Peter Thiel: Political Correctness Is an Indicator of Greater Social Illness

Breitbart  via Sarah Watching   

Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel addressed a group of young conservatives on Wednesday evening.

"Speaking at the Turning Point USA High School Leadership Summit on Wednesday evening, Silicon Valley giant Peter Thiel spoke to students about America’s current political climate, his views on President Trump, and the dangers of political correctness.

"Thiel spoke about the importance of ideological diversity. When hiring new employees for his various businesses, Thiel said that he often asks them to share with him a controversial opinion that they hold. “Tell me something thats true that few people agree with you on,” he said. “It’s a way to get people thinking outside of the lemming-like herd that we find ourselves in.”

"Thiel then spoke about his support for President Trump. He explained that his support for the president has made him feel like a contrarian at times, especially in Silicon Valley.

“ 'When we come to politics in this country, I supported Trump for president in 2016, it was in some ways it was least contrarian and the most contrarian thing I’ve done in my life,” he said. “How far off can something be if half the country agrees with you? But in some contexts, in silicon valley and in some high schools, it felt incredibly contrarian. How can someone who is in such a small minority ever be right?”

“ 'I’m one of the few people who supports President Trump in Silicon Valley,” he added. “I am constantly told that I can’t possibly be right because so few people agree with me.”

"Thiel argued that President Trump has polarized America because he has addressed issues that were previously considered to be sacred. “Why is it so polarized? What is the substance behind this uniformity of thought?” he said. “I think the president has called into question some sacred ideas that do need to be questioned some great deal.”

"Thiel briefly attacked political correctness and suggested that its an indicator of a greater social illness. “Political correctness is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “Its an indicator that there is so much more than is unhealthy about our society.”

Video at the link.

Bobby Francis (Beto) O'Rourke to Re-Re-Set His Failing Campaign With “Major Address” on Thursday

Legal Insurrection

According to a Monmouth University poll from August 8th, Beto is polling at less than one percent in Iowa. The “major address” tomorrow will likely be the death rattle of a campaign which should have closed shop weeks ago. Beto is finished and no one has the heart to tell him.

. . . "Of course, this is the second time that Beto has tried to “reset” his campaign, and the second time Garrett Haake of NBC News has reported on it.

The first time was on May 15th:

O’Rourke, seeking a reset, reaches out to national Democrats

Beto O’Rourke is asking for a second chance to make a first impression.

After a rocky rollout — punctuated by a Vanity Fair profile in which he was quoted saying he was “born” to be in the 2020 presidential race — the former Texas congressman imposed on himself a period of major-media and fundraising abstinence while he held scores of town hall meetings in early caucus and primary states.

It didn’t seem to help. Dismissing him as thin on substance, The New Republic mocked his “profound emptiness” and Politico concluded that he had “a long history of failing upward.” He’s watched his national poll numbers dwindle — from a high of 12 percent in a Quinnipiac survey in late March to 5 percent in the same survey a month later — and he’s been at 3 percent in several other recent polls.

But with a round of national TV interviews, fresh additions to his campaign team and a more substantial platform beginning to take shape, O’Rourke will now be watched closely by Democratic insiders to see if his soft re-launch — Beto 2.0 — can propel him back into the forefront of the national conversation.

. . .  Video even more relevant now: 

Saving Hong Kong

Don Surber

"There is not much America can do for Hong Kong. It is an internal affair. We cannot send troops or even rattle sabers. Speeches at the UN are mere virtue signalling.

"But what we can do is cause the Red Chinese regime to collapse, and I believe that is the true, unstated goal of President Donald John Trump.

"Never forget his first lawyer Roy Cohn was his political mentor. Cohn prosecuted the Rosenbergs, who were executed for giving Stalin the atomic bomb. Liberals never forgave Cohn.

"So what?

"President Trump's plan for Red China took more than a year to set up. He strengthened the American economy through the rollback of unnecessary regulations. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 halted the exodus of company headquarters and brought a few back to the States.

"Once he put in place the forces to Make America Great Again -- which we the people are doing -- he went after Red China with gusto.

"His tariffs are working. His first pick for secretary of labor, Andy Pudzer (Cleveland State '75) and former Republican Senator Jim Talent have a progress report in the Wall Street Journal via Dinocrat.

