The rise of the networked Left

Caroline Glick   "An acrid stench of repression is spreading through America.

Last Thursday, conservative political scientist Charles Murray from the American Enterprise Institute was attacked by a leftist mob at Middlebury College.

"Murray was invited to Middlebury by the college’s AEI club. He was to discuss his new book, Coming Apart, which discusses the plight of white working class Americans. Middlebury’s liberal political science professor Allison Stanger was set to ask him questions about his work.

"As has been widely reported, a mob of leftist students prevented Murray from speaking. They shouted him down with a stream of epithets that went on without interruption, until Murray and Stanger were spirited out of the lecture hall.

"They were brought to another location where they carried out their conversation in front of a camera that was livestreaming to students blocked by the mob from hearing them in person. The mob followed them to the new location and rioted outside the room as they spoke.

"The rioters assaulted them as they made their way from the second location to their car. They hurt Stanger in the neck.

"The assault continued after the professors entered their getaway car and at the restaurant where they tried to dine at with students.

"In the end Murray and his companions were forced to leave town in order to have dinner away from the rioters. Stanger was later treated for her wounds at a local hospital." . . .

Surveillance Sauce for the Goose

comicallyincorrect.com

Volokh Conspiracy  "Having trouble understanding what President Trump and Rep. Nunes are banging on about?  Try putting the shoe on the other foot…

"It’s 2020. Kamala Harris finishes a close second in New Hampshire, beating expectations that Elizabeth Warren would sweep her neighboring state (and its shared media market).  Harris roars into South Carolina, where she suddenly leads in the polls with a message of repudiating what she calls the Trump administration’s  dangerous foreign brinksmanship.

"Whatever you call it, you can’t call it dull.  President Trump has forced Iran to renegotiate the nuclear deal by the simple expedient of expanding US sanctions to include the seizure and impoundment of any tanker carrying Iranian oil.  The oil market remains stable, buoyed by record US oil and gas production.  But the move prompts a diplomatic rupture and some tense maritime confrontations with India and China. Undeterred, the President says North Korea is next in line for what he calls, “Sanctions that work. Unlike the last guy’s. Not a leader!”

"But it will only take one foreign mishap to make Harris tough to beat.  She’s fresh and virtually untouched by Warren’s surprised oppo research team.  The Trump team vows that it won’t be caught similarly flat-footed.

"In July, the intelligence community picks up rumors that intelligence services from Iran, North Korea, and China are working together to ensure a Harris victory in November.

"The President erupts at an NSC meeting.  “This is intolerable!  I want to know everything about foreign interference in our election – and whether any Americans are colluding with Iran.  This is a top priority for all of our counterintelligence agencies.' ” . . .

What of medical care as of today?

Tony Branco

Republicans rebelling against health care risk Trump's wrath  . . . "The scheduled roll call vote for the bill backed by President Donald Trump is a crucial first test of whether Republicans are willing to defy the White House and face the wrath of a president who has bragged about never forgetting a slight. Trump has shown he's willing to use his megaphone and practiced counter-punch against his allies. But the vote comes as Trump's poll numbers have slouched and his White House is consumed with damaging distractions.

"A group of breakaway Republicans, including several members of the deeply conservative House Freedom Caucus, on Wednesday remain unbowed, taking comfort in the political safety they feel in their home districts.

"Members are well aware they face possible primary threats if they vote against the bill the White House has cast as the only chance to make good on a GOP promise to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's health care law.

"White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told holdout lawmakers Wednesday: "You all have to vote for this. We've got to do this. I know you don't like it, but you have to vote for this," according to several representatives present. The comment came after Trump told a group Tuesday that "many of you will lose your seats in 2018" if Republicans don't pass a health care bill." . . .

Obamacare’s Mistakes: GOP Sets Dial to Lather, Rinse, Repeat    "Republicans should slow down, write a better bill, and build the political support they need. It feels like 2009 all over again."

President must close the ‘deal’ on Obamacare  . . . "And given his low approval ratings, he needs a win.

"Dealing with the Obamacare mess has been the core focus of the Republican party for the past 7 years — not to mention a major campaign promise that helped propel Donald Trump to the White House. So it’s imperative that the president seal the deal and obtain the 216 House votes needed tomorrow to move the GOP replacement plan — unoffically dubbed “Ryancare” or “Trumpcare” — to the Senate floor.

"Given that health care is a pocketbook issue directly impacting voters — and it’s one-sixth of the U.S. economy — the stakes are extremely high for Trump and the Republicans to get this done right, and not ram through a clunker like Democrats did the first time around." . . .

Chuck Schumer announces he will oppose nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court

UK Independent

"Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer has announced he will oppose Donald Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

"The New York Democrat also said he would lead a filibuster against Mr Gorsuch's confirmation. He said Mr Gorsuch “almost instinctively favours the powerful over the weak.” 

"Mr Schumer said doesn't think Gorsuch would serve as a check on Mr Trump or be a mainstream Justice. He blasted Mr Gorsuch for refusing to answer “question after question after question” in hearings this week. " . . .

"If at least eight Democrats join the 52 Republicans and back Gorsuch, that will provide the 60 votes needed to pass a procedural motion letting the Senate move quickly to an up-or-down vote on his nomination, with only a simple majority for approval."

Rick Moran sees it just the opposite.  . . . "In truth, Senate Democrats are between a rock and a hard place on the Gorsuch nomination. Not only did Gorsuch do extremely well in the confirmation hearings, he has given Democrats no earthly reason to oppose him except partisan spite. Since the GOP and President Trump will almost certainly nuke the filibuster if they can't get the 60 votes needed to confirm Gorsuch, the thinking of some Democratic Senators is to run away and fight another day." . . .

Partisanship with the scent of Reid  . . . "The U.S. Senate looks more and more like a place for partisanship rather than statesmanship, as Michael Barone wrote:

Democrats have consistently been more willing to attempt to defeat or discredit nominees of Republican presidents than vice versa. 

Few Republican senators voted against confirmation of Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor or Kagan; many Democratic senators voted against confirmation of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.

Judging from the hearings, nearly all Democratic senators seem inclined to vote against the confirmation of Judge Gorsuch.  . . .

Because it was never women they were marching for, was it…

Liberal Logic 101

From Ethan Benton at DysfunctionalVeterans

NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN refuse to cover Maryland rape by illegals  . . . "If you remember other famous rape cases and hoaxes like the Duke Lacrosse rape case, the media (ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN) spent hour upon hour covering because the accused rapists were white and the victim was black. This is course turned out be a major hoax, but that never mattered to the media."

"Here’s a great poster illustrating the [Western liberal] approach to terror:"

Bookworm Room  . . . "In the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in London, people were remembering last year, when London’s first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, said that terrorism is just part of life in the big city. He’s correct — that is, he’s correct if Islam is ascendant in the world. It is, after all, a faith that has terror as its foundation. Wherever Islam goes, it brings with it the fire and the sword. It’s a safer world when Islam is cowed, not ascendant.

I do feel terribly sorry for the people who were hurt and I’m saddened about the lives lost. 

"My sympathy lies with their families and friends. Having said that, I’m quickly running out of patience for the whole European attitude towards Islamic terrorism. We get one attack after another filling our screens with bloody images, and all that the Europeans do is mull over what could possibly have caused someone suddenly to go off his rocker, scream “Allahu Akhbar” and kill a bunch of people."

. . . "Until Europeans start taking Islamic terrorism seriously, why should I? If you all are so filled with cultural self-loathing that you have a death wish, my only hope is that you don’t drag me down with you."

An inconvenient cartoon

Rich Terrell