Otto Warmbier and the Left

Otto Warmbier's arrest was a big joke for some on the Left - are they laughing now?  . . . "Leftwing website Salon, in a piece that has since been removed, referred to him as “America’s biggest idiot frat boy.”
"The Huffington Post, while taking his situation a bit more seriously, used the story as an opportunity to lecture us on Warmbier’s overbearing sense of white privilege.
"Worst of all was humorist Larry Wilmore’s take on his Comedy Central show. He did a whole segment on the story, having a jolly old time at Warmbier’s expense." . . .

The Double Murder of Otto Warmbier

"Instead of faulting a repressive socialist regime, La Sha blamed Warmbier for "being socialized first as a white boy, and then as a white man in this country." The HuffPo's megalomaniac millennial had the gall to compare her daily plight of living and breathing freely in America to Warmbier's captivity:"

"We may never know what brutal torture and malign neglect American student Otto Warmbier suffered at the hands of North Korea's dictatorship before losing his life this week at the age of 22. 

"But it wasn't the first time the free­spirited Ohio native died.

" More than a year before succumbing to the unknown illness or injury that left him in a coma thousands of miles away from home, Otto Warmbier's own countrymen murdered his reputation. His character. His humanity. 

"Click-­hungry media ghouls knew nothing about Warmbier's small­town upbringing, his family life, politics, personality, disappointments or dreams. But they gleefully savaged a young man who made a mistake on a doomed trip to a totalitarian hell. 

"Warmbier's thoughtless taunters instantly transformed him into a bigger, badder villain than the barbaric DPRK goons who beat, starve, rape and kill enemies of the state for such offenses as listening to foreign radio broadcasts, possessing Bibles and disrespecting Dear Leader ­­ in Warmbier's case, by attempting to steal a propaganda sign that read "Let's arm ourselves strongly with Kim Jong­-il's patriotism!" as a souvenir. 

"The Huffington Post published an acid rant by "Blogging While Black" writer La Sha titled "North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal." She rejoiced at Warmbier's sentence because, she gloated, it taught him that "the shield his cis white male identity provides here in America is not teflon abroad.' "

. . . 

The Sickening Attack on Otto Warmbier Is Symbolic of the Left’s Hate Problem  . . . "Comedy Central’s Larry Wilmore was one of the chief offenders, launching one of his shows with an eight-minute festival of mockery that accepted the North Korean regime’s version of events, mocked Warmbier’s anguished tears, and even posted a graphic calling him an “ass” — based on the initials of a fictional fraternity. The message? Let’s mock frat bros when they go where Daddy can’t protect them. Doubt me? Watch for yourself:" Video at the link.

Teen social justice mag: Otto Warmbier deserved to die because of whiteness  . . . "Rodney Lee Conover had a somewhat different take, putting Warmbier’s death square on the shoulders of another social justice warrior — Barack Hussein Obama:

President Donald Trump nearly worked a miracle by getting this young man back, but it was too late. Thanks Obama for jack squat. This is your legacy. You had plenty of leverage to get this kid back in time to his parents but how many rounds of golf did you get in instead? You’ll be remembered as the friend to fascism, communism, socialism and death to America. Fundamentally.

"Come to think of it, perhaps we can lay Affinity Magazine’s reaction at Obama’s doorstep as well"…  Hat tip to Joe Newby

Scott Pelley and Self Inflicted Stupidity

Power Line   "CBS News anchor Scott Pelley — make that former CBS News anchor Scott Pelley — is the face of sanctimonious liberalism. The attempted assassination of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and his GOP colleagues on the baseball field in Alexandria last week somehow prompted Pelley’s comment on the day after: “It’s time to ask whether the attack on the United States Congress, yesterday, was foreseeable, predictable and, to some degree, self-inflicted” (video below). Pelley of course answered the question that approximately no one was asking in the affirmative."

"You have to love that “to some degree.” Pelley didn’t say that Scalise and his colleagues were entirely responsible for the mania of the leftist wack job who shot them. This is a fine tuned assessment."

MRC video

"Scalise lies in a hospital bed unable to defend himself from disparagement by the likes of Pelley. What might Scalise or any of his House colleagues have said to justify the imputation of responsibility for their own shooting to them? From the wide world of Republican politics, Pelley cites President’s Trump February tweet that the news media are the “enemy of the American people.”

"Now if we were deliberating whether Trump were responsible for an irate viewer punching Pelley in his smarmy face, Pelley might have a point. Perhaps then Pelley “to some degree” might share responsibility with Trump. But that’s not what we’re talking about (don’t say “unfortunately”).

