prevent teachers from saying anything. All we want here is to shine a light on what’s going on in our universities and the response has been incredible.”
— TPUSA founder and CEO, Charlie Kirk, defending the list
“Intentionally or not, the Professor Watchlist, simply by being a self-styled watch list, has aligned itself with the ugly, frightening new political status quo,” writes Schuman. Read the rest of this entry »
Trump Disses DC
Posted: November 20, 2016 Filed under: History, Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Alexander Hamilton, Ash Carter, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Kevin D. Williamson, Manhattan, Mike Pence, New York, Robert Kraft, The New York Times, Trump, Trump Tower (New York City), Twitter, White House Leave a comment
Downgrading Washington’s importance is one of the few good ideas Trump has had.
Kevin D. Williamson writes: I do not agree with Donald Trump about much of anything. Early in the primary season, I wrote a little book titled “The Case against Trump.” I believe him to be morally unfit and intellectually unprepared for the office to which he has been elected. Which is why one of the most annoying of my tasks for the next four (one assumes!) years is going to be pointing out that while Trump may not be right about very much, his critics often are wrong.
“Politics should not be the central activity in our lives, or even in our shared public life, and consequently the political capital should be subordinate to the financial and cultural capitals.”
Example A: Trump apparently does not want to live in Washington, and this has inspired a chorus of 
discord and dissonance to rival the oeuvre of Yoko Ono.
[Read Kevin D. Williamson’s article here, at National Review]
There is no particular reason for Trump to live full-time in Washington. Washington is a dump, one of the least attractive and least inspiring American cities. Trump Tower is a dump, too, a big vertical void in the middle of one of the least interesting parts of Manhattan, but Trump apparently likes it, and he has gone to the trouble of gold-plating his toilets, which you do not do unless you 
are really planning to plant yourself in place.
[ALSO SEE – “The Case Against Trump“ at Amazon.com]
Trump’s hesitation to set up housekeeping in our nation’s hideous capital is not causing klaxons of alarum because people are concerned about good government.
[Splendid Washington: Our Nation’s Capital Is Too Rich]
A nation genuinely concerned about good government would not have entrusted its chief administrative post to Donald J. Trump, a frequently bankrupt casino operator and game-show host. Read the rest of this entry »
Obama Is Still Living In His Bubble
Posted: November 19, 2016 Filed under: Politics, White House | Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Lyndon B. Johnson, Mike Pence, Republican Party (United States), Ronald Reagan, September 11 attacks Leave a comment
President Obama patted himself on the back for a job well done at a press conference on Monday, after voters rebuked his policies in the November election.
2016 Election: Voters just rejected his policies, rejected his Pollyannaish view of the economy and handed his party defeats at every level of government. But as far as President Obama is concerned, everything he’s done is magic.
“Between 2009, when Barack Obama took office, and today, as he prepares to retire from it, more than 1,100 Democratic elected officials lost their jobs to Republicans. That number is unprecedented.”
— John Podhoretz and Noah Rothman, in Commentary
After the shellacking they took in the election last week, Democrats have been counseling each other to get outside their liberal “bubble” so they can reconnect with regular Americans. But not Obama.
At his press conference on Monday, Obama failed to show a scintilla of humility. His economic polices are working, ObamaCare is doing better than expected, all is well. “We should be very proud,” he said, that “when we turn over the keys the car is in pretty good shape.”
Proud? Is he kidding? Let’s review the evidence.
First, Obama has just suffered one of the harshest repudiations on record.
Despite Obama’s continued insistence on his own masterful handling of the economy, working class Americans handed the keys to the candidate who pledged to undo just about all of Obama’s so-called achievements. Trump vows to repeal ObamaCare, do a 180 degree turn on Obama’s tax policy, undo Dodd-Frank, reverse course on his immigration policy, walk away from Obama’s global warming agreements and heavy-handed regulations. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Krauthammer: Press Itching to Attack Trump and ‘Can’t Take a Month or Two Off’
Posted: November 18, 2016 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Ben Carson, Charles Krauthammer, Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, media, Mike Pence, news, Republican Party (United States), The Press, video 1 Comment
Responding to Donald Trump’s statement in support of Jeff Sessions, Charles Krauthammer said that it’s hard to tell what the president-elect is thinking, and that the media is foolish to criticize him this early.
