Anybody who knows anything about politics knows that misdirection is a huge part of it. As Sun Tzu said in The Art of War, misdirection is vital. And, paraphrasing Metternich, politics is merely war “by other means”.
Consider what happened during Operation Overlord, the run-up to D-Day. In the preparations toward D-Day, the Allies placed General George S Patton, Jr, in southeastern England and actually built a false army made up of balloon tanks around him. The intent was to fool the Germans that the actual invasion was going to take place at Pas de Calais (which is only 26 miles from Patton’s supposed base). The actual invasion however was was going to take place from the south of England and its intended target was the Normandy peninsula, much farther away. Patton’s placement in East Anglia was merely a ruse.
That’s a classic example of misdirection.
Another tactic, which is more long-term, is telegraphing one’s intentions should one win the war. The British and the Americans had told the Germans that should they surrender to them, they would be treated mercifully, in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. The Soviets on the other hand, made no such promises. Therefore in the final days of WWII, tens of thousands of Germans raced to meet General Patton’s Third Army in order to lay down their arms. Another example was during the Cold War, when NATO told Soviet pilots that if they were able to successfully fly a MIG to one of our airbases, they would get a one million dollar bonus. Two can play that game however: the Soviets successfully infiltrated the anti-Vietnam War movement and from thence, the American professoriate.
So too in politics.
In the immediate run-up to the 2016 election, Doug Schoen, a long-time Clinton operative, upset the electoral apple-cart somewhat when he announced that –given James Comey’s last-minute letter to the Congress regarding Hillary Clinton’s emails–he could no longer “in good conscience” support Clinton for president. Given Schoen’s former fealty to the Clintons, this was a thunderclap. To me, it indicated that Schoen knew which way the wind was blowing; in addition, I believe he was encouraging others who were sitting on the fence to vote for Trump. I imagine he was getting something on the side, as well. Who knows?
Actually, there was more to it than Schoen feathering his nest, or so I believe. I fervently believe that Schoen was signaling the intentions of the Establishment (or at least a part of it). That is to say that certain bigwigs had had enough of Hillary’s shenanigans and that they didn’t believe the polls. As such, they were willing to make peace with candidate Trump, as well as those who were propping him up behind the scenes. If he won, they would find another way to derail him and his agenda. That’s kind of like the way the game is played.
In retrospect, this shouldn’t be surprising. Presently, a herd of never-Trumpers and former Bush operatives have come out in favor of Joe Biden, while several Democrat office-holders have endorsed Trump. Celebrities have likewise made their intentions known. The purpose of all this is to sway the electorate one way or the other.
But sometimes, one has to dig deeply into the popular culture to discern something momentous. Something which in retrospect, will allow a person to say “Yeah, I should have known the election was going to go this way. After all, this was a clear signal to that effect.” And make no mistake, such incidents are purposeful. Unlike accidental buffooneries like the Dukakis-in-the-tank moment or Hillary being shoved into her van on 9/11 or Bush 41 looking at his wristwatch in the middle of a debate, what I am talking about is something that is far from accidental. Or a mere covering-all-bases-type of electioneering.
Below, you will find two examples of political theater at its highest (and dare I say, most deliberate) form. First off is perhaps the best political commercial for a Congressional race –or more accurately five Congressional races–that has ever been produced. It’s called Texas: Reloaded. To say it’s slick would be an understatement: we’re talking seriously good production values with lotsa coin put into it. Did I mention Hollywood values? The Avengers franchise was the cultural referent for it. It’s not only powerful but it’s fun to watch. Here it is in all its glory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd6b_8OlwXU
Needless to say, it’s gone viral. It’s so good that political operatives will be studying it for decades to come.
The second one is even better. It’s a clever, behind-the-scenes series of “interviews” for a faux movie called 2020 The Movie: Cast Interview. In my opinion, this one that bears serious attention. There are several layers to it, which we’ll explore in some detail. The faux interviews are with several actors who play Trump, Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Barack and Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Warren, and others. The production values are absolutely top-notch. It’s both funny and entertaining on its own merits. What was startling to me was that of all of the political figures who were lampooned, all (but Trump) were Democrats. And here’s the kicker: the Democrats were shown in a most unflattering light.
Now the people who they got to play the respective politicos are well-known Hollywood types: Chris Hemsworth (Trump), Jessica Walter (Pelosi), Johnny Depp (Elizabeth Warren), Jason Alexander (Brian Stelter) and so on. You get the picture.
How unflattering? You tell me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k3TwzTtCG0
Think about it, they got someone to play Jerry Sandusky (a convicted paedophile) to play Joe Biden. And Johnny Depp, a known Trump-hater, absolutely savages Elizabeth Warren. It’s seriously funny. And seriously contemptuous. None of the politicos lampooned escape the satirical sword. None, that is to say, except for Trump. Kinda makes you go “Hmmmm….”