"Pelley combines mind-numbing stupidity with Olympian condescension. His disdain for the likes of us is patent. The case for his contribution to the climate of opinion in which the maniacal leftist assailant James Hodgkinson stewed would have more to it than his case against Trump or Republican congressmen."

WSJ: What was on the teleprompter at CBS News?  . . . "Believe it or not, the segment went downhill from there. The CBS newsman concluded by citing President Trump’s harsh rhetoric about his network and other media outlets, as if Mr. Pelley and his colleagues were the real victims of last week’s violence. 

"Coincidentally on Friday Mr. Pelley left the CBS nightly anchor chair to focus on his reports for the CBS program, “60 Minutes.” The move had been announced in May and in media terms, Mr Pelley remains kind of a big deal." . . .

Blame the Trump Haters

Mike Reagan   . . . "Liberals are the ones who’ve been spewing all the hate talk, accusing Trump of crimes for which there is no evidence and calling for his impeachment.

"They are the ones who need to cool their rhetoric and come to grips with the reality that Bernie was screwed by Hillary but Hillary lost to President Trump fair and square.

"More than that, liberals need to start holding themselves accountable for the hate, trouble and violence their deranged or dangerous constituents are causing all across the USA."

Hollywood YUUUGE Loser in Georgia Sixth

"In actuality, I submit that what angers them most is that Trump is not interested in them.  He is interested in the actual working class, which they disdain. " . . .

PJ Media  "As a resident of Hollywood, CA, I didn't exactly see crying in the streets, but I did "feel their pain," as the saying goes.

"According to (where else?) Variety, the local entertainment industry went in big time in support of Jon Ossoff, the jejune sometime documentarian, in his quest to win the election in Georgia's sixth congressional district.

Rosie O’Donnell [ je suis shockay], Jane Fonda, Jessica Lange, Sean Daniel, Connie Britton, Sam Waterston and Kyra Sedgwick are among those who have donated to Democrat Jon Ossoff’s campaign, while others have been participating in phone banks to get out the vote and a few, like actress Alyssa Milano, have volunteered to go door to door in the suburban Atlanta district.

"Will these moral narcissists talk with Ossoff again, now that he has lost by a solid margin, more than predicted, failing to do any better than Hillary against their Public Enemy #1  (Donald J. Trump) despite having by far the largest war chest in American congressional history, nine times bigger than his opponent's?

"I would think not.  These celebs have better things to do behind the walls of their twenty-million-dollar mansions, especially now that, thanks to Trump, although they would never acknowledge it in a million years, their already fat stock market portfolios have grown roughly 17% since Donald was elected." . . .

"Their boy . . . Ossoff lost more substantially than expected in an upscale part of Georgia elitists should win. Enough of the Trump bashing.  Start thinking about how to make the country better.  Come up with some policies that make sense. Then maybe you'll start winning again."

"Message from Georgia: Hating Trump is not a platform"

Message from Georgia: Hating Trump is not a platform   "Turns out…money can’t buy you love. Or a House seat in Georgia’s 6th District."

Rich Terrell

How'd that referendum on Trump work out?  . . . "So it was a referendum on Trump? Maybe so. Lookee here, what were the locals saying when Karen Handel won the special election last night? From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Handel thanked President Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans who supported her in the nationally watched runoff, leading to cheers of “Trump, Trump, Trump” from the crowd at the Hyatt Regency in Dunwoody.    More... (including this next insightful bit of analysis:

 The other thing is that Democrats have yet to confront the problem as to why they are losing elections. The big reason is that they have swung hard-left on every single issue that they once had moderates on - immigration, government spending, health care, law and order, terrorism. In every single instance, it's a stance that benefits some special interest group and leaves the average voter with the bill.

 Some people hate Trump. More people hate liberals.   "The Karen Handel victory in the Georgia 6th District special election repeats a pattern depressingly familiar to the left.  There have been four special congressional elections since the hated Trump took office, and Democrats have lost all four.  In each contest, the left predicted victory – largely based on what they perceived was hatred of President Trump by ordinary Americans, which would generate "enthusiasm" for the Democrat candidate and drive people in overwhelming numbers to the polls.". . . 

All of those excuses fail to get to the crux of why the left keeps losing.  Ordinary Americans simply don't like leftists very much.  And when Hollywood and Silicon Valley unite to tell them they are stupid, are ignorant, are racist, are homophobic, hate Muslims, and shouldn't love America so much, what do they expect the reaction from ordinary people will be?