Abe, Trump to Meet Nov. 17 in New York
Posted: November 11, 2016 Filed under: Asia, Diplomacy, Japan, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Josh Earnest, Kelly Ayotte, Mike Pence, Republican Party (United States) Leave a comment
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed with U.S. Republican President-elect Donald Trump during a telephone conversation on Thursday that they will aim to meet in New York on Nov. 17.
Trump spoke with key figures at home and abroad over the phone after winning the U.S. presidential election. He was to meet President Barack Obama on Thursday to discuss a transition of power in preparation for his presidential term.
Abe talked to Trump over the phone for about 20 minutes on Thursday morning, according to a Japanese government official. The prime minister congratulated Trump on his presidential win, saying, “I’m sure the United States will become a greater country under the extraordinary leadership of incoming President Trump.”
Trump praised the achievements of Abe’s economic measures and said he is looking forward to working with Abe for the next few years.
Trump also said Japan and the United States have an outstanding partnership and that he wants to strengthen this special relationship further.
Abe proposed an early meeting, saying, “Peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, which is the center of global economic growth, is a source of U.S. strength. The strong Japan-U.S. alliance is indispensable to supporting peace and stability in the region.”
Trump accepted the offer and expressed his desire for forward-looking discussions between Japan and the United States.
They did not refer to issues such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal, which Trump opposes, and an increased burden on Japan to cover the costs for stationing U.S. forces. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Kellyanne Conway Blames Republicans for the Possibility of a Trump Loss
Posted: November 8, 2016 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: 2016, Associated Press, Donald Trump, Donald Trump presidential campaign, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hillary Clinton, Kellyanne Conway, Mike Pence, MSNBC, New York City, Republican Party (United States) Leave a comment
Kellyanne Conway joined MSNBC’s Chuck Todd to talk about her candidate’s chances, and after some positive generalities, she let slip that they are disappointed with the support of the party.
[VIDEO] Every Time Mike Pence and Tim Kaine said ‘Elaine’ During the Debate
Posted: October 6, 2016 Filed under: Entertainment, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: media, Mike Pence, Tim Kaine, Vice Presidential Debate, video 1 Comment
Communist Party Unites Behind Hillary
Posted: August 7, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: African American, Associated Press, Baltimore, Communism, Democratic National Convention, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Marxism, Mike Pence, Republican Party (United States), Socialism, Tim Kaine, Vice President of the United States 3 Comments
WASHINGTON – The Communist Party USA may not control many actual votes, but what they lack in support is made up for in enthusiasm.
That passion was in full display with a seven-person team of “reporters” covering their national political convention last month. And their
convention was the Democratic National Convention that nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton as theirundisputed candidate for president of the United States.
Exaggeration? Judge for yourself.
“Donald Trump steals wages. He’d pick your pocket in a New York minute. He lies and spreads hate. He’s a racist and a bully.”
“Do not underestimate Trump and the Republicans. While the establishment GOP was surprised by the successful insurgency of so-called outsider Trump, they are united in purpose: delivering more inequality, more misery, more instability and violence against working-class people of all races, genders, religions and sexual orientations. They are united with giant corporations and the billionaire class in their drive to lower wages and living conditions and increase their profits and power.”
“With Senator Bernie Sanders endorsing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the message was loud and clear, “We’re stronger together.” That is what it will take to win in November.”
“The union movement, communities of color, students, women, progressives and the newborn “political revolution” can help generate voter enthusiasm by talking and tweeting about Clinton and the issues. Challenging sexism is a must as well as racism, which has been a coded (and overt) staple of presidential elections for decades.”
“Winning in a landslide” is needed now more than ever, and that landslide for Clinton could swing control of the Senate to Democrats, and other potential positive effects could be felt on the ‘down ballot’ congressional and state races.”
The Communists, who for decades ran their own candidates for president and vice president but supported Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, don’t just like Hillary and Bernie. The party also gave a big thumbs-up to Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine.
