"Monty Python icon John Cleese has criticised the ‘stifling’ nature of political correctness, wondering whether such a thing as a ‘woke joke’ exists.
" The 80-year-old star mused that ‘affectionate teasing’ is a bonding mechanism, and dismissed the notion that societies should be driven by the ‘most easily upset’.
"Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday, he said: ‘PC stuff started out as a good idea, which is, “Let’s not be mean to people”, and I’m in favour of that, believe it or not, despite my age. I think Jesus Christ would have agreed.
" ‘The main thing is to try to be kind.’
"Supporting Nick Cave’s comments on cancel culture, he went on: ‘But that then becomes a sort of indulgence of the most over-sensitive people in your culture, the people who are most easily upset.
" ‘I don’t think we should organise a society around the sensibilities of the most easily upset people because then you have a very neurotic society.’ The Fawlty Towers star added: ‘From the point of creativity, if you have to keep thinking which words you can use and which you can’t, then that will stifle creativity. I entirely agree with those thoughts.’ " More...
"You will bow to social activism, one way or another.
"We have almost become conditioned to it by now — or at the very least we have learned to recognize and avoid when a new activist product is coming our way in the entertainment realm. The ongoing insurgence of earnest messages, community awareness, and/or social lectures being injected into our cultural diversions is only going to get broader.
"A major studio has just announced it intends to do more than slip in the occasional storyline or populate the cast with a character from a proper interest group. Warners is teaming up with a Yale professor, Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff, to create content from scratch based on social activism. They intend to create entire products rooted in and concerning social justice.
"What this specifically entails is difficult to state, given that they are strictly in the creative phase right now, but also because the descriptions of their intentions are full of vague word-salad proclamations. Goff is the CEO of the Center for Policing Equity, as well as having a creative team entitled JuticeRx. They will be creating entertainment that will ‘’help people get free’’. Who they are referring to who is not free is not explained.
"According to Goff these new projects will serve as important touchstones for social improvement." . . .
Even a favorite show of my family, "When Calls the Heart" is woke in its portrayal of men and women. Most episodes can have several incidents of clueless men being put in their place by wiser, more 21st century-aware women. But at least we have not seen women beating up men like a cop show would. TD
"While the last election is still fresh in the minds of most Americans, the next one is going to become an issue a lot sooner than most people think.
"Republicans are poised to retake the House due to redistricting alone. That and the historical fact that the first midterm for a newly minted president is almost always a bloodbath has Democrats dreading what looks to be coming. That’s why you see such a push to get rid of the filibuster now. Democrats know they are on borrowed time, and they want to push through what they can now.
"There has been one thing that the left have been hoping will save them, though. Namely, that a civil war within the Republican party leads to a suppression of victories come 2022. For that to happen, Democrats were banking on Donald Trump just going scorched earth, with no care for whether the GOP takes back the majority or not.
"Well, the former president just blew that notion up, and that sound you hear is millions of liberals crying out in agony.
"This is Trump saying that he’ll be prioritizing policy over petty politics in the mid-terms, and honestly, good for him. That essentially defuses any major in-fighting within the party and sets the GOP up for success. The fundamentals already heavily favored them. Now, without another variable to gum up the works, Trump can be a positive force toward sending Nancy Pelosi into retirement, and that benefits him in the long term as well." . . .
The shameful inhumanity of Joe Biden's border policies"A lot of people have wondered why the Biden administration hasn't taken the communist Chinese to task for the way they are treating the Uighur population. Now that photographs are emerging from the facilities on our southern border, where the Biden administration is collecting illegal aliens, the reason for Biden's silence is obvious: you can't scold the Chinese for civilian concentration camps when you've set up your own inhumane concentration camps on American soil." . . .
. . . "The facility is in the heart of a once-thriving downtown area. The Convention Center is also near PetCo Park, which is due to being its Opening Day of baseball season on April 1. A surge in crime and disease will certainly put a [d]amper on businesses trying to recover from the prolonged pandemic restrictions" . . .
"The president tore up hardline Trump policies after taking office but denies sparking a crisis along the southern border where authorities are struggling to deal with a surge in migrant families and unaccompanied kids crossing illegally.
"A slew of experts and well-placed law enforcement sources have told DailyMail.com, however, that notorious drug gangs including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas are seizing upon the reforms to ratchet up human trafficking operations.
"As one source told us: 'The cartels have realized that under Biden there is serious money to be made from people trafficking without any of the distribution issues you face with narcotics. People are the new dope.' " . . .
