Monday, September 4, 2023

The De-Civilization of America


"Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services.

"He is also the Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History, Hillsdale College, where he teaches each fall semester courses in military history and classical culture.
"Victor discusses current political and social events and ideas, and current and past cultural trends.

Guv Ron’s Great Republican Comeback –

  Issues & Insights

Crime: “When we had two of these district attorneys in Florida, elected with Soros funding, who said they wouldn’t do their job, I removed them from their posts. They are gone.” Cannot any other governor do the same?

After saying much about all the other candidates, the writer closes with these words about Gov. Ron DeSantis: 

. . . "But the night’s big winner? Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose candidacy was last seen circling the drain after a series of missed opportunities, missteps and miscues. One such misfire – his ultra-lame “Great American Comeback” slogan – was displaced by his Great Republican Comeback. 

"The Sunshine State’s chief executive displayed the energy, enthusiasm, confidence and, most of all, competence that earned a record re-election margin – and an initial spot atop the 2024 presidential polls – bursting from the gate with pitch-perfect talking points that offered, finally, the right focuses. 

"The plight of Americans victimized by a “country … in decline.”

"Making Joe and Hunter Biden the issue.

"And most of all, his accomplishments in Florida – and taking them nationwide. "

Oklahoma City School District Hires Drag Queen Elementary School Principal Once Arrested For Possessing Child Porn and Illicit Drugs

Murnan’s record was expunged in October of 2003 after his short probation period on the drug charge. He spent the next several years creating his “Shantel Mandalay” persona and entering crossdressing pageants such as Miss Gay Oklahoma, V1SUT reported.

Debra Heine; American Greatness  "Dr. Shane Brent Murnan, 52, the new elementary school principal at John Glenn Elementary, had his personal devices confiscated by police in 2001 on suspicion of possession of child pornography, V1SUT reported on Substack. Almost 20 years later, he was investigated for another crime, according to a 2020 court filing.

"Police arrested the then-30-year-old in August 2001 after a Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) search recovered four deleted images of children engaged in sex acts, according to court records. Police also found 6 grams of marijuana in his home. Murnan, at the time, was a fifth-grade teacher at Stillwater’s Will Rogers Elementary School. After the arrest, school officials suspended Murnan and he resigned in May 2002.

" 'From there, some unexplainable legal wrangling began in which Payne County Special Judge Phillip Corley ruled that prosecutors had not proven Murnan had possessed child pornography, claiming it could not be definitively proven the children in the photos were underage,” V1SUT reported.

"Payne County prosecutors appealed Corley’s decision and prevailed in the Payne County Appeals Court.

"In direct contradiction to the earlier ruling, Appeals Court Judge Dave Allen stated in his decision: “It is clear from a review of the pictures that they do represent child pornography”.

"Later on, however, Payne County District Judge Donald L. Worthington reversed the reversal, dismissing the child porn charge.

Payne County prosecutors gave up, choosing not to appeal. In the end, it appears there was never any disagreement about the existence of the pornographic photos on Murnan’s computer, yet the charge was dropped. Was this a behind-the-scenes plea agreement to allow Murnan to accept only the drug charge (marijuana) and retain his teaching certificate?

 . . .

UPDATED: Joe Biden, forever stupid...and bad

  Monica Showalter - American Thinker

Eric Hoffer once observed:  Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.

 

"You can tell a lot about a man about what he fears most, and with Franklin Foer's recent expose of White House doings, Joe Biden's biggest insecurity seems to be his fear of "being perceived as stupid."

 "According to the Daily Caller:

Franklin Foer, the author of a new tell-all book about Joe Biden, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press and said he believes the president has insecurities over “being perceived as stupid” because of the plagiarism scandal that derailed his first presidential campaign.

"He said this on Meet The Press.

“ 'Yeah. I think one of the things that’s so interesting about Joe Biden is that he has these insecurities that govern a lot of the ways in which he moves through the world. And so, one of his primary insecurities is that he doesn’t want to be perceived as stupid because he had this plagiarism scandal back in the 1980s. So when he walks into an interview or walks into a press conference, he wants to have mastery of what he’s discussing. So his prep sessions can go on for long periods of time,” Foer said. " . . .

