Disrupting the Narrative of the New Left, its allies in Academia, Hollywood and the Establishment Media, and examining with honesty the goals of cultural Marxism and the dangers of reactionary and abusive political correctness.
THE NARRATIVE AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
“Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.”-George Orwell
Comedienne Amy Schumer is used to being called "racist." After all, she's a comic who isn't shy about cracking jokes on a variety of topics, including race, because playing with that topic is fun and "is a thing we are not supposed to do," she says.
But on Sunday, Schumer clearly had enough of the negative and, she felt, misinformed speech sent in her direction. So the comedic actress shared a defensive note with her haters:
"I ask you to resist the urge to pick me apart. Trust me. I am not racist. I am a devout feminist and lover of all people," she wrote.
That instantly reminded me of this:
I have mixed emotions regarding poor Amy's predicament. For the record, I don't think she's "racist" in any real sense. On the other hand, blue-on-blue conflict amuses me even more than her comedy!
For such a keen observer of social norms and an effective satirist of the ways gender is complicated by them, Schumer has a shockingly large blind spot around race.Her lackluster stint hosting the MTV Movie awards...featured lazy jokes about Latina women being "crazy" that left Jennifer Lopez as unimpressed as the online commentariat.
...Schumer's stand-up repeatedly delves into racial territory tactlessly and with no apparent larger point. Her standup special features jokes like "Nothing works 100% of the time, except Mexicans" and much of her character's dumb slut persona is predicated on the fact that the men she sleeps with are people of color. "I used to date Latino guys," she says in an older stand-up routine. "Now I prefer consensual."
I especially adore Amy's pained outrage that she, a white feminist, could possibly be called a racist!(If she was truly committed to being "edgy" she could try her shtick as a Conservative woman.) Talk about liberal privilege!
She can make all the jokes she wants but the fact of the matter is that she's just another white liberal who literally demands immunity from the vicious brand of identity politicsshe undoubtedly supports (when it's not directed at her, of course).
"I ask you to resist the urge to pick me apart.Trust me. I am not racist. I am a devout feminist and lover of all people. My fight is for all people to be treated equally. So move on to the next person who is more deservingof your scrutiny and not the girl in your corner. Sincerely Amy (a dirty half Jew)"
Got that? Not only is she an enlightened white liberal but she's a half-victim herself, yo! Anyway, enjoy the video...
@dpetrohilos "I swear I can use photoshop" are the 6 most dangerous words on Twitter
— F. Bill McMorris (@FBillMcMorris) December 23, 2014
At the end of the year, photo retrospectives are a dime a dozen. They're nice and everything, but not exactly unique. You guys deserve something more. And that's where we come in.
Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the best Photoshops of the year!
Pajama Boy first entered the American consciousness in 2013, but the Obamacare poster child continued to make the occasional appearance throughout this past year. Americans For Prosperity was only too happy to ensure that his legend continued:
Marie Harf clearly isn't cut out for this whole State-Department-deputy-spokesperson gig, but that doesn't mean she isn't meant for something. Jon Gabriel found the perfect job for her:
As we watched the crisis in Ukraine unfold, we couldn't help but wonder, "What does the Obama White House think about all this?" Blogger and gifted Photoshopper Caleb Howe answered that question with a detailed — and hilarious — picture:
Santa told Chris Matthews he can't get him a 2008 version of Obama to put the thrill back up his leg for Christmas. pic.twitter.com/7Wf6Rd0TTl
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) November 6, 2014
Not even a birthday party can lift his spirits. Can anything make Chris Matthews smile again? pic.twitter.com/UpjOMEIKPo
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) November 6, 2014
As if losing the Senate wasn't enough, Chris Matthews had to sit through McConnell's victory speech. pic.twitter.com/Hm3XvDYxCd
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) November 6, 2014
It doesn't matter how hard you try Mitch, Chris Matthews will never forgive you for capturing the Senate. pic.twitter.com/oazLWFylam
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) November 6, 2014
Nobody loves an executive order more than Barack Obama. Nobody loves Barack Obama more than Barack Obama, either. So MAD Magazine figured out a way to combine all that love into a delightful little birthday greeting:
Congressional candidate Theo Milonopoulos, California 33rd District, talks with Michelle Fields about his candidacy and what he would like to accomplish if elected to the United States Congress.
Susan Rice says she did not mislead the American people when she blamed Benghazi on a YouTube video. Wow. #MTP
— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) February 23, 2014
Susan Rice blamed the violence in #Kiev on a YouTube video. And the violence in #Syria on Mario Kart. And #Venezuela? Yup. The Kardasians.
