The Supreme Court Is At The Heart Of America’s Racial Division

Bookworm Room

                                                    Society needs defamation law to function

"If you are trying to make sense of how our nation has become so toxic, a good starting point is the Supreme Court’s  1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan. That case radically altered existing law so that, for the first time in our history, it was, as a practical matter, impossible for any “public figure” to bring a successful defamation suit. There can be no better example of the horrid effect of that decision than a recent race-based defamation against Governor Ron DeSantis.

"Recently, the DeSantis administration sent a letter to the College Board informing it that the State of Florida would not allow a proposed AP African-American Studies curriculum to be taught within the state. The rationale was that much of the course was nothing more than a highly politicized and radical ideology dressed up as a history course, something illegal in Florida. 

"Factually, nothing DeSantis did was “racist”—that is, he did not treat Blacks differently because of their skin color. Nor did anything DeSantis say or do support “White supremacy”—that is, he did not promote White Americans as being inherently superior to Black Americans. And yet, the race hustlers instantly went on the attack:

"Since the 1960s, progressives have been using the race card to demonize and defame their ideological opponents.

"In that vein, it would be hard to imagine a more classically defamatory article than that penned the other day by Renée Graham, an associate editor of the Boston Globe: “Ron DeSantis’s Fear of American History.” Graham outrageously slanders DeSantis by claiming that racism motivated him. She compares DeSantis’s refusal to allow the wildly ideological African American Studies AP Course to be taught in Florida to the actions of a slave owner who refused to allow his slaves to learn to read. It is, she says, an act of “white supremacy.”... 

Democrats are drooling over the possibility of criminalizing any speech with which they disagree — and they’ll do it, too, if voters don’t deal them a stunning political loss.

"Rep. Sheila Jackson (D-TX; Yale BA; University of Virginia Law School JD) has floated a bill controlling speech with which she disagrees. It’s called the “Leading Against White Supremacy Act” and is intended to make expressions of “white supremacy” a federal crime. Usefully (for her purposes), Jackson Lee does not define “white supremacy.” Instead, the act opens with at Tautology:

A person engages in a white supremacy inspired hate crime when white supremacy ideology has motivated the planning, development, preparation, or perpetration of actions that constituted a crime or were undertaken in furtherance of activity that, if effectuated, would have constituted a crime.

"You got that, right? You will be charged for having engaged in a white supremacy hate crime if you were thinking white supremacist thoughts when you engaged in that hate crime.". . .

Even the left leaning Daily Beast says: Biden’s Befuddled Response to the Ohio Train Disaster Is Unacceptable

 

“East Palestine is overwhelmingly white, and it’s politically conservative,” my old boss Tucker Carlson said on his Fox News show. “That shouldn’t be relevant, but it very much is.”

Biden’s Befuddled Response to the Ohio Train Disaster Is Unacceptable (msn.com)

"Woody Allen might have been wrong about a lot of things, but I think he nailed it when he said, “Showing up is 80 percent of life.” President Joe Biden seems to have missed this particular memo. He has yet to visit East Palestine, Ohio, site of that horrible train derailment that spilled toxic chemicals, which residents claim is making them sick (though he is “keeping very close tabs on it.”). . .

. . ."But there’s another reason why failing to show up in East Palestine was a crucial mistake: In not doing so, Biden has inadvertently enabled what The Bulwark’s Tim Miller described as a “reverse Katrina situation.” In other words, Biden’s opponents have seized on this opportunity and used it to say, “You don’t care about rural white people.”

"Just as in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, there was a narrative that said George W. Bush didn’t “care about Black people,” there are those who suggest (fair or not) that Biden would have responded more swiftly if the derailment had occurred in a more racially diverse or progressive town.

Legacy media baffled that President Trump beat Biden and troupe to East Palestine

 Jack Hellner  . . ."The author says Trump is desperate to return to the White House. (News flash: we’re desperate for his return to the White House.) Yet, here are some things that show which party is actually desperate to occupy the White House:

"When Hillary and the DNC couldn’t run on her corrupt record and on their unpopular leftist policies, they paid a foreign national over $10 million to create a fictitious dossier to destroy Trump. They must have had trouble finding true dirt with which to destroy him.

"FBI director James Comey listed all of Hillary’s crimes and then falsely claimed no one would be prosecuted for those crimes.

"Corrupt FBI bureaucrats, who were so desperate for Hillary to win, continuously peddled the fake dossier as legitimate when they lied to the FISA court so they could illegally spy on associates of Trump as they sought to destroy him.