"One of the effective policies he axed was Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy, which required migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to remain in Mexico while their asylum claims were processed. Now, just two months later, Biden is realizing how badly he screwed up.
"While quickly speaking to reporters on Sunday, Biden said he would “re-establish what existed before”, which was this exact “Remain In Mexico” policy that worked so well under Trump.
“ 'Why do you think the message to the migrants, telling them to stay home, don’t come now, why do you think that hasn’t resonated yet? What more can be done sir?” a reporter asked." . . .
YoutubeJames Crocker "The woman actually seems dumbfounded that these questions are being asked. It’s quite sad that we have people in charge that are this delusional."
William Lancaster "We here in the US have some sick leaders to even propose such a bill - What is this country coming to?"
No wonder China has little respect for this nation!
Ann Althouse; quoting Megan McArdle in "The Substack controversy’s bigger story" (WaPo).What is Substack? "... a future where 'woke capital,' in thrall to left-wing activists, makes it effectively impossible to hold a professional-class job without enthusiastically embracing progressive orthodoxy — especially on issues of identity. That world already seems uncomfortably close for journalists and academics, given that most of their institutions lean left. But self-publishing? It ought to be immune from cancellation unless the mob can somehow convince you to fire yourself. That changes, however, if activists can enforce a secondary boycott on the newsletter services, payment processors or web hosts that writers use. If that happens, it’s hard to see where viewpoint diversity could survive for long, except possibly in conservative outlets big enough to run their own technology and thereby survive the purge.... [E]conomist Cameron Harwick suggested... We actually are witnessing woke capital do what capital normally does, if the capitalist controls a monopoly. That is, extracting excess returns from the market — what economists call 'rents.'... And woke capital, Harwick argues, is actually the creation of a labor cartel: the highly progressive monoculture of professional workers. To keep them happy, institutions that employ a lot of professionals have been pressured toward a narrow ideological consensus, corresponding to the views of roughly the left-most 8 percent of the American electorate. It’s a hidden fringe benefit that Harwick dubs 'ideological rents.' If Harwick is right, then cancel culture can’t be defeated by Republican senators hassling Facebook or Twitter, because that doesn’t touch the monoculture...."
Continue on into the very intelligent comments. Mostly a very enlightening discussion. TD
Monica Showalter. . . "So now Bush is freely taking potshots against President Trump, something he only occasionally did when Trump was president and something he never did against President Obama, who did more to destroy the institutions of the U.S. and wokester-fy the U.S. military and Justice department than anyone. Maybe he's trying to suck up to Joe Biden, an old acquaintance, and now trying to get his licks in. Maybe he's just still seething, and it's boiling over.
"Bush has never liked President Trump.
"Unlike Obama, Trump made Bush's own record as president look awful in comparison.
"Unlike Trump, Bush did a paltry tax cut and got a paltry, barely there, recovery. He got the U.S. into a string of useless never-ending wars, none of which gained the U.S. anything, and all of which were costly in terms of U.S. blood and treasure, never recognizing the folly of nation-building. The only people who gained were Bush-linked "consultants." He did nothing as the media attacked him as "Hitler," he never liked his Republican voters, and he always tried to suck up to the swamp establishment, hoping to extend his political power to his relatives in a sort of "dynasty," which is revolting to voters. He was also big on expanding government power — in the Patriot Act, which is now being abused on Republicans instead of bloodthirsty terrorists, and in bringing us the TSA, targeting old blue-haired ladies instead of angry Middle Eastern military-aged young men. Maybe his biggest failure was that he and his brother, terrified of what consultants called "the Latino vote" constantly sucked up to the open borders lobby narrative on immigration, leaving the U.S. border open, and attempting and failing to get an amnesty bill through in 2007. (Do you wonder what he thought of those majority votes for Trump in Texas's solidly Latino Rio Grande Valley? Anyone ask?) Bottom line: what a shambles of a president he was." . . .
Reminder: In 1962 the world came closest to Armageddon when the Soviet Union moved nuclear missiles into Cuba after Premier Nikita Khrushchev determined that John Kennedy was a weak president
. . . "You saw much media attention last week on Biden’s exclusive network interview with a handpicked former Bill Clinton aide. It was taped Wednesday but not broadcast until Thursday. What you likely missed in the avalanche of adulation was a tiny italic note on ABC’s transcript—“Edited for Clarity.' ” . . .
Here is the full statement by former President Donald Trump on the crisis at the border, and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ handling of it on Sunday news shows:
“We proudly handed the Biden Administration the most secure border in history. All they had to do was keep this smooth-running system on autopilot. Instead, in the span of a just few weeks, the Biden Administration has turned a national triumph into a national disaster. They are in way over their heads and taking on water fast.