 Morning Joe: Georgia Election “Unmitigated Disaster” for Dems  "In his item of last night, Prof. Jacobson noted how Dems were taking the wrong lesson from the election, claiming that a close loss was a win. The message from Morning Joe was starkly different."

Jon Ossoff's $23 Million Loss Shows Dems Have No Idea How to Win in the Age of Trump  . . . "On the Democratic side, the combined efforts of the Ossoff campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee help build a monster operation unprecedented in Georgia Democratic politics. By the end of the race, they had knocked on more than 500,000 doors, hired 100 staffers, recruited 12,000 active volunteers and spent more than $11 million on ads on everything from the Today show to Korean newspapers and gospel stations.
"But, and this is the part that will sting Democrats for a long time: It still wasn’t enough. ' . . .

Trump’s Welcome Course Correction on Cuba

National Review  "Barack Obama’s approach to tyrants might have been described as “tough love,” except that there was never anything tough about it. He attempted to make nice with the mullahs in Tehran, giving them crates of cash in exchange for unenforceable promises about their nuclear program. But it was in his own hemisphere that he made the most gratuitous concessions. In late 2014, the Obama administration normalized relations with Cuba and lifted travel and economic restrictions to the island, some of which had been in place since the Kennedy administration. In the spring of 2016, President Obama visited Cuba, where he took in a baseball game with Cuban “president” Raúl Castro. 

"The only thing missing from the grotesque spectacle was a mojito."   Read more

Trump's Reimposition Of Sanctions Will Hurt Cuba's Communists — Good
" . . .President Trump is putting the pressure back on Cuba's odious communist regime, and they don't like it a bit, with Cuba complaining once again about U.S. intervention. But Trump really isn't meddling; he's merely undoing President Obama's awful mistake of giving Cuba's Castro regime everything it wanted, while getting nothing in return." . . .  Investor's Business Daily

CNN reports on the Ossoff loss

Via Weasel Zippers

Obama’s Unexplained $400M Payment To Iran May Become Dems Downfall

Jim Kouri  "Despite what many on the left try to claim, Obama’s time in office was filled with scandal. He repeatedly abused his power and likely engaged in illegal activity. One of his biggest scandals involved Iran.

While Obama was president, the Treasury Department negotiated with Iran to have several American prisoners released. After they were set free, the U.S. government then sent millions to Iran, leading some activists to believe the money was payment for letting the American prisoners go. They are concerned that paying a ransom in this way was an illegal abuse of power and want to know more about the secretive deal. To get more information, some activists are suing the federal government.

"According to reports, Tom Fitton, the President of Judicial Watch, which is the government watchdog organization responsible for filing the lawsuit, says they hope to learn as much as possible about the potentially illegal exchange. “The Trump administration’s agencies should follow the law and release all they can about the Obama-Iran payoff scandal,” he said in reference to the suit, noting, “the Obama administration’s secretive $400 million payoff to the Iranian regime was an abuse of power and may have been illegal.”

"Specifically, to figure out whether or not the money was, in fact, payment in exchange for the prisoners, Judicial Watch is suing the State and Treasury Departments for more information on the transfer. Their lawsuit, which was filed last month, seeks to obtain “all records related to the transfer of approximately $400 million in foreign currency to the Islamic Republic of Iran in January 2016. This request includes, but is not limited to, all related records of communications between any official, employee, or representative of any of the following entities: The Department of the Treasury, The Islamic Republic of Iran, The Executive Office of the White House, The Department of Defense, The Department of Justice, and The Department of State.”

"The deal in question was made last year. Back in August, former President Obama and his administration sent a $400 million pallet of cash to Iran shortly after they released 4 American prisoners being held in Tehran." . . .

Moby cartoon video corrupting children into hatred and accepting violence against President Trump

Thomas Lifson  "Trump Derangement Syndrome keeps plumbing the depths of corruption of the soul.  Extreme hatred and utopianism are a lethal combination, as tens of millions of unmarked graves of the former USSR, China, and Cambodia among many others signify.

"Nothing is more insidious than corrupting the minds of the young into hatred for others that ends up denying the enemy's humanity.  The current reigning champion of such child exploitation is Palestinian television, especially the Hamas-controlled Al-Aqsa channel.  Palestinian children are lured into fanatacism, up to and include suicide bombing, via grotesque use of animal and cartoon characters.  

"I am certain that Richard Melville Hall, who performs under the stage name Moby, considers himself a paragon of virtue, for his public persona is full of virtue-signaling.  He seems to endorse the entire progressive catechism, with his characteristic virtue-signaling condescension perfectly illustrated in one sentence.  The man is a lyricist, after all:

" 'Could you look an animal in the eyes and say to it, 'My appetite is more important than your suffering'?"