From left: LM Kaganovich, Chairman Mao Tse-tung, NA Bulganin, Joseph Stalin, Walter Ulbricht, J cedenbal, NS Khrushchev and I Koplenig (Getty)
“He’s a great choice,” wrote staffer Larry Rubin on the first day of the convention. “Kaine pushed the political envelope of Virginia, an erstwhile red southern state, in a progressive direction – and won! He was elected mayor of Richmond, then governor of the state and then senator. Everyone agrees: he’s a sincere, nice guy.” Read the rest of this entry »
FULL-SCALE NON-STOP GLOBAL PANIC GRIPS THE GOP, NATION, WORLD
Posted: August 3, 2016 Filed under: Breaking News, Global, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Donald Trump, Elite media, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Fox Business Network, Global Panic, Greta Van Susteren, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Khizr Khan, Mayor of New York City, Mike Pence, Newt Gingrich, Paul J. Manafort, Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee, Republican Party (United States), Rudy Giuliani Leave a comment
The Republican Party was in turmoil again Wednesday as party leaders, strategists and donors voiced increasing alarm about the flailing state of Donald Trump’s candidacy and fears that the presidential 
nominee was damaging the party with an extraordinary week of self-inflicted mistakes, gratuitous attacks and missed opportunities.
“A new level of panic hit the street. It’s time for a serious reset.”
— Veteran operative Scott Reed
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was described as “very frustrated” and stressed by Trump’s behavior over the past week, having run out of excuses to make on the nominee’s behalf with donors and other party leaders, according to multiple people familiar with the events.
“The current race is which of these two is the more unacceptable, because right now neither of them is acceptable. Trump is helping her to win by proving he is more unacceptable than she is.”
— Newt Gingrich
Meanwhile, Trump’s top campaign advisers are failing to instill discipline on their candidate, who has spent the past days lunging from one controversy to another while seemingly skipping chances to go on the offensive against his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
[ALSO SEE – Report: GOP Exploring Contingency Plan in Case Trump Drops Out]
“A new level of panic hit the street,” said veteran operative Scott Reed, chief strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “It’s time for a serious reset.”
Trump allies on Wednesday publicly urged the candidate to reboot, furious that he has allowed his confrontation with the parents of dead U.S. Army captain Humayun Khan to continue for nearly a week. They also are angry with Trump over his surprising refusal in a Tuesday interview with The Washington Post to endorse House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) or Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) — two of the party’s top elected officials — in their upcoming primary campaigns.
“The current race is which of these two is the more unacceptable, because right now neither of them is acceptable,” Gingrich said in a Wednesday morning telephone interview. “Trump is helping her to win by proving he is more unacceptable than she is.”
Gingrich said Trump has only a matter of weeks to reverse course. “Anybody who is horrified by Hillary should hope that Trump will take a deep breath and learn some new skills,” he said. “He cannot win the presidency operating the way he is now. She can’t be bad enough to elect him if he’s determined to make this many mistakes.”
Reed, who managed Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, recommended that Trump “stop doing silly interviews nine times a day that get you off message” and deliver a major address seeking to reset the campaign establishing himself as the change candidate. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Pence Stares Into the Abyss
Posted: July 18, 2016 Filed under: Humor, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: 60 Minutes, Donald Trump, media, Mike Pence, news, video Leave a comment
Trump On 60 Minutes: ‘I’m the Only Presidential Candidate Who Can Air-Kiss While Playing Air-Accordion’
Posted: July 17, 2016 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics, The Butcher's Notebook, White House | Tags: 60 Minutes, Donald Trump, Governor Pence, Leslie Stahl, media, Mike Pence, news Leave a comment
Modern Sin: Holding On to Your Belief
Posted: May 1, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Religion, Think Tank | Tags: Anal sex, Andrew Napolitano, Asa Hutchinson, Christianity, Indiana, Mike Pence, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Same-sex marriage, Sexual orientation, United States Leave a comment
Trying to put florists, bakers and others out of work for unapproved ideas about marriage
Charlotte Allen
writes: On Tuesday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that asks whether the Constitution requires states to allow same-sex couples to marry. Four days before the hearing, in Oregon, an administrative-law judge proposed a $135,000 fine against Aaron and Melissa Klein, proprietors of the Sweet Cakes bakery in Gresham, for the “emotional distress” suffered by a lesbian couple for whom the Kleins, citing their Christian belief that marriage is between a man and a woman, had declined to bake a wedding cake in 2013.
