op ed review 5/30
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
Rush Limbaugh's radio show to be taken over by 'young guns' Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
Bongino also blasts into Limbaugh's old radio slot with Trump as first guest.
Democrats warn Supreme Court against overturning Roe v. Wade
Sen. Cotton Accuses Democrats of ‘Blackmail’ Over Supreme Court Packing Threats
Defense industry gets woke: Largest US Defense Contractor Reportedly Held ‘Privilege’ Training For White Men
https://dailycaller.com/2021/05/26/lockheed-martin-white-male-privilege-training-christopher-rufo/
Facebook rejects 'Back the Blue' ad, citing 'sensitive social issue'
https://www.foxnews.com/us/facebook-rejects-back-the-blue-ad-citing-sensitive-social-issue
Tennessee bans teaching critical race theory in schools
Texas Nears a Ban on Critical Race Theory
https://redstate.com/alexparker/2021/05/23/texas-nears-a-ban-on-critical-race-theory-n385340
Seattle Police expected to lose 300 officers by the end of the month, 'that's a third of the agency'
Former Seattle Police Chief Says Media Downplayed Violence At CHOP To Make It Appear Peaceful
China building more than 90 more bio labs, including 3 just like Wuhan.
https://www.worldtribune.com/china-building-more-than-90-bio-labs-including-3-just-like-wuhan/
Joe Biden wants to spy on your bank account
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/05/joe_biden_wants_to_spy_on_your_bank_account.html
Team Biden keeps hyping phony 'domestic violent extremism' threat
https://nypost.com/2021/05/23/team-biden-keeps-hyping-phony-domestic-violent-extremism-threat/
Biden pick for ATF opposed by 20 Republican AGs over his views on weapons, ties to gun control groups
Biden Brings in Islamic Activists to Investigate U.S. Military for 'Extremism'
ICE deportations plunge significantly to lowest level on record
‘Functionally Abolished’: ICE Averaging ‘One Arrest Every Two Months’ Amid Border Crisis
Biden Officials Shut Down State Department Investigation Into Wuhan Lab Leak Theory
Biden Spends on Health Care for Illegal Aliens, Not Wall
Biden Speaks Absolute Gibberish at FEMA Meeting — His Inability to Speak English is the Real 'Emergency'
Trump Protesters Encircle Michigan GOP HQ, Demand Resignation of NeverTrump Executive Director Jason Roe
Surging crime rate spells trouble for Democrats in 2022 elections
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/politics/democrats-trouble-rising-crime-midterms
Refund The Police? Major Cities Are Backtracking On Police Cuts After Explosion Of Violent Crime
One-third of Americans unwilling to spend $1 to fight climate change
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/may/25/one-third-americans-unwilling-spend-1-fight-climat/
‘Impossible’: Analysis of 950 Military Mail-In Ballots in GA Show 100% Went to Biden
Prosecutor in Trump criminal probe convenes grand jury to hear evidence, weigh potential charges.
Trump blasts reported grand jury, part of 'greatest Witch Hunt'
https://nypost.com/2021/05/25/trump-blasts-reported-grand-jury-part-of-greatest-witch-hunt/
CNN’s Ratings Go Down the Toilet, Tumbling Over 70 Percent Since January
An aspiring congressional candidate unveils novel campaign slogan: 'Make crime illegal again'
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/wa-congress-larkin-crime-violence-seattle
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COLUMN(S) OF THE WEEK
“Unsucking the Republican Party” by Tal Bachman
I dashed off my last piece for American Greatness in a single, sleep-deprived frenzy of frustration (three decades in the making) after a long night of musical rehearsals. As I pushed “send,” I could barely remember what I’d written. Sixty seconds later, I was asleep. To my astonishment, “The Republican Party Sucks” wound up as American Greatness’s top feature article that week. Positive comments began flooding my inbox. Thousands reposted it. Over 50,000 people read it per day. Steve Bannon called me a few days after it came out to tell me how much he liked it. He even invited me on to “War Room” to discuss it.
Despite its popularity, there were a few critics. Some, for example, alleged my piece amounted to no more than complaining. This was very much a minority view, but to the extent my piece came across that way, it would qualify as a failure. What I would dub conservatism’s kvetch culture is dysfunctional, pathetic, and should be rejected. I had no intention of fostering more of it. In fact, I want it obliterated. We don’t need any more hand-wringing. We need more action—smart, surgical, successful action.
The thing is, before any such action can be planned and executed, we need crystal clarity on where we are, how we got here, and where to go. Getting that clarity was the intention of my piece.
One of the persistent problems here, after all, is that while rank-and-file Republican voters understand how grotesque and destructive the Democratic Party has become, not enough realize their own party’s been playing them for suckers for three decades…..The party doesn’t deserve to be trusted. It deserves to be commandeered by citizen-patriots, who then relentlessly steer it in the right direction (about which more below).