. . .It leads him to project his insecurities about himself on the public, viewing the public as stupid, and thus, gaslighting harder instead of just changing course -- so pay no attention to all that inflation in the economy, that disastrous Afghanistan pullout, that open border, those peeling-away allies, or those high gas prices. He's hard at work at that right now, viewing the public as very, very stupid indeed as he touts the economy." . . .

Biden's bad and so is the rest of the left illustrated edition - Bookworm Room

UPDATE: Biden biographer says he has insecurities about being 'perceived as stupid' – Twitchy   "So that's why they picked Kamala Harris to run with Joe Biden … so he wouldn't be the dumbest person on stage everywhere they appeared together. Biden definitely has his insecurities — question him at a campaign event and he'll challenge you to pushups — but one of his biggest insecurities is being perceived as stupid, says his biographer Franklin Foer.". . .

Anti-Trump RINOS and the 14th Amendment

DeSantis Torpedoes Liberal Spin About Not Meeting With Biden - With Action

  RedState



"I wrote earlier about Joe Biden's visit to hurricane-ravaged Florida. On the way there, he made a weird, snotty comment in response to being asked about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and why he wasn't meeting with Biden. Then, when he was there, he blamed the hurricane on climate change, had a weird, stilted visit with first responders, and told an unbelievable tale about why he still hasn't visited East Palestine, Ohio -- the site of that disastrous train derailment in February. 

"The left, instead of concentrating on the people of Florida, made it about Joe Biden. They painted DeSantis not meeting with him as him somehow being fearful of being with the president.

"I don't think anyone has ever been fearful of Joe Biden except Corn Pop, in Joe's mind. Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) even attacked DeSantis for not meeting with the president, calling it "outrageous." 

"But while Biden was making snotty comments and Democrats were spreading political nonsense, DeSantis was taking care of Florida hurricane victims -- the thing he's supposed to be doing, not playing politics. 

"He was helping serve food to people affected in the Horseshoe Beach community. " . . .

Sunday, September 3, 2023

The De-Civilization of America

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. He is also the Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History, Hillsdale College, where he teaches each fall semester courses in military history and classical culture. Victor discusses current political and social events and ideas, and current and past cultural trends.

  Victor Davis Hanson - YouTube


From the comments to the video:
Worse than politicians and judges not enforcing laws and jailing criminals is that anyone who attempts to fight crime and criminality on their own find the full force of the law brought down upon them. It is not just a failed experiment in criminal leniency it is a full throated effort to destroy the average man in America. Somehow the very law enforcement resources that are not available to arrest criminals are available in droves to arrest and prosecute a person who defends themselves against criminals.

My 71 year old mother is a staunch Democrat who only watches mainstream news via cable tv. She is never informed about any of the consequences of failed policy. The TV scares her with reporting on crime, but never discusses the pros and cons of policy. To her, the Democrats are the party that takes care of everyone and has empathy. It boggles my mind how everything can be falling apart and there is no connection made between policy and results.

The biggest fear and the biggest frustration of those of us living in the destination cities where the California/Oregon/Washington refugees go to is that, knowing that they left because their home cities are utter disasters, they continue to vote for the same policies and the same types of politicians that caused these disasters in the first place.


'Why Do Democrats Hate Black Americans So Much?' Dan Bongino Blisters Democrat Party Hypocrisy

  RedState

While Sharpton was far from blunt and blatantly skirted the issue, he clearly suggested that increasing numbers of people of color have begun to see through the Democrats' hollow promises.


"Before we get to Bongino's blistering takedown of the Democrats, the above "dirty little secrets" should more accurately read: "dirty little non-secret secrets." 

"The Democrats know it. We know it. And they know we know it. The challenge for the Democrats is to do their dishonest damnedest to keep a majority of Black America from knowing it. 