The pathetic, clueless performance of Secretary Mayorkas on the Sunday Shows today was a national disgrace. His self-satisfied presentation—in the middle of the massive crisis he helped engineer—is yet more proof he is incapable of leading DHS. Even someone of Mayorkas’ limited abilities should understand that if you provide Catch-and-Release to the world’s illegal aliens then the whole world will come.
Furthermore, the Mayorkas Gag Order on our Nation’s heroic border agents and ICE officers should be the subject of an immediate congressional investigation. But it’s clear they are engaged in a huge cover-up to hide just how bad things truly are. The only way to end the Biden Border Crisis is for them to admit their total failure and adopt the profoundly effective, proven Trump policies.
They must immediately complete the wall, which can be done in a matter of weeks—they should never have stopped it. They are causing death and human tragedy. In addition to the obvious, drugs are pouring into our country at record levels from the Southern Border, not to mention human and sex trafficking. This Administration’s reckless policies are enabling and encouraging crimes against humanity. Our Country is being destroyed!”
"No, I hadn't see this news item late last week, about George Bush suddenly not "owing" another president his "silence," in his string of lip-curling insults directed at President Trump. Guess I don't view him as worth watching much. But sure enough, he had plenty of hateful things to say about President Trump for the left-wing media, and he's the smaller for it.
"Here were his three worst whoppers, as cited by Business Insider:
Imprimus; Jason Whitlock: "Nearly 30 years ago, in a 1993 Nike commercial, professional basketball legend Charles Barkley fired the first shot at the “role model” concept popularized by Columbia University sociologist Robert K. Merton in the aftermath of the 1960s
counterculture movement. “I am not a role model,” Barkley proclaimed in the half-minute spot. “I’m not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.”
"Barkley’s words landed with a force every bit the equal of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s National Anthem knee 23 years later. Former Vice President Dan Quayle defended Barkley, while Barkley’s fellow NBA superstar Karl Malone criticized him inSports Illustrated. Leading news magazines, includingTimeandNewsweek, published articles exploring the controversy. Newspaper columnists from coast to coast—on and off the sports pages—also weighed in. The topic still sparks debate today." . . .
Jason Whitlock is a sports columnist for Outkick.com, a TV and radio host, and a podcaster. A graduate of Ball State University, where he was a football letterman, he worked as a sportswriter at The Kansas City Star from 1994 to 2010. He has also worked for ESPN, AOL Sports, and Fox Sports. In 2007, he became the first sportswriter to win the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for Commentary. He founded ESPN’s “The Undefeated” website and helped create and host “Speak for Yourself” on FOX Sports 1.
"The cable news channel had averaged 2.5 million primetime viewers from November 4 through Inauguration Day on January 20, according to aFox Newsanalysis of Nielsen data.
""However, data shows once President Joe Biden took office the network averaged only 1.6 million total primetime viewers from January 21, through March 15, according to the report." . . .
The mainstream media’s anti-White racism is escalating . . ."The media’s racial obsession is a way to maintain the Democrats’ political power, by silencing the opposition, and to drive ratings. Eventually, though, the real-world consequences are going to be disastrous.
"If our children are consistently told that Whites are not just racist, but akin to the KKK or even Nazis, the means that waging war against them is within the pale of moral behavior. I am deeply concerned that the media will incite someone – or a group of someones – to take up arms in the imaginary war against “White supremacists” and start targeting people based upon their skin color."
Washington, D.C., Circuit Senior Judge Laurence Silberman, who was appointed by former President Reagan, argued in his opinion that the news industry at large is dominated with a “bias against the Republican Party” that he wrote was “rather shocking.”
"While the case did not specifically relate to either paper, the judge used his opinion to argue that the Times and Post served largely as mouthpieces for the Democratic Party, adding “the news section of The Wall Street Journal leans in the same direction.”
“ 'The orientation of these three papers is followed by The Associated Press and most large papers across the country (such as the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and Boston Globe),” he continued. “Nearly all television—network and cable—is a Democratic Party trumpet. Even the government-supported National Public Radio follows along.' ” . . .
. . . "But this story has also been deeply instructive about our national discourse and the state of the American mainstream and elite media. This story’s coverage is proof, it seems to me, that American journalists have officially abandoned the habit of attempting any kind of “objectivity” in reporting these stories. We are now in the enlightened social justice world of “moral clarity” and “narrative-shaping.' ” . . .
William Lancaster "We here in the US have some sick leaders to even propose such a bill - What is this country coming to?"