"They wrote, "President Trump’s tariffs and other sanctions are hitting China at a vulnerable moment.   . . ."

In contrast with President Trump and his respect for America, we must earnestly hope this nation will never be governed by leftists like Colin Kaepernick, Megan Rapinoe, and any Democrat currently on the Judiciary Committee. To oppose that regime's policies would get you the Kavanaugh treatment and all Hollywood would cheer them on. TD

Cuomo is the least of CNN’s problems

Silvio Canto, Jr.  "To be clear,  I don't think it's right to approach public figures when they are dining with their families.  I didn't like it when they did to Senator & Mrs. Cruz.  I don't think that it was right to approach Mr. Cuomo and call him "Freddo" in front of his family.

 

"Having said that, Chris Cuomo's "freddo" moment is the last of their worries over at CNN.   They are not attracting viewers, as we see in this report:  

Illustrations added by TD

DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall told Fox News that these latest controversies "surely complicate the overall image of CNN” amid a ratings crisis. 

 

CNN has struggled to attract viewers during the Trump administration and recently finished July as the No. 13 network on basic cable, averaging only 797,000 primetime viewers and shedding 11 percent of its audience compared to July 2018.

 

CNN’s most-watched program during July was “Cuomo Prime Time,” which finished No. 24 overall among cable news, behind 14 different Fox News shows and nine programs on MSNBC. 

 

It remains to be seen if the negative press will push CNN’s viewership further down the gutter, but McCall certainly doesn’t think it will help. 

"We will see but I don't think that this is going to help get out of the hole.  First, CNN's prime time lineup is predictably boring.  Second, Chris Cuomo's reaction to the man who approached him showed him as angry and incapable of taking what he dishes out every night."

Jeffrey Epstein had a painting of Bill Clinton wearing a blue DRESS and red heels and lounging in the Oval Office inside his Manhattan mansion - visitor reveals bizarre image inside pedophile's $56m lair

UK Daily Mail

"How source saw it: Jeffrey Epstein had a bizarre portrait of Bill Clinton hanging in his Manhattan mansion, depicting the former president lounging on a chair in the Oval Office wearing red heels and an open-necked blue dress, a source exclusively told DailyMailTV "

There is a much larger copy of this photo, but not while I'm eating breakfast. TD

. . . "The color of the dress seemed to be a pointed reference to Clinton's former intern Monica Lewinsky, who a blue dress during their infamous sexual encounter in the White House.

"Epstein and Clinton were once friends, with the now 72-year-old flying on the now deceased financier's private plane, dubbed the Lolita Express, several times and on his own account vising the town house once - making it possible he could have seen the bizarre painting.

"Clinton has however denied being on Epstein's 'pedophile island,' Little St. James - a denial which Donald Trump sought to cast doubt on this week.   

"The presence of the picture is a new twist in the relationship between Clinton, his family and Epstein.

"Last month the former president's office said he had not known anything of Epstein's crimes and had taken four trips with him in 2002 and 2003 - although flight logs showed that he had taken a total of at least 26 individual flights in the course of those.

"One of Epstein's former sex slaves, Virginia Roberts, claimed she saw Clinton on the island for a dinner held in his honor shortly after he left office, and stood by the claim when questioned under oath." . . . 

Bruce Springsteen, Hillary, and a blue dress:

Epstein was found dead a day after documents were unsealed implicating several elites and Democrats including Al Gore and former Governor Bill Richardson.

How to Tell If a Trump Supporter Is Racist

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/

Dennis Prager "Every non-liberal leftist — that is, nearly every Democrat running for president, New York Times and Washington Post columnist, CNN and MSNBC host, and your left-wing brother-in-law — labels every Trump supporter and, of course, President Donald Trump, a "racist."
"And they don't stop there. Leftists don't only label the half of the country that supports the president "racist," they label all whites and America itself "racist." If your son or daughter attends or recently attended an American university, it is close to certain he or she was repeatedly told that America and all whites are racist. According to the left, whites are divided between those who admit they are racist and those who don't admit it.

"Every conservative and many liberals know this is a big lie. The great question is: Do leftists believe it? It is impossible to know. But this we do know: If you repeat something often enough, and if your Weltanschauung (worldview) and that which gives your life meaning are dependent upon believing something, you will eventually believe it.