— Daniel Turner (@NYDCTDC) February 23, 2014
Piers Morgan "said his show, along with much of the rest of CNN, had been imprisoned by the news cycle" Like ESPN is imprisoned by sports.
— Harry Shearer (@theharryshearer) February 24, 2014
Vladimir Putin's propaganda operation is in full swing in the run-up to the Sochi Olympics. Russian TV even featured footage of him at a Persian leopard sanctuary, calming a cub who had just attacked two journalists.
But journalists are having the first laugh of the Olympics by reporting on the shambolic preparations for the event, which include a venue that often resembles a construction site rather than the gleaming sports megaplex that Putin promised would be created with the huge $51 billion investment his government has poured into the Olympics — ten times the cost of the last Winter Games in Vancouver.
Journalists report their own hotel rooms are often either not ready, or are lacking basic items such as running water, light bulbs, shower curtains, door handles, or even doors themselves. Apparently, there are not enough room pillows for athletes, so other guests in Sochi are being asked to give up theirs.
The best rundown of the disaster is from the Hollywood Reporter, which details "the challenging conditions amidst the chaos."
No doubt President Putin will cause some heads to roll over all this incompetence. Let's just hope that isn't done in public as part of a new Olympics event.
A Lincoln woman must serve a 45-day jail sentence for sneaking onto the campus of the Catholic high school she once attended and posing naked for her adult website, a judge ruled Friday.
Lancaster County Judge Thomas Fox ordered Valerie Dodds to serve 30 days in jail for trespassing and 15 for public nudity. Her attorney said he has already filed notice for an appeal, and she was expected to be released Friday evening after a $75 posting bond.
Prosecutors said Dodds, 19, has shown no remorse for the late-night photo shoot at Lincoln's Pius X High School in May. Lincoln police have declined to comment on the case, saying it would only generate more publicity for her business.
Dodds posed around the school's football field. The photos were later posted on her website, where she performs under the stage name Val Midwest. Dodds has said the photo shoot was revenge against students and teachers at her former school who gave her grief when she shared her plans to go into pornography.
With good-time credit on the trespassing conviction, Dodds is expected to spend 36 days in jail if her conviction is upheld.
"She was upset. She was crying," defense attorney Chad Wythers said after the sentencing. "Based on her comments to me, I don't think she felt that the punishment fit the crime."
Then again, "thinking" was probably never Val's strong suit to begin with...
Here's Val back in June smiling with her citation.
Did you know that Alan Grayson, who sees himself as some kind of working-class hero, is one of the richest members of Congress? As reported by Roll Call back in 2010, he had a net worth estimated at over $31 million. But as somebody once said: a fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.
The Associated Press reported on Monday, "Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida lost $18 million in a scheme that cheated him and about 120 other investors out of more than $35 million."
In 2007, Grayson had $9.35 million in a stock portfolio that Chapman was supposed to be holding as collateral. In that year alone, the portfolio's value increased by 147 percent, to $23 million, according to a chart in the court documents.
Chapman's lawyer did not immediately return a call. Chapman, of Sterling, Va., pleaded guilty in May but tried at Friday's sentencing hearing to withdraw the plea, saying he felt pressured to plead and that he never intended to defraud.
It is not the first time Grayson, who represents parts of the Orlando area, has lost tens of millions of dollars in a fraud scheme. In 2009, he won a $34 million judgment after filing a lawsuit in South Carolina under federal racketeering laws against a company called Derivium Capital. Derivium's business plan for hedging an investor's stock profile was nearly identical to the plan outline by Chapman.
Grayson said he first entered into deals with Chapman in 2003, well before the deal with Derivium went south, so he had no reason to be suspicious the arrangement.
I would think that Grayson shouldn't be too upset by what his buddy did to him and the others. All Chapman did was redistribute their wealth to someone he felt was more deserving - himself. Besides, aren't liberals the folks who like to say that at a certain point, you've made enough money?
Former President Ronald Reagan has edged out Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy as the nation's greatest president in over a century, and President Obama was rated the biggest failure by a sizable margin over George W. Bush, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, according to a new poll.
The YouGov/Economist rankings just released found that more adults, 32 percent, put "the Gipper" in the "great" category. Of the 1,000 polled, FDR followed at 31 percent and JFK at 30 percent. Just 14 percent rated Obama as great.
Instead, 37 percent graded Obama a "failure," more than Bush at 32 percent, Nixon at 30 percent and Jimmy Carter at 22 percent.