“Media sympathy for the Kleins’ claim that being forced to participate in a same-sex wedding would violate their consciences ranged from nonexistent to…nonexistent. A CNN headline dubbed the Kleins’ since-closed business the ‘anti-gay bakery’; the Huffington Post prefers ‘anti-gay baker.’”
Same-sex marriage wasn’t legal in Oregon when the Kleins made their decision. But the couple was found to have violated a 2008 Oregon law forbidding discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation.
“The victors have dropped their conciliatory stance. Bubonic plague-level hysteria surged through the media, academia and mega-corporate America in March after Indiana passed a law—modeled on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993—that would enable religious believers to opt out of universally applicable laws under some circumstances.”
Media sympathy for the Kleins’ claim that being forced to participate in a same-sex wedding would violate their consciences ranged from nonexistent to . . . nonexistent. A CNN headline dubbed the Kleins’ since-closed business the “anti-gay bakery”; the Huffington Post prefers “anti-gay baker.”
[Read the full text here, at WSJ]
[Also see Bake Me a Cake — Or Else by Mark Hemingway]
Supporters of the Kleins—who have five children and operated the bakery out of their home—quickly went on the crowdfunding website GoFundMe to try to raise money to help the family pay legal fees and the fine, which still requires approval by the state labor commissioner. The effort managed to raise more than $100,000 in a few hours. 
But then, on Saturday night, GoFundMe abruptly shut down the online appeal because the Kleins’ case involved “formal charges.”
[Check out Charlotte Allen’s book “The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus“ at Amazon.com]
The Kleins join a small number of bakers, florists and photographers around the country, most of whom say they serve and even employ gays in their over-the-counter operations but who also insist that their Christian beliefs in man-woman marriage preclude their providing services to same-sex weddings. Those numbers will probably dwindle further: Many states are treating those acts of conscience as ordinary bigotry and, by levying or threatening fines, forcing those small business owners into costly and potentially ruinous litigation. Read the rest of this entry »
With Extra Cheese: Indiana Pizzeria Owners Go Underground as Donations Near $1 Million
Posted: April 3, 2015 Filed under: Food & Drink, Politics | Tags: Arkansas, Associated Press, Boycott, discrimination, Freedom of religion, Gender identity, Indiana, Law, Mike Pence, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Sexual orientation, United States Armed Forces Leave a comment
The owners of a pizza shop at the center of the debate over Indiana’s religious freedom law have gone into hiding.
Instead of reporting abt progressives attacking #MemoriesPizza, @alixbryan chose to join the attack @cbs6 @cbsnews pic.twitter.com/04D9GDLJWO
— T Bradley (@TBradleyNC) April 3, 2015
Fundraiser for Memories Pizza in Indiana concludes, raises final total of $842,387: http://t.co/XyfVrGH3EJ pic.twitter.com/EjNYlYKkJ1
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) April 4, 2015
Dear Bic: I use your pens. But you let my enemy use a pen. Of course you realize, this means war…. #batshit pic.twitter.com/cB8iJs5Lma — Patrick Henrys Ghost (@Pissed_Pat) April 3, 2015
The law’s latest version now prohibits business discrimination against protected groups like the gay community. It also forbids using the law as a legal defense in situations where such discrimination may have occurred. Read the rest of this entry »
Muslim Facial Hair, Amish Buggies, and Native American Peyote Rituals: This Map Shows Every State With Religious Freedom Laws
Posted: April 2, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Religion | Tags: American Civil Liberties Union, Anti-Zionism, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Freedom of religion, Indiana, Law, Mike Pence, Religious Freedom Restoration Act 1 Comment
Dave Johnson and Katy Steinmetz report:The national outcry over Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) has turned attention towards the 19 states with their own versions of the law and the others that are considering similar measures. The timeline below shows when each state passed legislation, starting with Connecticut in 1993. Click on a state for links to the laws or pending bills.