"Anyway, Bongino needed just one tweet to accurately and incisively describe the Democrat Party's mistreatment treatment of the nation's Blacks.

Why do Democrats hate Black Americans so much? Between talking to them like children, lecturing them about how they don’t have agency over their own lives, calling any independent thinker vile, disgusting names, and destroying their communities with their piss-poor governance, it’s appropriate to ask “is this intentional?” The answer is “yes.” Of course it is.

"Hell yes, it's intentional — from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to prominent Black conservatives to Black urban Americans who've been lied to by the Democrat Party for six decades." . . .

A compendium of everything wrong with Barack Obama's legacy

 


Kenneth Levin- American Thinker   "Perhaps the greatest service of Barack Obama's True Legacy, the recently published collection of penetrating essays on the Obama presidency by a number of knowledgeable and trenchant authors, edited by Jamie Glazov, is its contribution to collective memory.  

"President Obama's assault on Americans' constitutional rights and protections as well as on the nation's constitutionally defined governmental institutions and their respective authority entailed myriad particulars.  It included undermining of First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and religious freedom.  It extended to usurpation of the legislative authority of Congress and disregard for the constitutional authority of the Supreme Court. 

"In addition, Obama compromised the rule of law and protection of rights more broadly.  He ignored the findings of lower federal courts.  He subverted federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, the IRS, and other departments of the federal government, to illegal politicization and lawless attacks on perceived political enemies.  He promoted federal intrusion in and subversion of state and local law enforcement, also in the service of political ends.  

"The collective impact of Obama's abuses of power, the "transformation" of America that he so often promised, was the creation of a less democratic, post-constitutional, authoritarian nation.  Consistent with his pursuit of this transformed America, Obama, throughout his presidency, lent his support to and openly advocated for groups and individuals, domestic and foreign, associated with anti-American, anti-democratic, authoritarian ideologies, particularly of the pro-communist and Islamist variety. " . . .

Kenneth Levin is a psychiatrist and historian and author of The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People under Siege.

Saturday, September 2, 2023

Even WaPo’s ‘Fact-Checker’ Has Had Enough of Biden’s Constant Lies

If Biden’s vilified predecessor had made such a confusion, he would have been raked over the coals in the establishment media for demonstrating what would have been described as an insensitivity that revealed a deep racism. 

The Leftist Media Is Growing Impatient with Biden's Lying – PJ Media   Up to now, the Washington Post’s resident “Fact-Checker” Glenn Kessler has been a loyal propagandist for the leftist establishment, never breaking character or giving any sign that he was interested in or even capable of independent thought.

"Even Kessler, however, seems to have finally had enough of Old Joe Biden’s constant lying. On Thursday, Kessler made what for the WaPo amounted to a remarkable admission: much of what Old Joe blathers on about is not “credible.” That’s a polite way of saying that the faux president is a liar.

"Yes, you knew that. Everyone did. But for the Washington Post, which has doggedly carried water for this disastrous regime even as it has driven America into a ditch, to admit it was momentous. To be sure, Kessler never accuses Biden of lying outright, despite Old Joe’s lengthy history of lies that goes all the way back to his plagiarism in law school. The closest Kessler gets is to note that some people have accused Biden of lying: “Contemporary news reports on the house fire do not match his telling of it, fanning criticism that he had lied to a vulnerable audience.”

"This is worlds away from the WaPo’s treatment of the hated Trump, whom they accuse of lying on a regular basis, most recently on Aug. 19 in the story entitled “Trump’s lies tested limits of the bully pulpit. His right to say them is at core of criminal defense.” Kessler and his fellow Post apparatchiks would rather don MAGA hats and put on a Kid Rock album than write anything on the order of “Biden’s lies tested limits of the bully pulpit,” but Kessler came as close as the WaPo is going to get when he wrote that while Old Joe’s tall tales were sometimes “largely true,” others “fall short.”. . .