What’s fascinating to me is that none of the actors enlisted for this spoof are known Republicans. In fact, two of them –Johnny Depp and Jussie Smollett (who plays Barack Obama)–are out-and-out liberals. A few years ago, Depp actually lauded John Wilkes Booth and mockingly asked when was the last time an actor had killed an American president. As for Smollett, in his “interview”, he rips Obama a new one. And this is where it gets really bad: the notorious meme that Michelle Obama is really a man is given full throttle by Tyler Perry. Ouch.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that some highly-placed GOP operatives put this one out. But there’s no way that they could have. All of the players (save perhaps Hemsworth) are well-known liberals. And anyway, had Republican agents put it out, they would have been condemned seven ways to Sunday by all the “right” people –RINOs included. And yet the players in this spoof say absolutely terrible things about Democrats.
I can’t wrap my head around this. To my mind, there are only three possibilities:
1. The actors are really closet conservatives who have been playing the part of liberals for all these years.
2. They really don’t care. It’s just a massive roast, like the old Dean Martin Man of the Hour programs that were so popular in the 1970s and which all the players let ‘er rip and have fun at each others expense. Or
3. Somebody really high up knows which way the wind is blowing and they’re telegraphing to the Democrats that it’s going to be a massive Trump victory in November. As for the actors involved, they are merely being given a script and told to “get with the program”, personal principles be damned.
Option #1 is preposterous. Number 2 is possible I suppose but one doesn’t put up a lot of money to put out something this polished for satire’s sake. Even the still photos are picture-perfect. This wasn’t made-up-on-the-fly YouTube production. Not with these particular actors. It’s that good. And the ribbing that took place during the Dean Martin roasts were done in good-humor and understood as such. I can’t say the same thing for 2020: The Movie. (Again, there is nothing funny at all about regurgitating the meme about Michelle Obama’s sex or Nancy Pelosi’s “self-involvment”.)
So is it option #3? This wouldn’t be the first time that Hollywood liberals caved on their principles. Back in the 1930s, the big Hollywood liberals (and actual communists like Dalton Trumbo) waged a massive propaganda effort against the Third Reich. Then when Herr Hitler and Marshall Stalin signed their infamous non-aggression pact, they switched on a dime and put out movies that preached American neutrality. Pictures like That Remarkable Andrew (a puff piece in which the ghost of Old Hickory tells FDR to stay out of another “useless” European war). That was the program, until Hitler stabbed Stalin in the back. Then it was back to “good ole Uncle Joe” and pieces of dreck like Mission to Moscow were put out. Principles? You tell me. In any event, 2020: The Movie is seriously funny.
As for me, I’m gonna go with option #3.
The videos are great. I’m surprised the actors in the 2020 cast one agreed to participate in it.
During the last election, people sometimes asked me if Trump was going to win it. What I told them was this: “Who’s going to stop him – the little old commie trying to sell electric cars and wind power, or that crazy lady from Arkansas that the FBI are looking for?”
It’s much more stark and one-sided this time. Essentially, Demsheviks have made self-sabotaging decisions that have resulted in Trump being the only viable candidate on the ballot. Biden is obviously senile and getting worse. He can’t hide that in the debates. This is a huge deal and probably dispositive. Only the Democrats would even attempt to run a candidate who is unquestionably suffering from dementia. No responsible person can vote to elect an obviously senile man to the presidency – no one.
The Democratic Party supported the riots up until very recently and that perception is stuck with the American people. They want Medicare for illegal aliens and open borders. They and their minions in the MSM are obviously behind the Covid nightmare, with Republicans only reluctantly playing along to mitigate public fears stoked by the other side. Pelosi’s antics are even backfiring within her own party.
And finally, even among many Democrats, the impression is strong that the entire Russia hoax fiasco was a seditious breach of the socio-political contract – an attempted coup. The failure of the Mueller report, the partisan nature of the impeachment and the completely overwhelming and transparently open campaign of the MSM against Trump have left a bad taste in the mouths of Independents and honest Democrats – both of them.
On the positive side, Trump had a roaring economy pre-plague that is resurrecting quickly as the hoax dies down. He’s been nominated thrice for the Nobel Prize. And he’s almost single handedly reversed the trend of globalization job emigration. That is vital and probably decisive in the Rust Belt. Biden told them to go learn to code. Trump’s base is energized by his work on judges and he appears as a winner. Biden needed his party apparatus to go in the tank for him to save his candidacy from the Reaper in order to prevent Bernie from taking over the party.
Ordinarily, one would look at this and conclude Trump can’t possibly lose. It is important, vital even, then to bear in mind that polls are easily manipulated by skewing the percentages of groups polled to reach the total tally. Oversampling registered Democrats will get you any result you want. And the known percentages of Democrats v. Republicans are based on the last presidential election cycle. Who knows the percentages at present anyway?