"So here is a way to show it is a lie.

"Ask any white conservative, including one who supports Trump, the following three questions:" . . .  more...

To Save a Bad Gun Law, Democratic Senators Threaten the Supreme Court

National Review

In a remarkable brief, they impugn the integrity of conservative justices and conclude with an ominous and improper warning

"I just finished reading of the most astonishing legal briefs I’ve ever read. It is easily the most malicious Supreme Court brief I’ve ever seen. And it comes not from an angry or unhinged private citizen, but from five Democratic members of the United States Senate. Without any foundation, they directly attack the integrity of the five Republican appointees and conclude with a threat to take political action against the Court if it doesn’t rule the way they demand.

"The brief is so outside legal norms that, had I drafted it as a member of the Supreme Court bar, I’d be concerned about facing legal sanction for recklessly impugning the integrity of the Court.

"Here’s the background. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Mazie Hirono, Richard Blumenthal, Richard Durbin, and Kirsten Gillibrand filed their short brief in a case called New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. the City of New York, the first Second Amendment case the Supreme Court has taken in nearly a decade.

\"If that sounds momentous, don’t be so sure. At issue is an extremely bizarre New York City law that banned the transport of a locked, unloaded licensed handgun outside the home unless the gun owner is traveling to one of only seven shooting ranges in the city. While the odds were remote that the Court would issue a sweeping Second Amendment ruling in a case involving a truly niche New York City law, it seemed likely that SCOTUS would strike down a regulation so strict that it prevented a person from taking his gun to a second home or even on a vacation to a jurisdiction that permitted him to arm himself.

"And so — after fighting for its regulation through years of lower-court litigation — the city and state of New York changed their laws, slightly loosening the transport restrictions to allow a person to take their gun to a second home, a gun range, or a shooting competition outside the city. New York then filed a motion arguing that its legal changes rendered the petitioners’ claims moot. The New York Rifle and Pistol Association disagreed, arguing that even considering the city’s “miserly” changes, the city rules still violated the Second Amendment." . . .

YouTube Moderators

The American Spectator

Prison guards who were supposed to be checking on Jeffrey Epstein were 'ASLEEP and faked log entries' to make it look like they observed billionaire paedophile on night he 'killed himself'

UK Daily Mail  "Corrections officers at a New York prison where Jeffrey Epstein was being held are accused of falling asleep on the job and falsifying logs to make it appear as if they checked on the billionaire pedophile on the night of his apparent suicide. 

"The Metropolitan Correctional Center's two guards claimed to have checked on Epstein every 30 minutes, but had actually been asleep for up to the three hours, officials familiar with the ongoing probe told The New York Times.

"Epstein is believed to have killed himself early Saturday at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, where he was awaiting trial in a sex trafficking case.

"The abrupt death of the 66-year-old disgraced financier cut short a criminal prosecution that threatened to implicate some of the world's richest, most powerful men.  . . .

. . . "In the days since Epstein's death a portrait has begun to emerge of Manhattan's federal detention center as a chronically understaffed facility that possibly made a series of missteps in handling its most high-profile inmate. 

"The American Federation of Government Employees claims workers there often work a double shift of 16 hours. 

"They can then be forced to work another hour or two if their relief does not arrive arrived and those who refuse the 'mandatory overtime' faces disciplinary action.

"Gregg, president of AFGE Local 3148, told The Daily Beast: 'That is our normal. At some point, people are going to break." . . .

We Can’t Imagine What Cops Go Through

City Journal

Recent NYPD suicides should remind us to appreciate the trauma associated with police work.

"Since June of this year, six members of the NYPD have committed suicide, bringing the 2019 total to eight. This represents a sharp rise within the department, which has averaged between four and five suicides annually. The increase has many wondering how to curb a disturbing trend. I don’t pretend to have the answers, but I hope that these deaths will prompt reflection on the often-grim reality of being a cop. We should ask ourselves whether the critical posture that so many have taken (in New York, in particular) toward police in recent years reflects an appreciation of that reality. 