"For four years, the media and other Democrats intentionally lied, asserting that Trump had colluded with Russia; they challenged the legitimacy of the election and labeled him an illegitimate president.

"When Trump did his job and asked Ukraine to investigate the known corruption and kickbacks to the Biden family, the media and other Democrats colluded to push for Trump’s impeachment. The media and other Democrats have never cared about all the kickbacks to the Clintons or the Bidens.

"When a true story about a laptop came out before the 2020 election that showed how corrupt Joe and his family were, a cabal of journalists, government officials, former intelligence officials, and other Democrats engaged in a calculated campaign to knowingly censor the truth from the public. That shows pure desperation by a party so consumed with power that they were willing to intentionally interfere in a presidential election. They clearly didn’t care about democracy or election integrity.". . .

The audacity of Mr. Rogers

 Youtube

Why J6 Transparency Frightens the Democrats; Publicizing the Capital surveillance video will finally destroy their “insurrection” narrative.

 The American Spectator   "For two years, the Democrats have insisted that, on Jan. 6, 2021, the republic was shaken to its foundations by an “insurrection” mounted by wild-eyed MAGA extremists. They attempted to reinforce this claim with a series of hyper-partisan hearings, complete with video edited for dramatic effect by a professional television producer. This left most of the footage captured by Capitol surveillance cameras on the cutting room floor, and the Democrats refused to release any of the unused video to the public. Thus, after the midterms, Kevin McCarthy pledged to make it public if elected speaker of the House. He kept his word, and the Democrats are clearly alarmed.

"Indeed, their response to the news that McCarthy had allowed Fox News’ Tucker Carlson access to the surveillance tapes was nearly as hysterical as their reaction to the Jan. 6 affray itself. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), for example, circulated a Dear Colleague letter containing this melodramatic nonsense: “MAGA Republicans in the House have provided tens of thousands of hours of sensitive Capitol security footage to a FOX News personality who regularly peddles in conspiracy theories and Pro-Putin rhetoric.” The Putin angle was parroted by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.): “Kevin McCarthy turned over Jan. 6 videos to right-wing propagandist Tucker Carlson. A man who spews Kremlin talking points.”

"These claims are not merely unhinged; they are patently false. McCarthy hasn’t turned over a trove of Jan. 6 tapes to Carlson or to anyone else. As Politico’s Kyle Cheney notes: “Carlson doesn’t appear to actually *possess* any of the video footage. His team is reviewing it via government-controlled terminals at the Capitol.” Cheney goes on to point out, “That’s exactly how the Jan. 6 select committee reviewed security footage too.” But that didn’t prevent Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) from penning a preposterous letter to his fellow Democrats contending that Carlson’s access to the surveillance tapes creates a security risk comparable to that which existed prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks:

"The speaker is needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11. The footage Speaker McCarthy is making available to Fox News is a treasure trove of closely held information about how the Capitol complex is protected and its public release would compromise the safety of the Legislative Branch and allow those who want to commit another attack to learn how Congress is safeguarded.… 

It also risks exposing the carefully laid out and highly guarded plans for the continuity of government, intended to preserve our democracy in the event of an attack.

 "What is actually at risk, of course, is the carefully crafted Democratic narrative about what really happened at the Capitol on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021. They have invested an enormous amount of taxpayer money and political capital in an attempt to convince the public that it was an insurrection perpetrated by MAGA extremists who have taken over the GOP and are likely to launch another attack on “our democracy” in the future. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) intimated that last week in this ridiculous tweet: “McCarthy giving 40,000 hrs of Jan. 6 tape to a pro-Putin journalist is an astounding ethical collapse. What security precautions were taken to keep this from becoming a roadmap for a 2024 insurrection?' ”. . .

Mayor Pete Keeps Failing Upward

 Cautious, ambitious, “well-rounded,” and soulless, Pete and his ilk are the dominant human type in charge of the world today—the managerial class.

American Greatness  "While most of Joe Biden’s demerits can be chalked up to dementia, the train derailment and environmental disaster in East Palestine, Ohio exposes the phoniness and overhyped political skill of Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. 

"As I wrote in an earlier piece, Buttigieg is the “organization kid” who grew up; the man with the golden resume. Alas, people like this frequently do not go as far as they and their parents hope. They peak early. Social intelligence, leadership, perseverance—as well as a little luck—matter a lot, especially in politics. 