You have two motivations to skew the polls to the left. One is obviously that the MSM which conducts most of the polling is itself wildly skewed to the left. The other is actually even more powerful. Even if the race were between Trump and Kanye West, the MSM would have a strong vested financial interest in making the race appear to be close. Nobody wants to tune in or buy papers or magazines chronicling a horse race between Secretariat and a turtle.
On that basis, I think it is safe to assume that Trump will win. Anything’s possible but I’m not sure that even the American people, foolish as they are, can f^ck this one up.
Deep fake?
Or option 4. It is paid for by disenchanted Leftists (Joe Rogan, Jimmy Dore, etc.) pissed off with the woke establishment Left of Biden/Pelosi. This section of the Left truly is upset with the Democrats for not doing anything to help the poor and for continuing endless wars. Imagine a leftist version of libertarians. These are the types that see AOC as a hypocrite for voting along with Pelosi. Heck they are even thinking of creating their own political party for 2020.
https://youtu.be/w0-R9XRfP9g
If you read RT you will catch a glimpse of this Left that is critical to the Western establishment.
Option 4 – The “interviews” are taken from other projects and the actor’s words happen to fit when describing the politicians they’re “portraying.” PowerTie is a known conservative satire YouTube channel and it’s clear (at least to me) that the interviews are out of context.
I think most of them refer to other subjects. One actor (Smollett) though refers to Obama negatively by name. If it is not being used as a campaign commercial to solicit contributions then I doubt the actors are even aware of its existence.
Still, it’s funny.
Laughing Mule, truth be told, I never thought about an “Option #4”. Let’s go with it however. This video is now viral, Jussie Smollett is a HUGE Obama fan. If he was offended by his voice and likeness being used for this Obama-bashing video, he would have sought a cease-and-desist order by now.
The other wrinkle is Tyler Perry playing “Michelle” Obama. This was not an instance of him being photo-shopped; he actually sat down for a podcast interview and talked about dressing in drag. Again, the Michelle-is-a-man-in-drag meme is very scabrous and galling.
And then there’s the instance of Alex Jones playing himself. He has been persona non grata for at least two years now.
For a concise description of our Ruling Class and the inversion of “enlightenment” that it created, please read the following essay by Angelo Codevilla:
https://americanmind.org/essays/revolution-2020/
Seriously funny! The video is comprised of interview clips taken out of context. Marvelous work. Almost a “deep fake.”
Shrewdest move yet: Trump campaign demands he and Biden be checked for ear pieces.
Best check also for Elon Musk’s Neurolink implant!
Option 5 — There is a fissure in the space/time continuum and an alternate universe has been created.
I’ll go with that.
Here’s Option #6: Trump is really John Titor, a time-traveler. Don’t believe me? His uncle was John Trump, a scientist at MIT who had access to Nikola Tesla’s archives.?
Of course you know George in today’s world there is no such thing as humor. Someone will take you seriously. I would not be surprised if something like that didn’t dhow up around Biden’s people if they think he is loosing
Totalitarians hate (and fear) humour.
That someone might be laughing at them
fair curdles their porridge.
Many many years ago I saw on The Hallmark Hall of Fame a production called
‘The Last Comedian’ staring Art Carney. In his society humor and comedians were illegal. He was a hunted man. He met a young boy and began to teach him the art. The boy got it. At the end, the authorities “got there man” and took rhe Carney character away. BUT the young boy was left to carry on.
Given the turn of comedy to scatology, ridicule and ideological commentary, Fluffy and Jeanne Dickerson may be some of the only comedians left.
Thanks, George. Very funny stuff.
Thank you Fr. Humor is necessary.
George, I stumbled upon this video of a young woman who became disillusioned with the Democrats and realized that she is a conservative. She does a really good job of walking through lies she was told.
https://youtu.be/flp7gKg5G4E
Excellent video Ben David! How uplifting to see this articulate Los Angeles inner city teacher then ER nurse Georgia H describe her gradual process of waking up from being a lifelong brainwashed Democrat to realize and adopt the sanity and true compassion and justice of conservatism! Thanks so much. If only many will follow her path.
Candace Owans is another who left the Left in similar fashion. Also David Rubin and Stossel (in the 80s). I might be one of them too if I had any hope that Republicans were preserving tradition instead of liberal capitalism. I will admit that I fell for Obama’s Yes we can and hoped for something new but was immediately disappointed with the bank bailout, Libya, and never closing Guantanamo. I am starting to like Trump though I hate his school-yard style and just can’t stand his voice. George and others here have shown Trump’s admirable traits. I am honestly on the fence.
If you’re wondering who got the best of whom in last night’s monkey poop fight at the zoo, I suggest you consider who is shouting, “No mas, no mas!”:
https://www.foxnews.com/media/cancel-debates-trump-biden
That’s usually the case, isn’t it Misha? Look for what the Establishment minions in the mainstream media say rather than the honest critics who know how to critique debates. And yes, they’re saying that we need no more debates. Joe Scarborough said that Biden should have walked off the stage.