The survey looked at presidents since Theodore Roosevelt, the first of the 20th century. Those surveyed were asked to rate each president in six categories: great, near great, average, below average, failure, and don't know.
President Obama's approval rating has fallen below 40 percent for the first time in two years, a Gallup poll showed Tuesday.
In its daily poll documenting a three-day average, Obama's job approval rating is now at 39 percent. Fifty-three percent disapprove of his job performance. The poll's margin of error is 3 percentage points.
The last time the president's approval rating was that low was the summer of 2011, according to Gallup's numbers.
Nearly a year ago - the week before Christmas - his approval rating was close to 60 percent.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last week had Obama's approval rating at 42%, a new low for him in their polling. Last month an Associated Press poll showed Obama's approval rating at a dismal 37%.
To give you an idea of how bad this is for the Dear Leader, consider this: Eight years ago, during the first week of November, 2005 (less than 3 months after Katrina), George Bush's approval rating was at 40% with 55% disapproving of his job performance. The latest poll finds that 53% disapprove of Obama's job performance. OUCH!
The speech had been billed as a "mea culpa" in which Dear Leader would explain what has gone wrong with Healthcare.gov. But, as Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper at CNN point out, that's not exactly how it went. It was more like this:
President Obama emerged on Monday to assure Americans that the "kinks" surrounding the federal and state health-care exchanges are improving and urged consumers to call the exchange hotline if they continue to encounter problems online. Shortly after he made the suggestion, Twitter lit up with reporters and others who attempted to do so but failed to get through to a navigator as promised. After dialing the number, some callers got a busy signal, others received an automated message, and yet others were referred back to Healthcare.gov.
As the White House was gearing up to sell ObamaCare to the American people last summer, Valerie Jarrett, the president's pointwoman on a host of issues, phoned Oprah Winfrey.
She invited the Queen of All Media to join celebrities, including Amy Poehler, Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys, to meet with President Obama and discuss how they could generate publicity for his health-care law.
Oprah refused.
"All of Oprah's top people thought she would go, because when the president invites you to the White House, most people automatically say yes," said one of Oprah's closest advisers. "But Oprah said she didn't have the time or inclination to go. It wasn't like she had to think it over. It was an immediate, flat-out, unequivocal no."
MSNBC questioned its competitor's 100% ratings increase but the further investigation shows Fox's Megyn Kelly did crush MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
Nielsen has conducted an investigation into the ratings for Megyn Kelly's new Fox News Channel show, "The Kelly File," following grousing by MSNBC chief Phil Griffin.
The investigation has revealed that the numbers for Kelly are accurate.
Last Tuesday, the day after its debut, "The Kelly File" doubled its audience, crushing "The Rachel Maddow Show," its MSNBC competition.
Griffin called for a probe, dubbing the ratings feat "impossible."
And here's further evidence that the domination is oh so real:
A new primetime lineup, coupled with the second week of the government shutdown, propelled Fox News into the top five ad-supported cable networks during the week of October 7. FNC placed fourth in both primetime and total day, averaging 1,905,000 and 1,170,000 viewers, respectively.
MSNBC placed 20th in primetime, with 803,000 viewers, and 18th in total day, with 503,000 viewers. CNN placed 32nd in primetime and 26th in total day, averaging 508,000 and 433,000 viewers, respectively.
MSNBC's Phil Griffin has been soul-crushed by Megyn Kelly's blockbuster primetime debut for Fox News this week. Rather than deal rationally with the new reality, the beaten, broken man is now calling out Nielsen:
Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC, says there's something fishy about Tuesday's ratings for the Fox News Channel, which were up significantly from a day earlier when Fox News debuted its new schedule. And he wants an investigation.
"...you guys should be doing some investigations; I have never seen it in all my years of cable -- same overnight, same everything. And they doubled their ratings in a day? It is impossible." Griffin continued, "I have never seen it. They did election-night numbers in the demo Tuesday."
The Nielsen numbers Griffin refers to include MSNBC beating Fox News on Monday in the adults 25-54 demographic at 7 p.m. and tying Fox News at 10 p.m.
At 9 p.m. on Monday, MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show beat Fox News' new The Kelly File, hosted by Megyn Kelly, by a slim 10,000 viewers in the key demo.
By Tuesday, though, Fox News was back to its dominant self, with 573,000 in the key demo compared with 261,000 for MSNBC between the hours of 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.
Perhaps most dramatically, Kelly's narrow loss to Rachel Maddow from a night earlier was significantly reversed, with Kelly drawing an audience of 623,000 in the key demo compared with Maddow's 291,000.