The fight over RFRAs dates to 1990, when the Supreme Court ruled against an Oregonian named Al Smith, who was a quarter American Indian. He had argued that his use of peyote in a Native American Church ritual—an act that cost him his job—should be protected by the First Amendment. He lost, and the ruling made it easier for the government to place restrictions on the freedom of religion. Read the rest of this entry »
Kevin D. Williamson: The War on the Private Mind
Posted: April 2, 2015 Filed under: Censorship, Politics, Religion, Think Tank | Tags: Apple Inc, Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, Ashton Kutcher, Bill Clinton, Brainwashing, Dan Savage, Ellen DeGeneres, Indiana, Kevin D. Williamson, LGBT community, Mike Pence, National Review, Progressivism, propaganda, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Socialism, Stalin, Walmart Leave a comment
Dr. Bill van Bise, electrical engineer, conducting a demonstration of Soviet scientific data and schematics for beaming a magnetic field into the brain to cause visual hallucinations. Source: CNN
In Indiana, in Arkansas, and in the boardroom
Kevin D. Williamson
writes: There are two easy ways to get a Republican to roll over and put his paws up in the air: The first is to write him a check, which is the political version of scratching his belly, and the second is to call him a bigot. In both cases, it helps if you have a great deal of money behind you.
Tim Cook, who in his role as chief executive of the world’s most valuable company personifies precisely the sort of oppression to which gay people in America are subjected, led the hunting party when Indiana’s governor Mike Pence signed into law the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, while Walmart, a company that cannot present its hindquarters enthusiastically enough to the progressives who hate it and everything for which it stands, dispatched its CEO, C. Douglas McMillon, to head off a similar effort in Arkansas, where Governor Asa Hutchison rolled over immediately….(read more)
“Adlai Stevenson famously offered this definition: ‘A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.’ We do not live in that society.”
…There are three problems with rewarding those who use accusations of bigotry as a political cudgel. First, those who seek to protect religious liberties are not bigots, and going along with false accusations that they are makes one a party to a lie.
[Read the full text here, at National Review]
Second, it is an excellent way to lose political contests, since there is almost nothing — up to and including requiring algebra classes — that the Left will not denounce as bigotry. Third, and related, it rewards and encourages those who cynically deploy 
accusations of bigotry for their own political ends.
[Kevin D. Williamson’s book “The End Is Near and It’s Going to Be Awesome” is available at Amazon]
An excellent illustration of this dynamic is on display in the recent pronouncements of columnist and gay-rights activist Dan Savage, who, in what seems to be an effort to resurrect every lame stereotype about the shrill, hysterical, theatrical gay man, declaimed that the efforts of those who do not wish to see butchers and bakers and wedding-bouquet makers forced by their government at gunpoint to violate their religious scruples is — you probably have guessed already — nothing less than the consecration of Jim Crow Junior. “Anti-black bigots, racist bigots, during Jim Crow and segregation made the exact same arguments that you’re hearing people make now,” Savage said. Given the dramatic difference in the social and political position of blacks in the time of Bull Connor and gays in the time of Ellen DeGeneres, this is strictly Hitler-was-a-vegetarian stuff, the elevation of trivial formal similarities over dramatic substantial differences. The choices for explaining this are a.) moral illiteracy; b.) intellectual dishonesty; c.) both a and b…(read more)
David Weigel: Wrong Side of History? ‘Democrats Are Endorsing Something More Radical Than Voters Are Comfortable With’
Posted: April 1, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Religion | Tags: Barack Obama, David Weigel, Democratic Party (United States), First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Freedom of religion, George Stephanopoulos, Indiana, Josh Earnest, LGBT community, Mike Pence, Religious Freedom Restoration Act 1 Comment
David Weigel writes:
..it’s now expected for Democrats to denounce RFRAs, just as large corporations are denouncing them. In doing so, all of the critics are on the wrong side of public polling. According to a March edition of the Marist poll, 54 percent of Americans agreed with “allowing First Amendment religious liberty protection or exemptions for faith based organizations and individuals even when it conflicts with government laws.” By a two-point margin, 47-45, even a plurality of Democratic voters agreed with that.