Dan Bongino said it best last night: Trump was the apex predator who goes into an area and clears it out. This was a “based” election. Trump played to his base while Biden couldn’t. In fact, towards the end, he threw Jenny from the Bronx’s New Green Deal under the bus. He needs these voters.
My 2 cents: it wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination, and as someone who took debate in high school, I could hardly give Trump any points. But we’re not talking Oxford Union here. We’re talking about a corrupt media who is on the side of one party. Trump acted like the savage because he wasn’t debating Joe Biden alone but Chris Wallace as well.
Again, as in the 2015/16 GOP debates, I don’t think that Trump won. However my opinion was overwhelmed by the tens of thousands of people who thought he did. The reason they thought so? Because we had become a debased country in which ordinary people were held down by a rigged system. These people were looking for someone to blow it up. Just like in Ancient Greece, when the oligarchies became too strong, people looked to a tyrant to set things aright. Last night was another indication of this phenomenon in that I thought that Trump was churlish but then I watched the Telemundo instapoll and it had Trump trouncing Biden by 66% to 34% –a two-to-one margin. That shouldn’t surprise as Hispanics are more apt to love someone who comes out fighting than WASPs are. Like poor whites and African-Americans, they are more “based” in their thinking. (I am waiting to see what the polls of black folks are.)
What did Biden accomplish? He didn’t drool or talk about Cornpop. But even Andrew Sullivan said that he looked old and feeble and that he “couldn’t land a blow on Trump”. Still, in my opinion, the fact that expectations were so low for him makes him seem like the instant winner last night. But, now that the dust has settled and the Left base has listened to what he didn’t do for them, well the bloom will come off that rose, PDQ.
More to follow.
Bingo! I was right! (So were you, Misha.)
Biden did so good in the debate that all his allies are telling him to not have anymore. That’s like Mohammed Ali’s manager telling him now that he beat Sonny Liston, he should call it a day and hang up his gloves.
https://pjmedia.com/election/matt-margolis/2020/09/30/heres-how-we-know-trump-won-the-first-debate-n988128
This is what happens when you set low expectations for your opponent. The comment section on Breitbart today is replete with questions like “what did they pump Biden up with?”, “what were those wires that were sticking out of his shirt?”, “how did Biden suddenly start looking 10-15 years younger?”, and so on. It seems as though people expected Biden to just stumble out on stage drooling, and then possibly have some medical emergency during the 90 minutes of the debate. Joe Biden is not senile, nor is he too old. People that have watched him for the last few decades know that he was never an eloquent speaker (that’s putting it mildly), and was in fact a strong stutterer in his early life. Going after his foibles and questioning his mental acuity, instead of attacking him on substance has been the biggest own goal of this last year.
The attacks on his son, of whom I am by no means a fan and whose exploits in the Ukraine I really want investigated, were truly in poor taste and made me recoil. At this point I just wanted to switch off the TV set. Perhaps I’m a little old fashioned, but I think you never ever go after a man’s kids – whatever it is they did. I think most Americans are on board with me on that. When Biden acknowledged his son has had a struggle with drugs, but then said he’s still proud of him – that got him a few points I’m sure – since you could tell he was sincere. The time spent heckling Biden about his son could have been used to address a myriad of other more impactful issues facing the Republic.
Then there’s the white supremacy thing. Presidential Politics 101 states that when given an opportunity to denounce White Supremacy – YOU DO IT! You do not equivocate, point fingers at the left, and argue that there’s very few actual white supremacists – you just denounce them. This is not conceding some major ideological principle, but a simple lay-up, from which he should’ve moved on quickly. Instead we now have Taki’s Proud Boys taking on a place of prominence in the national discourse, and something tells me this won’t shake out in the right’s favor come election time. Just as the majority of Americans are afraid of various Antifas and Boogaloos, so they will be disgusted by the Proud Boys once they’re able to take a closer look at these pathetic incels.
In conclusion, it seems like Trump really had a plan last night, executed on it successfully, but it was simply not a good plan in any shape or form. Nate Silver is writing that Biden got a net 18 point boost in favorability polls from the debate, while Trump suffered a net 6 point decline. This is after weeks of Trump regaining momentum and Biden losing steam.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/09/30/nolte-donald-trump-won-the-first-debate/
This is a good take. Telemundo and C-Span polls have Trump winning the debate 2/1. We’ll have to see how it pans out over the week. Vegas has Trump’s odds down but it is too early to tell.
Nolte brings up a good point and one that may swing independents toward Trump: Biden repeatedly promised to raise taxes on the middle class last night. That killed Mondale when he ran against Reagan.
Both Conrad Black and Chris Christie pointed out that Trump was running too hot but that that can be fixed, he can improve his game. He broke the tradition of incumbents losing the first debate, that’s not a bad start.
But consider that what saved Biden from self destruction was Trump’s overbearingness. If he had been allowed the rope, it is apparent Biden would have hanged himself. Occupying the field took the pressure off Biden to speak coherently for two minutes at a time.