"Some of these principles are pretty basic. No one is going to want to help someone who is only out for himself. You never hear people bragging about how Mayor Pete helped them out or achieved something tangible for the community. His record in South Bend was full of failures and faddish bad judgment. He’s just been checking boxes all the way: Ivy League, Rhodes Scholar, McKinsey Consulting, combat tourism with the Navy, small town mayor, and now the latest rung, a cabinet position.

"A narcissistic social climber, he’s bored by the normal demands of most jobs. He also lacks the instincts and guts to make the most of challenges and crises. He instinctively runs away from anything that is not rehearsed, planned, and perfect. That’s why he ignored the port crisis last year, instead secretly taking a few months off when he and his gay partner adopted a child. 

"I am intimately familiar with this type of person. They make up a solid plurality of the legal profession. They are cautious, ambitious, “well-rounded,” and soulless. This is the dominant human type in charge of the world today, the managerial class, entry to which is controlled by a mania for credentialism and conformity. ". . . 

In conclusion: "There is, however, a silver lining: since Buttigieg and his party’s ultimate plans are so destructive, you love to see them screw up so badly." 

Can Vivek Ramaswamy fix Washington? CNN and MSNBC will be coming after him immediately

Biden is known for walking stiffly.  His big shtick is touching women inappropriately.  Working diligently to strengthen the hand of credit card firms against consumers for much of his career in the Senate, it's little wonder that credit card giant MBNA was his largest contributor. 

  Harry A. White II   . . ."Ramaswamy is a multimillionaire.  How did Vivek Ramaswamy make his money?  The answer is outside politics and fair and square, apparently.  This bodes well for an honorable career in politics.  More power to him.  

In an editorial, Ramaswamy called for making the border secure, eliminating affirmative action "across the American economy," and establishing economic independence from China, "the greatest external threat to America."

To put America first, we need to rediscover what America is. That's why I am running for president. I am launching not only a political campaign but a cultural movement to create a new American Dream — one that is not only about money but about the unapologetic pursuit of excellence[.] ... [I]t is about reviving a national identity.

He hopes to end ESG and diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE) and put merit back in America.

Is a revival on a gigantic scale (from Kentucky to the White House) too much to hope for?  Probably.  The only men fit to captain the ship of state — benevolent, powerful men "who have access to the Form of the Good," or God — don't exist in Washington.  There are only men spouting the state-sponsored orthodoxy of wokeism, via protected categories in state and federal "non-discrimination" laws, which include gender self-identification. 

Looking for arguments for and against DIE, I found a bad one "for" online.  Here it is:

Some have said that instituting the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, out of compulsion, results in mediocrity, not meritocracy. However, in the absence of diversity and inclusion, it is exceedingly difficult in most human endeavors to proclaim that someone or something merits designation as 'the best.' In other words, without diversity and inclu­sion, meritocracy itself is a meritless myth, and any merit bestowed cannot be deemed equitable.". . .

 Who is Vivek Ramaswamy, the new GOP presidential candidate?

Another conservative pastor canceled by Big Tech

Google needs to give these well-meaning, patriotic people a break.

 American Thinker  "Recently, a close friend wanted me to hear a spiritual message from a pastor we listen to now and then, Jack Hibbs.  Within a day of receiving the link from her, I clicked on it and got that message that tells you the video you are trying to see has been blocked.  Hmmm.

"A few days later, I decided to go to Jack Hibbs's YouTube channel, "Real Life with Jack Hibbs."  I got the same message of doom, communicating that the whole channel was blocked.  Since I hadn't heard any announcement via email from Hibbs, I thought that maybe it was one of those temporary glitches.

"And then, a few days after the above, I saw Hibbs's headline: "Urgent! Please watch this video: https://vimeo.com/801741601."  I took the few minutes to watch it, thinking it might be something having to do with the Middle East or some other crisis area, of which there are many worldwide.

"No, it was something just as serious: YouTube took down Hibbs's YouTube channel and is keeping all of his material, on the flimsiest of charges, which they will not explain or speak with him about.  He is being stonewalled as well as censored.

"I admit that I am surprised that it took this long for Jack to get it that YouTube is not our friend and, as a part of the Google empire, is particularly hostile to people of faith and of common sense, conservative conviction.