The margins were even larger in opposition to laws that proposed “penalties or fines for individuals who refuse to provide wedding-related services to same sex couples even if their refusal is based on their religious beliefs.” No Democrat is seriously proposing this; the nearest cultural analogue may be the story of Memories Pizza, the Indiana shop whose owner said that he would decline to provide pies to gay weddings, and saw its Yelp! page firebombed with angry comments. (The popularity of delivery pizza at gay wedding ceremonials is well known.) Still, according to Marist, Americans oppose penalties on businesses like Memories by a 65-31 margin. The margin among Democrats: 62-34 against. Read the rest of this entry »
A Bunch of Crazy-Pants Cuckoo Bananas Bigots Speak Out for Religious Liberty
Posted: April 1, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, Religion, White House | Tags: Acts of the Apostles, Antonin Scalia, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Democratic Party (United States), Freedom of religion, Indiana, Mike Pence, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Supreme Court of the United States, Ted Kennedy 1 CommentWow, just check out the hate!
Chuck Schumer:
[VIDEO]
“The parade of horribles has already begun. The American people today know that religious freedom is not a luxury. I believe this legislation is essential.”
Steny Hoyer:
[VIDEO]
“It’s no accident the Founders decided to put the free practice of religion first… and this Congress should do the same…It was the genius of our framers…that we were not to leave minority religious practices to the…majority…If there is a shared American value, it is a commitment to religious liberty.”
Jerrold Nadler:
[VIDEO]
“It’s no accident the Founders decided to put the free practice of religion first… and this Congress should do the same…It was the genius of our framers…that we were not to leave minority religious practices to the…majority…If there is a shared American value, it is a commitment to religious liberty.”
How RFRA Works, Explained In One Chart
Posted: April 1, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Religion | Tags: Acts of the Apostles, Balancing test, Bill Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Free Exercise Clause, Freedom of religion, Indiana, Mike Pence, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, United States 1 Comment
The above infographic from the 1st Amendment Partnership very clearly spells out what RFRA does, how it’s used by courts, and what happens at the end of a case where RFRA is invoked.
Despite the deliberate misinformation being spread by Leftist activists and their friends in the media, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, is not a complicated law. It is not difficult to understand. It is not a blanket license to discriminate.
[Read the full text here, at The Federalist]
The RFRA statutes, which currently bind nearly two dozen state governmentsas well as the federal government, require courts to use a simple balancing test when weighing the facts of specific religious freedom cases. The laws state that the government may only substantially burden the free exercise of religion of a person or organization if the government 1) has a compelling interest to do so, and 2) is using the least restrictive means possible to further that compelling interest…(read more)
My So-Called Religious Freedom
Posted: April 1, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Religion, Think Tank | Tags: Arkansas, Bill Clinton, CNN, Freedom of religion, Governor of Indiana, Indiana, Mike Pence, National Review, Religious Freedom Restoration Act Leave a comment
National Review‘s Katherine Connell notes major media’s new House Style:
[read the full text here, at National Review]
Deroy Murdock: ‘Are We Prepared to Handcuff a Feminist Photographer Who Won’t Take Pictures at a Strip Club?’
Posted: April 1, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Religion, Think Tank | Tags: Baptists, Barack Obama, Family Research Council, Freedom of religion, Indiana, Ku Klux Klan, Mike Pence, Same-sex marriage, Southern Poverty Law Center, Westboro Baptist Church 2 Comments
At National Review, Deroy Murdock asks some questions.
• Do we still respect a woman’s right to choose not to bake a cake for a gay couple?
• Do we respect a woman’s right to choose not to take photographs at a Christmas party at a men’s club because she is a feminist who deeply loathes all-male establishments?
• Do we respect the rights of groups of women to choose to enjoy the sisterhood of a women’s club where they need not cope with men?
• Do we respect the Junior League’s right to choose to remain a female-only group, as it has been since 1901, or must they now accept male members?
[Read the full text here at National Review]
• Do we respect a lesbian bar owner’s right to choose to post a No Men Allowed sign in her window because her customers want to enjoy their all-female company in peace and don’t want to associate there with a bunch of hairy dudes with Adam’s apples, brawny shoulders, testosterone in their veins, and penises in their pants?