The reason the media is shouting cease and desist is that they realize that Biden can’t be fixed. Trump actually helped him hold it together by hogging the spotlight. Even at that, he called the president a clown and told him to shut up, unprovoked by any name calling, on live TV in front of God and everybody.
The media understand how dispositive and ugly the next debate could be. Biden might not be able to last another ninety minutes on stage with Trump without losing it completely, bolting or dropping.
The problem with leaving his son out of it is that Biden is corrupt. His vice-presidency served to line his son’s pockets for nothing other than being a Biden. That’s corruption. People get that, particularly in the wake of Hillary. Say what you want about Trump, he’s proven he knows how to earn money. Biden is a parasite (47 years), living off the body politic and encouraging his family to receive largesse for his influence.
What also resonates at this point, especially to all fair minded people, is that questions about denouncing white supremacists are actually an attack by the MSM at this point. “Have you stopped beating your wife?” There’s no good answer to that and it gets you bogged down. Trump is right to skim passed it asap. He actually never even gave them any reason to ask the question. They just took an opportunity to misconstrue his words at Charlottesville to tag him as a racist, despite his long and continuing history to the contrary. The MSM is preaching to the choir with that attack. Everyone, even the base in their hearts, know they are crying wolf. No one not already committed to Biden (or at least against Trump) cares about that nonsense.
Dan, the problem with your critique that “Presidential Politics 101” demands that you abjure “white supremacy” is pretty much in the rear-view mirror now. Like the statues of the Founding Fathers being toppled and destroyed –as predicted by Trump–we’re now way past American civic normalcy. And that’s thanks to the Left, not the Right.
White supremacy as a political force is now (sadly) inevitable thanks to two factors: 1) the black supremacy that is intrinsic to BLM, and 2) identitarian politics in general. Both of these are peddled by the Left.
Actually, I should have predicted this a few years ago, when Louis Farrakhan showed up at Aretha Franklin’s funeral, sitting in the same row as Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Can you imagine the caterwauling that would have happened had David Duke showed up at Strom Thurmond’s funeral, sitting in the same row as Bush 41, 43 or Trump?
Cognitive dissonance eventually causes one’s head to explode. That’s what’s going on right now collectively in our nation. The intrinsic contradictions of our nation have frayed thanks to our double-minded civil religion.
The Left made a strategic error when they abandoned MLK’s belief in a color-blind society. Even as a myth, it was useful method for providing comity between the races. And now, they’ve taken it a step farther: rather than preaching equality, they have chosen to elevate the fine concept of black lives matter to a new religion. In so doing, they have subtly (but necessarily) alienated Asians, Hispanics, and other immigrant groups who feel no “white guilt” and are far more racist than your average white person.
Well, I’ll agree that if we’re talking real debate, it was a complete debacle for all. Even by American presidential debate standards, it was a circus.
Trump was going for the knockout because he’s Trump and he thought it was possible. If your opponent strokes out, has an aneurism right there on stage or even another rupture of a blood vessel in his eye like he did earlier in the season, then you can clearly claim a scalp.
I’m not really proud that Trump handled it that way, but it’s not at all embarrassing either when you consider what he’s been through and that he was arguing (which is what these debates really are anyway) against two men and he knew that going in.
If you have to tell the president to shut up, clearly you’ve lost any composure. If they were closer in proximity, Biden would have grabbed him and the secret service would have had to intervene. As it was, figuratively, Chris Wallace had to pull Trump off Biden repeatedly to avoid a mauling.
Anyways, the Proud Boys also have some minorities so they are not so much a white supremacist group than more a group that gets into fights with antifa. This is not clarfied.
If I’m not mistaken, the actual head of the Proud Boys is of Afro-Cuban descent.
Did this need to be brought up at all? When Chris Wallace asked, Biden denounced White Supremacists within seconds – as any sane presidential candidate would. It is my sincere belief that the overwhelming majority of Americans are not white supremacists, and would like to hear their president affirm that this is a belief that is rejected by the country as a whole. My relatives fought and died in a war against white supremacy (WW2 in case anyone’s wondering), as did the family members of millions of other Americans. The idea that a president would lend any credence to this failed ideology is sickening to me.
Engaging in what you are doing right now is akin to the typical Soviet tactic of “whataboutism”. We need to condemn these people. They are not the way forward, they do not have the answers to any of the questions of the day. Just as we reject the tactics of hate on the left, so must we ensure order within our own ranks. Trump endorsing these asses is the worst thing he has done, at least in my book.
Dan, with all due respect, you know very little about WWII. We were just as “white supremacist” as the Nazis and as racist as the Japanese. African-American servicemen were treated as second-class in every branch of the service.