"Another pastor we listen to is J.D. Farag of Calvary Chapel, Kaneohe, Hawaii.  Well over a year ago, Pastor Farag realized that YouTube was no friend, and so he set his church up to "broadcast" his sermons from their own website, bypassing the censorship of Big Tech. Ingeniously, he leaves the first 10–20 minutes of his sermons on YouTube and arranges his content so that the early portion of the sermon doesn't attract the notice of the YouTube censors.  Then he stops the YouTube and Facebook streams and urges the listeners to go to his website, where he is free to speak what is on his mind.

"It outrages me that Google soon took Pastor Farag's app icon out of the play store. ". . .

A Statement of Faith is a written declaration of the ministry's position on matters that pertain to the essentials of historical Christianity. The following statements comprise Real Life with Jack Hibbs' Statement of Faith.

Left proves Dilbert's point

 Don Surber

Adams should have couched his preference as encouraging blacks for their own protection to avoid whites because to say it the other way — as he did — is considered a hate crime. Wording matters.

"Chris Quinn, editor of the Plain Dealer, dropped the Dilbert comic strip this week, drawing cheers from the all-whites-are-racist crowd. He cited a podcast of Dilbert creator Scott Adams.

"Quinn wrote, “Adams said Black people are a hate group, citing a recent Rasmussen survey which, he said, shows nearly half of all Black people do not agree with the phrase ‘It’s okay to be white.’”

"The poll actually said 53% agree, 26% disagree and 21% were not sure. One-quarter of black people saying it is not okay to be white shows way too much racism.

"Adams said, “I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people.” (If MSNBC's Joy Reid said that, her face contorted by anger, I dare say she would still be on the air.TD)

"Segregation is making a comeback, long after America achieved racial equality, thanks to race hustlers like Al Sharpton, Joy Reid and Barack “If I Had A Son He’d Look Like Trayvon” Obama.

"Harvard’s hometown is a leader in advocating the separation of races. The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, published on August 9, 2018, “Why People of Color Need Spaces Without White People,” written by Kelsey Blackwell. She said:

“If your community is mostly white, it is not by accident. Do your work, get real, look at the places you’ve been avoiding. Ask another white person the question you’ve been unsure about asking. See how you’re perpetuating the system of institutional racism; we all are. Become intimately familiar with your role. Explore the places within yourself that you hold back. Can you be yourself a little more? You do this work and people of color will naturally want to engage with you. Why? Because through feeling and exploring your ignorance you’ve created a genuine opening for my reality.". . 

Biden Can't Remember If He's Talked to East Palestine Mayor Amid Toxic Train Derailment

 Biden Can't Remember If He's Talked to East Palestine Mayor Amid Toxic Train Derailment  "President Joe Biden's mental health is declining; that's no secret. However, it is alarming when he can't make it through an interview without stumbling over his words or being unable to recall whether he's already talked to someone. 

"During an interview with ABC on the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Biden said that he has "talked to everyone that there is to talk to" but can't remember who he has spoken to. 

"Host David Muir asked Biden if he plans to travel to Ohio and has talked to the mayor. 

" 'I can't recall whether I've — I don't think I've talked to the mayor. I've talked to everyone else there multiple times. I've talked to both the senators, both governors, I've talked to everyone there is to talk to, and we've made it clear that everything is available," Biden said in response. 

"This comes the same day the president stumbled through answering reporter's questions about the incident. ". . .

Health Concerns Rise in East Palestine, Resident Sounds 'Like Mickey Mouse'

NYT Debunks Dem Claim: Trump’s Rollback of a Rail Safety Rule Had ‘No Impact’ on Ohio Derailment

. . ."PolitiFact reported on February 15 that Democrats’ claims that Trump repealed a safety rule was “Mostly True,” but noted that it had no effect on the train derailment.

"As PolitiFact reported:

During former President Barack Obama’s administration, the Department of Transportation enacted a rule requiring high-hazard cargo trains to be equipped with electronically controlled pneumatic brakes by 2023, allowing them to brake faster.

The Trump administration repealed this rule, citing government reports that found the cost of requiring these kinds of brakes was not economically justified.

Even if this safety rule had still been in effect, it would not have applied to the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, because it was not categorized as a high-hazard cargo train.

"Despite this debunking that the Trump administration was at fault for the Ohio derailment more than a week ago, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg perpetuated the lie while he visited Ohio a day after Trump.". . .

WATCH: NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy says the brake rule Buttigieg and Joy Behar blamed President Trump for repealing 'would not have prevented' the East Palestine derailment.