• Do we respect a gay merchant’s decision to tell a heterosexual couple to stop making out inside his club full of gay men who could live without such a spectacle while meeting other gay men?
“Bake this!” — Can a gay baker just say no?
• Do we respect a gay baker’s right to choose not to bake a cake for the Westboro Baptist Church with icing that reads God Hates Fags?
• Do we respect a fundamentalist Muslim baker’s choice not to bake a cake for a bar mitzvah because she really is not crazy about the Star of David?
[Also see – “Indiana’s Law Is Not the Return of Jim Crow,” by Jonah Goldberg]
• Do we respect a black jazz band’s choice not to perform at a Ku Klux Klan chapter’s “Negro Minstrel Show”?
• Do we respect a pro–gun control photographer’s right to choose not to snap pictures at a Sharpshooter of the Year banquet organized by the local chapter of the National Rifle Association? Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] ‘There is nothing more tiresome in modern American life than the indignation sweepstakes we get in all the time to see who can be most angry’
Posted: March 31, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, Religion, U.S. News | Tags: Abu Dhabi, Apple Inc, Fox News, Freedom of religion, Gay, George Will, Indiana, media, Mike Pence, National Review, New York, news, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Saudi Arabia, Special Report, United States, video Leave a commentFrom The Corner,
Responding to the outrage surrounding the Hoosier State’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Will noted on Tuesday’s Special Report…
“Tim Cook, CEO of Apple thinks Indiana is a horrible place. He opened marketing and retailing operations in Saudi Arabia two months before a man was sentenced to 450 lashes for being gay. The selective indignation is itself wonderful.”
“There are obviously two important principles at stake here,” Will continued…
“One is, the government should rarely, and only with extreme difficulty, compel people to take actions contrary to their consciences. The other is that when you open your doors to commerce you open them to everybody. That’s a simple thing…You can work this out, but the indignation isn’t helping.”
Tim Cook Needs to Do Some Homework
Posted: March 31, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics, Religion, Think Tank | Tags: Apple Inc, Arkansas, discrimination, Freedom of religion, Hillary Clinton, Indiana, Law, Legislation, Mike Pence, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Sexual orientation, The Washington Post, Tim Cook Leave a comment
“Apple’s Gay CEO Tim Cook Wants to Boycott Indiana for Its Allegedly Anti-Gay RFRA, But Will Gladly Sell You an iPhone At Its Boutique in Riyadh, Where They’ll Stone You to Death For Being Gay.”
Ramesh Ponnuru writes: Tim Cook, the chief executive officer of Apple, is spreading misinformation about a new religious-freedom law in Indiana. That law and similar ones, he writes in the Washington Post, “say individuals can cite their personal religious beliefs to refuse service to a customer or resist a state nondiscrimination law.” He goes on to claim that they “rationalize injustice by pretending to defend something many of us hold dear. They go against the very principles our nation was founded on, and they have the potential to undo decades of progress toward greater equality.”
“What these religious-freedom laws say is that government can require people to violate their religious beliefs only when it is pursuing a compelling interest, and must do so in the least intrusive manner possible. Thus the Supreme Court recently ruled under a federal religious-freedom law that a Muslim prisoner doesn’t have to shave his beard.”
Discrimination against gay customers or employees is what opponents of the law are especially concerned about. But that’s a strange argument to make in the context of Indiana, which lacks any state nondiscrimination law on sexual orientation for people to resist. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is legal almost everywhere in the state, and was before this religious-freedom law passed.
“Cook may not be aware of this point or others that cut against his argument because reporting on this controversy has been abysmal. Cook may also be unaware that the ‘wave of legislation’ that he fears has largely already happened. A very similar religious-freedom law has been on the federal books for 22 years…”
[Read the full text here, at bloombergview.com]
Cook may not be aware of this point or others that cut against his argument because reporting on this controversy has been abysmal. Cook may also be unaware that the “wave of legislation” that he fears has largely already happened. A very similar religious-freedom law has been on the federal books for 22 years, and that law itself codified a Supreme Court doctrine that had been in place for most of the previous few decades. Nineteen states besides Indiana have similar laws. Read the rest of this entry »
pundit from another planet 