Churchill, Roosevelt and others said and wrote things about blacks and Jews that would get them drummed out of polite society today. Roosevelt worked hand-in-glove with Southern segregationists and vetoed anti-lynching laws. According to many Jewish activists, he would not relax immigration laws in order to allow European Jews entry into the United States. Indeed, many today accuse him of inflating the numbers of the Holocaust by 300,000. (I don’t, a lot of them went to Palestine, but you get the picture.)
We most certainly did not go into WWII “to fight white supremacy”. As far as the Allied leaders are concerned, not one of them knew of, or mentioned, the Nazi death-camps. In Churchill’s six-volume history of that war, he mentioned Hitler’s animus toward the Jews just one time.
As far as The New York Times was concerned, Jewish activists in America had to take out a quarter-page ad raising the prospect that Eastern European Jews were being mass-exterminated by the Waffen SS. They had to buy an ad because the NYT had no interest at all in exploring the rumors of the mass killings of Jews. (But then again, they did all they could to hide evidence of the Holodomyr in the Ukraine.)
“When Chris Wallace asked, Biden denounced White Supremacists within seconds – as any sane presidential candidate would. It is my sincere belief that the overwhelming majority of Americans are not white supremacists, and would like to hear their president affirm that this is a belief that is rejected by the country as a whole”
Biden should’ve been asked to denounce Black Supremacy, not the mythical unicorn of “White Supremacy,” which to Democrats is anyone who defies the Left on anything, even if it is something so basic as defending your own home/person from their Black Supremacist mobs. The absolute majority of non Democrats ARE “White Supremacists” as defined by the Left. In fact, since driving or merely having a pulse while non black is all it takes to be a “White Supremacist,” many Democrats have found themselves on the wrong side of the mob already.
Going into the debate Trump had a problem. He’s behind. It’s really not good news for him that a 9/23-9/29 Rasmussen LV poll has him down 8 (Biden 51/Trump 43). As an aside, my current personal guestimate for the general results are 52/45, so I only have him down 7!
I’m sure someone could try to argue that Trump’s performance in the debate appealed to anybody outside his own base that was going to vote for him anyway. But, based on the favorability results after that (from real polling, not twitter polls), it’s a pretty tough road.
Biden is going to show up to the next two debates. The next debate is a townhall, which is a format Biden did well at and Trump floundered in earlier this month. The reason you’re seeing a few Dems throw up their hands and call for ending the debates is more to do with a perception that they are just giving Trump a platform to incite violence and delegitimize the election. I have sympathy with that point of view, but I think you have to put him on stage and let it all hang out for the American public.
Nate, you don’t really believe that, do you? Do you really believe that the Left has nothing to do with all this violence? Even the MSM is finding it hard to cover for the Antifa/BLM.
Trump has never –not once–incited violence. 100% of ALL the violence you have seen over the last four months has been instigated by the Left.
It’s comments like that which make me question your bona fides. Sorry to be so blunt.
When I look at how right-wing gangs interpret remarks of the President of the United States:
Joey Biggs, a Proud Boys leader, chimed in on the right-wing social media app Parler with his interpretation of the president’s remarks: “Trump basically said to go **** them up! … this makes me so happy.”
Have a hard time agreeing with you in regards to Trump!
Boogaloo boys have already started killing federal security and cops. Based on the actual facts currently known, I consider Kyle Rittenhouse an example of murder by right-wing extremism. The federal government and people who study the far right are very concerned about increasing violence in the weeks and months to come.
People chronicle this stuff, one random thread I saw tonight with plenty of receipts:https://twitter.com/DavidNeiwert/status/1311820383666933760
Thing about Antifa is it could be considered a societal immune response to the growth of right-wing extremist gangs in the age of Trump. Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer, Boogaloo, you name it. Do I think that is a good thing? No! Make no mistake, I am not in favor of conflict between warring factions on the streets of America. Do I understand why it is happening? I think so.
Trump meant to repeat Wallace’s words, i.e. “stand down,” and they came out differently. As I recall, he had trouble talking at all! – The Proud Boys were saying the equivalent of, “Yeah, that’s the ticket . . .” (another reference to SNL). They knew Trump wasn’t saying that.
If you want to know what the Proud Boys are really thinking, check this out:
“I will go out and say that the #ProudBoys as a whole, I will say this on behalf of the entire national organization, denounce white supremacy.” – Thad, Chief of the Proud Boys Salt Lake Utah Chapter
https://twitter.com/i/status/1311488168026284032
RE: “people who study the far right are very concerned about increasing violence in the weeks and months to come.”
Why don’t you specify those “people”? I presume one of your “sources” is the infamous Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a phony “human rights” organization that is so left-wing and biased against any form of historic Christianity that even the U.S. military recently, I seem to recall, cut ties to SPLC indoctrination and “training” materials. That was, of course, after the Obama-Biden administration welcomed those hateful bigots and foisted them upon our troops.
Amen Father. The typical leftist shift of focus to the “right” away from the actual physical violence, tolerance of it, and the verbal prompts to violence by the LEFT extremists! Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described it well.
Amen, Fr.
Nate, it’s all left-wing violence you’re seeing.