"Kessler added, “As president, Biden has continued a tradition of embellishing his personal tales in ways that cannot be verified or are directly refuted by contemporary accounts.” That’s what they call “lying,” Glenn. I know how it must hurt your heart to admit that the figurehead of this far-left regime is multiply guilty of it, but the facts are the facts." . . .

Biden Falsely Claims to Have Changed Segregationist's Mind – PJ Media 

  . . ."Biden sounded even feebler than usual as he spoke to the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Pause for just a moment,” Old Joe began weakly. “I thought things had changed.” He was reiterating his false and destructive claim that America in 2023 is beset by a systemic racism that only socialism and forced redistribution of wealth can cure.

Sounding as if he were on the brink of collapse, he summoned the strength to go on: “I was able to — literally, not figuratively — talk Strom Thurmond into voting for the, the Civil Rights Act before he died. And I thought, ‘Well, maybe there’s real progress.’ But hate never dies, it just hides. It hides under the rocks.” How does someone “figuratively” convince someone else to do something? But never mind, that’s the least of the problems with Old Joe’s latest ramble.

From One Unapologetic Media Hoax to the Next

 Victor Davis Hanson; (townhall.com)

"Joe Biden lied repeatedly when he claimed he knew nothing of his son Hunter's influence-peddling businesses. 

"The president further prevaricated that he had no involvement in Hunter's various shake-down schemes. 

"Yet, the media continued to misinform by serially ignoring these facts. 

"Had journalists just been honest and independent, then-candidate Joe Biden might have lost a presidential debate and even the 2020 election. The public would have learned that Hunter's business associates and his laptop proved Joe was deeply involved in his son's illicit businesses. 

"Later, as the evidence from IRS whistleblowers mounted, the White House stonewalled subpoenaed efforts and sought to craft an outrageous plea deal reduction in Hunter's legal exposure. 

"Reporters ignored the Ukrainians who claimed Joe Biden himself talked to them about quid pro quo arrangements. 

"They again discounted Hunter's laptop, explicitly demonstrating that Hunter was whining that he had handed over large percentages of his income to his father, Joe --variously referred to as the Big Guy and a "ten percent" recipient on many deals." . . .

Abortion Is Just A Symptom

But is abortion a millstone around the GOP’s neck? Dixon isn’t the only one saying this. Certainly there are elements within right-of-center corporate media, whether at Fox News or on certain nationally syndicated talk shows and websites, who joined in to push this line.

Abortion Is Just A Symptom - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics   "One of the more irritating reoccurrences in American politics is the rampant propensity of Republican elites to lecture the party’s voters about their outmoded or inconvenient values. This week we saw a truckload of that lecturing dumped on the pro-life movement in the person of Tudor Dixon, the somewhat promising 2022 Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate who was clobbered by Democrat incumbent Gretchen Whitmer.

"According to Dixon, now a podcaster whose show has been picked up by iHeart radio, abortion was the reason she couldn’t beat Whitmer, and in promoting an interview she held with Donald Trump in her latest episode, she’s made the rounds warning Republican politicos that efforts to enforce abortion bans in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which tossed Roe v. Wade into the ash heap of history, will lose the party everything in 2024." . .

. . .Unhappy people are the Left’s stock in trade. The modern Left is built on the principles laid down by Saul Alinsky and the other titans of socialist community organizing, the people Barack Obama, for example, devoted his early adult life to emulating and whose lessons he built today’s Democrat Party on. And Alinsky and the other community organizers have always taught that the job is to agitate as many people into not just unhappiness but downright outrage as possible.

"And we’ve gone in this country from “safe, legal and rare” as the Left’s position to “SHOUT YOUR ABORTION.” It isn’t old spinsters pushing that, by the way — it’s twentysomethings and women in the pop culture like Chelsea Handler.

"What’s that done to American society? What’s the effect of radicalizing single women on abortion as birth control?"

In conclusion: But, as is so often the case, the problem isn’t political. It’s cultural. And a political surrender on abortion is only going to create an opportunity for some other horror to follow.