"The wheel bearing failed on car number 23. So even with ECP brakes, the derailment would have occurred." pic.twitter.com/AECPta0T5F

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) February 24, 2023 

. . .Even if this safety rule had still been in effect, it would not have applied to the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, because it was not categorized as a high-hazard cargo train.

"Despite this debunking that the Trump administration was at fault for the Ohio derailment more than a week ago, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg perpetuated the lie while he visited Ohio a day after Trump.

. . ."The Biden administration is reeling after criticism that it acted too slowly after the derailment on February 3 and the subsequent release of toxic chemicals that forced residents to evacuate their homes.

"As Breitbart News reported Friday, President Joe Biden only tweeted about the derailment a day before Trump was set to arrive in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 22.

"Biden also chose to take a logistically-difficult surprise trip to Ukraine to commemorate one year of war before visiting East Palestine. Buttigieg visited East Palestine instead, a day after Trump arrived, distributing supplies and comforting residents."

'Oddball' Trump grand jury foreperson Emily Kohrs dealt a 'terrible blow' to prosecution, Andrew McCarthy says

'She basically flouted the secrecy rules of the grand jury,' McCarthy told Fox News Digital

Author Douglas Murray says the "bizarreness" of a Georgia grand jury foreperson's comments about former US president Donald Trump was "terrifying".

Refers to the woke generation as scolds and "prigs".

 Fox News  "Attorney Andrew McCarthy said Emily Kohrs, the forewoman of a special grand jury as part of the Georgia criminal probe into former President Trump, may have dealt "a terrible blow" to prosecutors with her unusual media tour this week.

"In a pair of appearances on CNN and NBC News, Kohrs appeared to strongly hint that Trump was among those recommended for criminal charges while laughing, joking and making animated facial expressions that seemed to provide answers she knew she shouldn't be offering. McCarthy, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, believes any "fair-mind lawyer" would object to her behavior. 

" 'This is a terrible thing. She basically flouted the secrecy rules of the grand jury. She flouted the judge's order, and she makes the whole enterprise down there in Georgia look like it's a, you know – Trump called it a kangaroo court," McCarthy said. 

" 'Whether it really is a kangaroo court or not, in that colorful sense, we'll have to see as the proceedings go by. But it's absolutely true that it's a terrible blow for their legal system and for this particular investigation, which has already had problems, because, you know, the [Fulton County] District Attorney [Fani Willis] is an elected Democrat who had a lot to say publicly about Trump even before this investigation opened," he continued. "This doesn’t help them present the impression that they’re running a tight, ethical, professional investigation.' " . . .

Why wealth matters in the free speech debate

The trans movement is the most obvious example of something that causes ‘self-cancellation’. But wokery is a broad church, and you dare question the religion at your peril. Even at the top level, those who are not famous and those not spectacularly loaded dare not speak their minds

 UK Spectator   "The divide between the rich and the poor is obvious in Britain today. Whether in terms of income, geography or political outlook, the cleavage between the haves and have-nots widens conspicuously. It has become a source of much snobbery and resentment. But there is another field in which this division can be witnessed, yet all too often goes ignored: free speech. Increasingly, the freedom to express your political opinions has become the privilege of the rich, while the poor – or even those on middle incomes – now fear to say what they like. This is especially the case when it comes to talking about gender, race and Brexit.

So fearful of speaking their minds on these touchy subjects, and scared of questioning liberal orthodoxies, many folk are now ‘self-cancelling’. This is the view of Tom Stoppard, who on Newsnight the other day spoke of this sinister etiquette that many conservatives – consciously or not – already know: that you don’t voice any anti-EU, anti-woke opinions in polite society, among most of your friends from school and university, even among relatives, and certainly not in the workplace. You will lose face, or possibly even your livelihood. ‘People tread warily, they’re careful of what they say,’ said the playwright. ‘I’m way behind the curve as to what is sayable and what is thinkable’.

"But Stoppard is rich and old. He can say what he likes. He doesn’t need to work again. The same goes for J.K. Rowling, who can literally afford to say unfashionable things about the transgender movement. So can Germaine Greer. And, I suspect, so can transgender-sceptics like Julie Burchill, Janice Turner and Suzanne Moore, who do so from a position of relative security (voicing truths and controversial opinions is their living, after all). But even Moore paid the price by being denounced by her colleagues on the Guardian, causing the two to part company.". . .

MSNBC's Joy Reid faces backlash for criticizing media's coverage of Ukraine with more compassion because the victims are 'white and largely Christian'