Nate, you do realize that to more and more people faithful Orthodox are considered “far right”
Amen!
Nate,
You are living in a liberal fantasy world. Rittenhouse was obviously only trying to defend himself. Not only is he not a murderer but he did absolutely nothing wrong by all accounts of the actual action.
Moreover, the Proud Boys are not white supremacists in any sense of the word. They are led by an Afro-cuban and have many black and hispanic members.
Finally, Trump has repeatedly denounced white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the Klan. He did so in the very same interview at Charlottesville where he said that there are “very fine people on both sides” of the question of whether the Confederate statues should remain or not. He was not referring to white supremacist groups and later in his remarks explicitly said so.
Both he and McKenany have been explicit in their denunciation of racists. But the Left will not take yes for an answer and they keep playing the same broken record about how he is facing growing pressure to denounce these groups. It is all a load of crap designed to tag him as a racist, nothing more. “Have you stopped beating your wife?”
They want an apology for things he never, ever did. At this point, if they quit and admitted the truth, they’d have to admit that they’ve been lying through their teeth for the last 3 1/2 years.
There is no bottom to their . . . wickedness.
The problem lies at the feet of the Left. They decided some years ago that speech is violence.
This led to all the waves of social media deplatforming that continue.
So now peaceful dialogue is impossible in our society. When people can no longer use speech, they resort to violence because it’s the only way they can be heard.
End online censorship, permit unfettered free speech (which the Left already enjoys) , and all this will end.
If speech is violence, violence is speech.
If there is no difference, all is permissible;
unless silence be enforced on all.
But enforced silence is also violence
on the part of the enforcer.
American Atheists like to say, “Freedom of religion means freedom from religion” in their interpretation of the First Amendment. Could one interpret the First Amendment to insist that freedom of speech means freedom from speech?
AS, things would get better, but the authoritarian impluse demands that all submit in thought, word and deed. After all is not increased penalties for “hate crime” a form od thought crime?
Totally agree with you, AS.
Curiously, there is more unfettered free speech in homogeneous and traditional societies. There is no need to always look over one’s shoulder to not offend anyone.
http://deathtotheworld.com/about/
Probably does not mean a thing but as I was pondering my blessing Cross this morning, it struck me that I have lived a cross in this country. I began in Kansas, then I moved with my family to Massachusetts as my Dad went to Harvard School of Public Health, back to Kansas, to Illinois for college, then to Texas, back to Kansas, out to San Francisco, Detroit, Kansas, North Dakota, Texas, San Francisco, Boston, back to Kansas to stay. I have always come back to the center for sustenance.
I took a risk putting this out there yesterday; basically I went with my gut.
Turns out I was right: 2020: The Movie came out three months ago and was already considered a biting political satire (at the expense of the Left) on three levels:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/07/review-2020-the-movie-political-ad-epic-cultural-summation/
I’m not sure what you are trying to say. Are you suggesting there is an actual movie? Quoting that National Review article: “Through Fair Use doctrine regarding material that Hollywood studios grant for myriad promotional purposes, Red Tie has found sophisticated media alternatives to what we usually enjoy in editorial cartoon caricatures”
The NR writer, Armond White, is talking about the cast interviews short, which is a combination of press junket footage from assorted film and tv projects like Thor or Lone Ranger, and photoshopping the relevant actors into stills that originally had the actual politicians.
I totally understand why you find it funny, I’m having trouble understanding why you think it is something other than a satirical video short created by a conservative humor outfit.
RE: “. . . I’m having trouble understanding why you think it is something other than a satirical video short created by a conservative humor outfit.”
It’s a parody of contemporary culture and politics. Think SNL. How could a conservative humor outfit do this without the actors buyin? It’s been out there for months. No one has disavowed it. Short of rewriting our opinions, I’m not sure how we’re going to make you more comfortable about this.
At this stage of the game, anybody to the right of Che Guevara would be considered “far right”.
Simple: because it savages the Left.
Russian law forces Netflix to move LGBT propaganda
cartoons out of children’s section
https://orthochristian.com/134323.html
For our country our Protestant friends at Breakpoint have good ideas on how to say no to the sexualization of Children (of all skin tones)
https://www.breakpoint.org/how-to-say-no-to-the-sexualization-of-children/
Children (from conception on) are certainly an oppressed group right now!
The problem with the Breakpoint approach is that they are still enmeshed in a “rights” paradigm. That is a loosing approach because it tacitly acknowledges the “rights” of the sexual perverse. Exposing children to sex education has always been wrong: morally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. WRONG. Unfortunately, if you send your children to public school and most private schools you have given up your “rights” as parents especially if you are Christian. You no longer have control of them–you have given them to the state and yet you get blamed for every shortfall.
Very true, Michael.
The only way going forward with education is what I choose to call a “pod-school approach” (for want of a better term). Basically, it’s homeschooling but a little more collective. In ancient Greece, the sons of the free-born would be escorted by their fathers or a house-servant to meet at a central location, usually a grove where there was some shade.