Nielsen has not yet responded to Griffin's remarks.
When the tranquilizers finally kick in and Griffin calms down, he might realize that FNC was likely more affected by Monday Night Football than MSNBC and, therefore, got a bigger bounce when those football fans returned to the network Tuesday night. Also, Megyn's debut on Monday was a smash hit by any standard and no doubt benefited from great word-of-mouth promotion the following day. Also, sorry Kool-aid drinkers, Megyn Kelly has approximately 200% more charisma than Rachel Maddow. But hey, at least Rachel's job is secure...for now, anyway. Piers Morgan's job, on the other hand...not so much.
On Tuesday, Julia Ioffe, senior editor for the uber liberal The New Republic, thought it would be hilarious to suggest that The Dear Leader needed to use military force against Tea Party "anarchists" in Congress.
Ioffe insinuated that the current federal government shutdown is similar to the 1993 constitutional crisis in Russia, in which then-President Boris Yeltsin ultimately ended the impasse by dissolving the parliament, and had tanks shell the legislative body's "White House."
Ioffe asserted that the "old Soviet conservatives" in Russia 20 years ago were "intransigent" and "bullheaded" and the Tea Party representatives in the House are really no different - and should be dealt with accordingly, apparently (tee hee).
What is a president in a presidential constitutional republic to do when faced with an intransigent, bull-headed faction among his people's representatives?
Well, Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first democratically elected president, was once faced with a similar situation exactly 20 years ago, in October 1993. The parliament, then called the Supreme Soviet, was increasingly against Yeltsin's neoliberal economic reforms (suggested to him by young Western advisors like Jeffrey Sachs). On one hand, these reforms freed up the old Soviet command economy. On the other, they drove the country into chaos and violence, and left tens of millions impoverished, their savings nullified by skyrocketing inflation. The parliament, dominated by old Soviet conservatives, was increasingly against these reforms and refused to confirm Yeltsin's key economic advisor. Yeltsin held a national referendum, a sort of national vote of confidence, which he won, and used it as a justification for what he did next.
Almost exactly 20 years ago, he dissolved parliament. The vice president and the speaker of the parliament dissolved Yeltsin's presidency, and holed up with their supporters in the parliament's headquarters, now known as "the White House."
Then Yeltsin did this to it.
Get it? Because the Tea Party is intransigent and those Russian parliament guys were intransigent and blah blah blah... What's obviously lost on her is the usual hypocrisy of the liberal media when it comes to this kind of violent, authoritarian, eliminationist rhetoric.
The New Republic: Your first choice for violent, authoritarian, eliminationist rhetoric!
— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) October 1, 2013
The point being that if an editor at a Conservative publication had written the same kind of piece back in 2007 when a Republican president was dealing with a Democrat-controlled Congress the outrage from the Left - including, no doubt, The New Republic - would be predictably hyperbolic. As always, liberals grant themselves the privilege of being as obnoxious as they want to be while scolding others about "civility."
But while there won't be any "teachable moments" or "national conversations" about this particular double standard, TNR and Ioffe did receive some feedback on Twitter...
are you actually now insane? @tnr
— The_One_Who_Brings (@AceofSpadesHQ) October 1, 2013
guess your traffic's pretty low, eh, @tnr?
— The_One_Who_Brings (@AceofSpadesHQ) October 1, 2013
Old: @Tnr is boring, disposable, and ultrawhite
New: @tnr is boring, disposable, ultrawhite, and lunatic fringe
— The_One_Who_Brings (@AceofSpadesHQ) October 1, 2013
#BuzzFeedTNR 15 Dictators Who Really Knew How to Bust Skullz 4 the People!!! Lulz @tnr
— The_One_Who_Brings (@AceofSpadesHQ) October 1, 2013
.@juliaioffe, last noticed (barely) whining that @lawrence had "mansplained" to her, now celebrates Yeltsin's "mansplanation" to Russia
— The_One_Who_Brings (@AceofSpadesHQ) October 1, 2013
When faced with an intransigent, bull-headed alliance, Grand Moff Tarkin did this: http://t.co/aHLtoo3c39
— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) October 1, 2013
Oh dear lord, @juliaioffe. I thought there was just some tasteless tweet. But you actually WROTE THAT UP for @tnr? #FacePalm
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) October 1, 2013
The hold music when you call the New Republic is the hymn from "The Hunt for Red October."
— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) October 1, 2013
Hard to leave Twitter when @juliaioffe might tell us some other awesome acts of political violence, but I gotta go pick up the kids.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) October 1, 2013
Can't wait to read @juliaioffe's next @tnr piece, "Gone Fishin': What Big Pussy Bonpensiero's Fate Can Teach Us About Dissent."
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) October 1, 2013
As is typically the case with liberal trolls, Ioffe then tried to play the aggrieved victim:
Haters, I'll say this: Tea Party tactics are most like the Bolsheviks'. Destroy the system from within to impose purist ideological order.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) October 1, 2013
Where to begin? For starters, the Bolsheviks were not trying to restore an old order. They were bloodthirsty revolutionaries eager to purge every vestige of the old order. After all, they weren't czarists or, needless to say, supporters of the Russian Provisional Government under Kerensky. The tea parties on the other hand are dedicated to the constitutional order established by the Founding and the subsequent amendments. In other words, Ioffe's comparison is silly and nonsensical when actually considering the content of the respective ideologies at play.
But, give her the benefit of the doubt, let's assume she's making a point simply about "tactics." How are tea-party tactics comparable to the Bolsheviks? Are the tea partiers lining opponents against the wall and murdering them? Republican strategy may be flawed, but when Republican representatives democratically elected to stop Obamacare refuse to pass a continuing resolution that doesn't delay the individual mandate or repeal the medical-device tax, only very confused people respond by shouting "Bolsheviks!"
By Thursday, Ioffe was sending out tweets like this:
America, please stop it.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) October 3, 2013
And finally...this:
YOU GUYS, I WASN'T SERIOUS WITH THAT YELTSIN POST!
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) October 3, 2013
Oh, honey...rest assured that nobody is taking you seriously.
But wait! There's more... As an added bonus and for your viewing pleasure, here's a clip from August during the Snowden fiasco of Larry O'Donnell "mansplaining" the facts of life about Vladimir Putin. Now this is some highly entertaining nutjob-on-nutjob crosstalk but keep in mind that while Ioffe is a lefty she is not an O-bot. O'Donnell is furious with her because she's not demonstrating the proper amount of mindless outrage at the way Putin has made a chump out of Obama over Syria. If Vlad hadn't run circles around Barry, I doubt Larry would be this cantankerous with Ioffe.
The irony, of course, is that I'm sure there have been plenty of times when Ioffe herself got a kick out of watching Crazy Larry pull this kind of obnoxious, over-the-top crap on a Conservative guest. How do you like them apples, Julie?
Al Jazeera America launched last week, and we have the ratings from Nielsen Media Research for its first few days.
Not surprisingly given the low-rated channel it replaced (Current TV), and the fact that it lost a few million homes from AT&T before launch (it is currently in just over 40 million homes), AJAM’s launch ratings were pretty low by traditional cable news standards.
The highest rated show on AJAM last week was the Thursday evening edition of "Real Money with Ali Velshi," which drew 54,000 total viewers.
The 2 PM Saturday edition of "News Live" averaged 48,000 viewers, while "Inside Story" Thursday at 12:30 PM averaged 41,000 viewers. "News Live" Thursday from 12-12:30 averaged 40,000. The debut edition of "The Stream" on Tuesday averaged 38,000 viewers, below Nielsen's accuracy threshold, while the debut of "America Tonight" averaged 34,000 viewers.
MSNBC's ratings tumble continued with a poor August showing, with some programs seeing nearly a 50-percent drop in viewership from a year ago, TV Newser reports.
Among the lowlights were the worst showings yet by its leading program The Rachel Maddow Show, with 43 percent and 47 percent drops in total viewers and the 25-54 demographic, respectively, and 40- and 42-percent drops in the same areas for The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell.
8 p.m.'s All In With Chris Hayes, whose host acknowledged in a New Yorker article that his ratings are "bad right now," was down 48 percent and 42 percent in total and the 25-54 demo as well.
"Morning Joe" was down -9% in total viewers and -17% in the A25-54 demographic compared to the same month last year, which actually was a better result than many of the programs that came later in the day.
In primetime, "The Rachel Maddow Show" posted all-time low ratings in total and demo viewers, down -43% and -47%, respectively. "The Last Word" posted a low in total viewers, losing -40% of its total viewer audience and -42% of its demo audience. at 8 PM, "All In" was down -48% and -42% in total and demo viewers, respectively, placing behind CNN for the hour.
In dayside, MSNBC was down double digits in pretty much every hour in total and demo viewers, including 6 PM's "PoliticsNation," which was down -31% and -37% in total and demo viewers, and 3 PM's "The Cycle," which was down -15% and -18% in total and demo viewers.