"When asked what they imagine would be the hardest part of being a cop, many people say that they think first of the risk of encountering dangerous situations—chasing a suspect into a dark alley, being shot at, or kicking down a door, not knowing who (or what) is on the other side. But police officers experience a variety of intense, traumatic incidents that can weigh just as heavily on their emotions and psyches; for instance, imagine the horror of attending to the scene of a car accident in which young children were killed. In 2013, researchers published a study in the International Journal of Stress Management, examining the relationship between “critical incidents” and the mental health of police officers. It found that such episodes are associated both with alcohol use and PTSD symptoms. “Critical incidents” include a range of experiences that police officers—among other first responders—might encounter, including “badly beaten child,” “decaying corpse,” “making a death notification,” and personal harm or injury." . . .

Michael Avenatti indicted on 36 counts in California

KXLY  "A federal grand jury in California has indicted celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti on 36 counts, including embezzlement, wire fraud, tax evasion, bankruptcy fraud and bank fraud connected to his alleged theft of tens of millions of dollars from five clients, one a paraplegic.

The 61-page indictment, disclosed by prosecutors on Thursday, outlines years of alleged deception and an array of false statements to both federal and bank officials by a man who, over the course of the past year, has become one of the highest profile attorneys in the country.

"Wednesday's indictment comes two weeks after federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Los Angeles charged Avenatti, who became a household name during his representation of adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, nearly simultaneously in two criminal cases. In the New York case, Avenatti is accused of attempting to extort more than $20 million from sportswear company Nike."

. . . 

The lawyer speaks: "On Thursday, Avenatti tweeted after the indictment was announced: "For 20 years, I have represented Davids vs. Goliaths and relied on due process and our system of justice. Along the way, I have made many powerful enemies. I am entitled to a FULL presumption of innocence and am confident that justice will be done once ALL of the facts are known.' "

. . . 

"On Thursday, asked about Avenatti's claim that the indictment was the result of a conspiracy by prominent figures Avenatti has antagonized, Hanna dismissed that allegation: "Nothing can be farther from the truth.' "

The Most Brutal Anti-Avenatti Cartoon of ALL TIME

Michael Avenatti Arrested For Allegedly Beating His Wife Since denied by both parties.

Ryan Saavedra commented wisely: "Michael Avenatti might want to change the quotes on his website"

What the El Paso Shooter Learned from Immigrants

"Chicano university professors and student groups speak of "reconquista," claiming ownership of the entire American Southwest, which they call "Aztlan." This is based on the idea that it was once occupied by the ancient Aztecs, and Mexicans are descended from the Aztecs. (Who wouldn't want to be related to enthusiastic practitioners of human sacrifice?) "

Ann Coulter  "I know who filled the El Paso mass shooter's head with murderous thoughts! Contrary to the conclusions of The New York Times' Jeremy Peters, it wasn't me and other conservatives. 

"Peters says we caused Patrick Crusius' monstrous shooting spree by calling illegal immigrants streaming across our border "invaders." It seems that Crusius' "manifesto" also called illegal aliens "invaders." You see? We used the word "invaders" -- and so did he! CHECKMATE!
"I could say it's the Times that inspired Crusius' slaughter, inasmuch as other parts of his manifesto complained about "the increasingly anti-immigrant rhetoric of the right." But I'm bigger than that, New York Times.
"(Also, Peters, you lied about my quote, and you know it. I was not proposing that we shoot illegals at the border. I was pointing out the idiocy of Trump’s sending troops there at all, when they are not going to shoot anyone -- in lieu of the simple, elegant and entirely nonviolent solution of the wall which I, and 62 million other Americans, voted for.)
"Actually, there's another much more obvious source of Crusius' noxious beliefs than conservative commentators -- or even the hateful New York Times.
"The shooter's primary motive was, as he put it, to "(defend) my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion."
"So he had an ethnic reason and a territorial reason.
"Who is constantly bragging about their ethnic group? Who makes territorial claims on America on behalf of their ethnic group?
"IMMIGRANTS!"
"Crusius' manifesto included lots of chauvinistic boasting about his people, saying his family had been here a long time "and America is the better for it, so I claim the right to reside here by manifest destiny, for myself, my cousins and uncles and children."
"He also had some nasty remarks about immigrants, saying they had "despoiled" his homeland, making it "unsafe and unlivable."

""No, wait -- my mistake! That wasn't Crusius at all. He said nothing about the virtues of his own ethnic group. " . . .