The difference is Obama is Good and Trump is, well, Trump

The American left and their "useful idiots"

"Useful Idiots" defined

Berkeley Didn’t Birth ‘Free Speech,’ but It Seems Intent to Bury It  . . . "In 1689, the British passed a law guaranteeing freedom of speech in Parliament. A century later, French revolutionaries incorporated into law the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which established free speech as a universal right. Two years later, the Americans ratified the First Amendment, which guarantees that the state shall not infringe on the right to free speech. Roughly a century and half later, in 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. . . . ” 

"I mention all of this because every time I read or hear about the pathetic state of affairs at the University of California, Berkeley — where conservative speakers and rabble-rousers alike are banned from speaking lest they be assaulted by a mob — journalists and other commentators insist on pointing out the irony that this is all happening “where the Free Speech Movement was born.' ” . . .  Read more

While we're at it: Climate Bullies Take to the Streets for ‘People’s Climate March’  "Most Americans are unaware of the vicious campaign waged by climate activists against people who do not recite the strictest tenets of the manmade-climate-change creed."

From Mona Charen: Political Violence from the Left Comes to Campus — Again  Quoting Jonathan Haidt:

We are witnessing the emergence of a dangerous new norm for responding to speakers who challenge campus orthodoxy. Anyone offended by the speaker can put out a call on Facebook to bring together students and locals, including “antifa” (antifascist) and black-bloc activists who explicitly endorse the use of violence against racists and fascists. Because of flagrant “concept creep,” however, almost anyone who is politically right of center can be labeled a racist or a fascist, and the promiscuous use of such labels is now part of the standard operating procedure.

. . . "There’s an opportunity awaiting someone, anyone, on today’s campuses too. Stand up to the social-justice warriors, tell the truth, and you may find yourself a household name."

Populism on Pause

So what is populism?  "Populists can be everything from militarists to libertarians. So what does the word actually mean?"

But populism’s belief that the people are always right is bad news for two elements of liberal democracy: the rights of minorities and the rule of law.

That's what it said. 

Charles Krauthammer

"The worldwide movement has not been halted but is temporarily on hold."

"Yesterday’s conventional wisdom: A wave of insurgent populism is sweeping the West, threatening its foundational institutions — the European Union, the Western alliance, even liberal democracy itself. 

"Today’s conventional wisdom (post-first-round French presidential election): The populist wave has crested, soon to abate. 

"Chances are that both verdicts are wrong. The anti-establishment sentiment that gave us Brexit, then Donald Trump, and then seemed poised to give us Marine Le Pen, has indeed plateaued. But although she will likely be defeated in the second round, victory by the leading centrist, Emmanuel Macron, would hardly constitute an establishment triumph." 

. . . 

"The other notable populist victory, the triumph of Trump, has also turned out to be less than meets the eye. He certainly ran as a populist and won as a populist but, a mere 100 days in, he is governing as a traditionalist.

"The Obamacare-replacement proposals are traditional small-government fixes. His tax reform is a follow-on to Reagan’s from 1986. His Supreme Court pick is a strait-laced constitutional conservative out of central casting. And his more notable executive orders read as a wish list of traditional business-oriented conservatism, from regulatory reform to the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines." . . .

Threats of Violence Shut Down Portland’s Avenue of Roses Parade

Legal Insurrection

“ 'Hateful rhetoric” and the “spreading of views” cited as reason for threatened violence"

"In disturbing parallels to the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Weather Underground of the 1960’s, we are seeing a small band of violent radicals attempt—and thus far succeed—in imposing their will on Americans.  The terrorist acts that the SDS and Weather Underground engaged in are what we most remember, but it’s worth noting that they, too, started out with threats, riots, and destruction of property during their “Days of Rage.”  They ultimately used violence as a means of condemning violence(?!) and of coalescing their “families” and “tribes” behind a “youth resistance,” and we are seeing this all unfold yet again as violent radicals shriek about fascism while engaging in it themselves.

"In the wake of the violent riots that shut down speaking engagements by Milo Yiannopoulos and Heather Mac Donald, the violent radicals of the fringe left have notched up further “wins” in silencing Ann Coulter and in now causing the cancellation of the Avenue of Roses Parade in Portland, Oregon." . . .

New York Times Op-Ed Denounces the Asian Salad as ‘Racist’

Next we'll discuss french toast and German chocolate cake as cultural appropriation.

Weasel Zippers

"Sigh, isn’t everything? The salad doesn’t sound ‘Asian’ in any particular way except perhaps snow peas are a common ingredient in some asian dishes. But whether it is or isn’t, how is that racist? Crazy train…

"Via Free Beacon:

A New York Times op-ed published Thursday night denounced the existence of Asian salad and called on restaurants to remove the “racist” dish from their menus.

“Why Is Asian Salad Still on the Menu?” asked Bonnie Tsui, complaining that the common offering was “something created in the name of Asians by non-Asians [and] has become a touchstone for non-Asians.”

The impetus for the piece was when Tsui came across an “Asian Emperor Salad” on the menu at a San Francisco bar.

“I thought about its grand imprecision, which irritated me as a Chinese-American. And I wondered, who cooked up this thing,” she recalled. “I was reasonably sure it wasn’t anyone Asian.”

Keep reading…

The media that shapes our thinking and the results

Rich Terrell

Resulting from the demonization of groups by media, academia, and entertainment, wouldn't you say?

Smear campaign against Cornell prof who opposed grad student unionization.  "For the past year or so there has been a divisive and ugly unionization drive by some graduate students, backed by the political power of the American Federation of Teachers and New York State United Teachers. Democratic politicians in the state came out in support of grad student unionization."

Threats of Violence Shut Down Portland’s Avenue of Roses Parade  "These cowards are objecting to “hateful rhetoric” and the “spread[ing] of views” with which they do not agree. Regrettably, they do not seem to understand that they are exactly what they claim to reject: hateful fascists policing speech and threatening an event that is attended by families with children and by the elderly."

Photo and article from the Huffington Post.

CNN Mocks Trump as “Captain Obvious,” Morning Joe wonders if his “meds have changed”

"Can you imagine Gregory or Deutsch mocking President Obama like that?"

You remember David Gregory, the NBC guy who trashed President Bush publicly on numerous occasions, including calling him a "failed president" during a TV interview?

Obama lied – and now the truth

"Obama thinks he belongs next to Abraham Lincoln. Some of us think he belongs next to Bernie Madoff"

Arutz Sheva; Israel National News

"The question we have to ask is this – on whose side was Obama operating all those eight years? "

"So how much of our money did Obama ship to the terrorist regime in Iran? We hear $150 billion. We are not sure. Could be a dollar less, a dollar more.
"We’ll never know for sure. That’s because his entire administration operated in the dark. 
"That’s how he governed and that’s how he got himself elected, in lies and in stealth, and the news media did the rest. They covered for him.
"They let him get away with murder – and in this case, that is not a cliché, it’s fact. 
"He got himself elected, in lies and in stealth, and the news media did the rest. They covered for him."Today, in eye-popping news, we learn, from the New York Post via Politico, that to sweeten the Iran nuke deal, Obama released Iranian-connected terrorists in order to keep the mullahs talking – which they were glad to do because the more they talked the more we gave and the more they took.  
"So seven terrorists were let loose; seven that were marked as a danger to our national security by Obama’s own State and Justice departments. 
"We’re not even talking about Israel’s national security. Iran paints “death to Israel” on its missiles.
"Further, Obama dropped charges against 14 fugitives “involved in smuggling sophisticated weapons to Iran,” according to the published reports.

"The question we have to ask is this – on whose side was Obama operating all those eight years? " . . .