When about 8 or of like age gathered, then one of the servants who was educated would teach them the basics. Reading, writing, arithmetic. That would last for about two hours. Then they would have to recite poetry or some famous speech. Then they would break for gymnastics, especially wrestling. As they got older, then things like rhetoric and geometry would be thrown into the mix and the tutor would ask questions. The athletics would then become more martial: spear-throwing, sword-fighting, how to cook a quick meal on the battle-field or how to field-dress wild game.
Then they would go home. Critical thinking would be drummed into their heads. We don’t have that now. Even at the college level.
Now I’m not saying it should be exactly like that, but something akin to that.
It is not just the schooling George. It is: Rights are no longer personal rights against the state (boundaries the state could not cross) as they were originally conceived. Rights have become group rights sponsored by the state. In fact the state now decides which “rights” are to be enforced against which groups. There is no more natural, human personal integrity which the state cannot interfere with. The state decides who, how and why God can be worshipped. All to make sure that everybody is in service to egalitarian ideology.
For me to proclaim that I am a unique man, made in the image and likeness of God who must follow God made norms of behavior if I am going to realize who I am cannot be allowed. It is not about “rights”. We do not have a “right” to be inhuman or immoral as there are negative consequences to who I am and can become but I no longer have the “right” to say that or live that way or raise my children that way.
We only have the ‘right’ to lie on the Procrustean bed and be forced into the form the state decrees.
So, when I start asserting “Rights” I have willing lain down on that bed and agreed to be cut or stretched to any form the state feels like that day. It is both self-defeating and a lie.
God bless them. Seriously: God bless them!
Is it any wonder why our anti-Christian elite hate Putin?
Real political theater here, from perhaps the greatest of all time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlKJDwViNKs
‘The Woking Of Oscar’ – Here are the new standards required for the Best Picture Award:
https://www.oscars.org/news/academy-establishes-representation-and-inclusion-standards-oscarsr-eligibility
‘The Kingdom Of Crooked Mirrors’ – Here is what Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk has to say about it:
https://spzh.news/en/news/74871-lgbt-propaganda-prevrashhajet-zapadnyj-mir-v-korolevstvo-krivyh-zerkal–rpc
GOA Clergy Salary Scale Revealed by TNH
https://www.thenationalherald.com/community_church_united_states/arthro/goa_clergy_salary_scale_revealed_by_tnh-921056/
I expect this information is released to justify the de-funding of pensions.
Cold. Flat. White:
https://www.ekathimerini.com/257591/opinion/ekathimerini/comment/too-cold-too-flat-too-devoid-of-color
Phanar: Τhere is no question of autocephaly
for the Church of Skopje at the moment…
https://orthodoxtimes.com/phanar-τhere-is-no-question-of-autocephaly-for-the-church-of-skopje-at-the-moment-but-of-healing-a-schism/
If not now, then when?
Next week, Brendan. Next week.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised, Alex. It was just the weasel words ‘at the moment’ that struck me as definitively cancelling the definitiveness of the seemingly definitive ‘no question’.
Always read the small print…
Exactly, Brendan! I do remember how Bartholomew announced in a morning press release that, “Now isn’t the time to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainians”….then later that afternoon he sent another one out saying that he was going to be doing it. All in less than 24 hours!
Erdogan: “Jerusalem is our city. It is a city built by us”.
https://orthodoxtimes.com/erdogan-provocative-towards-israel-jerusalem-is-our-city/
Awhile back there was an article in the Antiochian magazine The Word on the current racial situation. “Christianity and Racism”. It did not play well and since I know the author as a fellow parishoner. Since I was not real happy either I thought it best to talk to him about it. I read the article several times. Each time I read it I got less and less unhappy. What began to filter through to me was how open and honest Mark Mosley, the author, was being. Then I finally began to listen. I heard even more talking to him.
I had a number of significant spiritual recognitions in the process and my talk with Mark was very personal so I will not go into details but I will give you a bit of his back story: he is a head emergency room doctor in the trauma center for Wichita. He does that work because he loves trying to put broken people back together: physically and spiritually.
Two points on the article
1. He had no political bent on it at all
2. He sees a parallel between Apostolic times where even the Holy Apostles could not fully minister to the Greek converts and our own times
3. The Church needs more Afro-American deacons and priests.
4 He and I are both going to join The Fellowship of St. Moses the Black because if its emphasis on racial reconciliation rather than justice.
God is good.
Steve Turley had a good piece:
https://youtu.be/r3b3aNdYnv4
He looks at a model that uses algorhythms derived from primaries to predict the election. It’s 25/27 over the last hundred years since 1912. 1960 and 2000 were the only misses and that’s because the primary performances were almost identical.
It has Trump in a landslide, as does the latest Gallup “better off now than 4 years ago” poll.
For ye of little faith, that should calm the storm.