"In collaboration with artist Steve Cutts, Moby has just released a cartoon music video that marks a new low for the Trump-haters.  Jerome Hudson of Breitbart summarizes the action:" . . .

. . . "The artistic quality and budget of this video overshadow anything Hamas could produce.  But as I see it, Moby and Cutts are breeding fanatics, just as the Palestinians do.  Make no mistake: this is a work of art that tells us something awful about our times, and especially about the times that lie ahead. "

USA Today: "We need a Robert Mueller resignation or a second special counsel"

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Opinion columnist  "Special Counsel Robert Mueller has a problem: He has a disqualifying conflict of interest regarding a large part of his work. It involves a choice between investigating or relying on former FBI director James Comey, a longtime close friend of Mueller’s.

"Ideally, he’ll recognize that and resign. But if he doesn’t resign, Attorney General Jeff Sessions should appoint another special counsel to take over the obstruction-of-justice part of the investigation, where Mueller is disqualified.

"At present, there are two investigations: One into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians (a claim that even Democrat Chris Matthews admitted fell apart after Comey’s recent testimony) and an investigation into whether, while being investigated for this claimed collusion, President Trump or someone else obstructed justice. That investigation is closely tied to Comey, and so is Mueller." . . .

Liberal Outlets Mocked ‘Idiot Frat Boy’ Otto Warmbier When Arrested by North Korea

Washington Free Beacon

EBONY MAGAZINE‏Verified account @EBONYMag

You Gon’ Learn Today: @knflkkollective On the Revocation of White Privilege in North Korea: http://ow.ly/ZOuFR 

"When now-deceased American student Otto Warmbier was first arrested and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in prison in North Korea simply for taking down a poster, the response from some on the left was to mock him.

"North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal," read one Huffington Post piece, penned by blogger La Sha, days after Warmbier was sentenced in March 2016.

Warmbier, she wrote, "learned that the shield his cis white male identity provides here in America is not teflon abroad."

"As shocked as I am by the sentence handed down to Warmbier, I am even more shocked that a grown man, an American citizen, would not only voluntarily enter North Korea but also commit what's been described a ‘college-style prank,'" she continued. "That kind of reckless gall is an unfortunate side effect of being socialized first as a white boy, and then as a white man in this country."

La Sha's piece was also tweeted out by EBONY magazine.

. . . 

"Salon was, if anything, giddier.

"This might be America's biggest idiot frat boy: Meet the UVa student who thought he could pull a prank in North Korea," read the site's headline.

"Most of that piece was spent praising a segment from Comedy Central's "The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore," in which Wilmore also mocked Warmbier.

" 'It's just tough for me to have much sympathy for this guy and his crocodile tears," Wilmore said.

" 'If your hazing includes international crimes, you've got to read the fine print on your American frat bro warranty … it says, ‘Frat Bro Privilege not valid in totalitarian dystopias,'" he joked." . . .

Hell on earth: Otto Warmbier's death from mystery brain damage brings fresh scrutiny to the horrors of North Korea's brutal torture camps

"Horrendous: This drawing by a former North Korean prison guard depicts a position called 'pigeon torture' where prisoners are beaten on the chest until they vomit blood"

US doctors reported no signs of this torture on Warmbier, but did diagnose the following:

. . . "The 22-year-old student passed away from mysterious brain damage he suffered while a prisoner in the isolated state.

"He succumbed to his horrifying injuries just six days after he was released from North Korea back to his parents in a vegetative state following 17 months in custody.

"Its believed he spent some of that time in one of Kim's prison camps, where thousands of his citizens are believed to have died.

"Warmbier's doctors in Cincinnati said that the student had suffered 'extensive loss of brain tissue in all regions of his brain' consistent with oxygen deprivation for a prolonged period."

Bernie Sanders Urges Supporters to ‘Fight Back in Every Way Possible’ – Days After a Supporter Shoots a Congressman

The Gateway Pundit   "Socialist crackpot, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sat down with the fake Indian, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for a Facebook live event Monday and took some questions from supporters.

At one point, Sanders encouraged his supporters to ‘fight back in every way’. Only days ago, one of his supporters attempted to assassinate a Republican Congressman.

. . . "The fake Indian told Sanders she thinks Republicans won’t pay any price politically “for the harm they inflicted upon millions of people across this country. It’s cynical.”

"This is the left. They have no message, they are unable to make a cogent point so they call on their supporters to do the dirty work for them. The left is a violent political faction and they must be stopped."