By the way, I got a few notes from party loyalists and establishment types who reminded me of Reagan’s 11th commandment (“thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican”). But it’s not 1980 anymore. It’s nearly half a century after 1980. The circumstances, the stakes, the players, the dangers, are much different now. The country is more culturally and economically polarized, more volatile, more democratically unstable, more hollowed out industrially, more unsure of itself, more demoralized, and more mentally ill....people now sense some ominous, unnerving, mortal chill in the air. There is something wrong. Everyone of sense can feel it. For decades, political commentators here and there have warned the end is near. Now, for the first time, it actually feels like that could be true.
As a result, the Republican loyalist attempt to shame honesty into silence about the party’s three decades of duplicity, kowtowing, incompetence, perfidy, and corruption, all of which helped lead to this current state of affairs, is insulting and absurd. Silence can only further enable harm to an already ailing America. Why protect a party at the expense of the country? No—in the end, this isn’t about any party. It’s about America and everyone in it and all their posterity. It’s also about the fate of the entire world. And so, it is with an unbecoming immodesty I hereby declare the 11th commandment obsolete…
(In) a republic, legislators are supposed to represent and serve voters. They’re not supposed to become the quietly co-opted, law-rigging representatives and servants of whichever mega-company funnels them the most money or promises them the most luxurious future rewards. ….The fact is that the war against crony capitalism is a war for representative democracy, for ordinary people, for small businesses, for trustworthy (not corrupt) politicians, for equal application of the law, for responsive political institutions. And it’s a war Republican politicians should be fighting. Too few do. That’s the point.
What an exciting, revitalized, refocused, successful Republican Party could and should look like is perhaps a topic for a book, not a column. Certainly, I have a lot of ideas, as I know most of my readers do. But in the space remaining, I want to just throw out a few ideas for rank-and-file Republicans looking to retake the party. The first, most important thing is to secure elections at every level. Without that, nothing else matters. (And this effort should be framed as “voter protection,” since the elimination of fraudulent votes protects the value of genuine votes)…..
The second thing is that conservatives, and the Republicans who purport to represent them, need a new view of power. Wander around right-of-center conferences, and you still hear people saying things like “that government governs best which governs least!” or “government is a necessary evil!”
But the fact is that if Republicans don’t take power and use it for good, Democrats take it and use it for ill. You know, like for outlawing Christian practices to promote modesty and protect women; for all but inviting attempted genocide on an important ally; and for making wokeism the official state religion of the United States. So I am hereby suggesting a new conservative/Republican view of power—one that accepts its legitimacy, follows its requirements, and boldly uses it for good. More Machiavelli, less Ned Flanders.
The third thing is policies crafted to appeal directly to America’s underserved working and middle classes. I’m talking about a revised, refocused version of the winning 2016 agenda. That means forthrightly addressing social issues (for example, protecting female athletes against unfair competition from biological males). That means reindustrialization. That means zero tolerance for rioting. It means the return of law and order. It means directly appealing to unionized workers (not necessarily their union bosses). It means a full suite of realistic, commonsense initiatives which a huge chunk of the electorate wants and deserves. The Republican Party must become the party of patriotic populism. Permanently.
The fourth and last thing I’ll mention for now is, the Republican Party needs a story…that includes a compelling pitch. That story will then be the frame for every specific policy it stands for.
The Democrats have a story. The short version goes like this: “We live in a country forged in evil and oppression. The white men who founded it held African slaves, refused to let women vote, killed natives, ruined the environment, and did nothing about income inequality. But now, we Democrats are fighting to right all the wrongs of the past. We are fighting for social justice now and in the future. The Republicans are trying to stop us. We need you on our team to help overcome them. Together we can make the world a much better place. Join us!”
Now, criticize that all you want—at least it’s something. What are the pre- and post-Trump Republican equivalents? There aren’t any, as far as I can see. And guess which menu option most often wins the battle for hearts and minds: story, or no story?
Among other things, the Republican Party’s compelling story must point to some higher purpose for politics; tell potential voters why they’re so important to achieving that purpose, and what their role in the unfolding story is; and it must invite them to join a righteous crusade to restore good and vanquish evil. Why? Because that’s how humans are. They typically don’t convert after reading bullet points from some libertarian think tank, or hearing Ben Shapiro snap that “facts don’t care about your feelings.” Human minds are more than data-processing machines. That’s a constant here. And it’s a constant that leftists looking for recruits work with far better than conservatives. Leftists actually study storytelling, emotional button-pushing, and deep persuasion. Too often, Republicans just complain on Twitter.
Anyway, I’m out of space for now. Thanks for all the positive comments on my previous piece. I hope this ongoing discussion helps lead to positive changes for the Republican Party, and by extension, the country. We can pick this up again in a future piece.
https://amgreatness.com/2021/05/26/unsucking-the-republican-party/
Tal Bachman is a singer and songwriter, son of Randy Bachman, founder of Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Dave Scott: Dumb and getting dumber: “When there’s a vacuum of common sense, stupidity will fill it. Nowhere is that more evident than in the ideas proposed by Democrats, a party whose members profess to follow their hearts but neglect to take their brains with them.”
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2021/05/26/dave-scott-dumb-and-getting-dumber-1079570/
“The Biden administration is using the Jan. 6 incursion into the Capitol building as a pretext for a domestic spying campaign that will supposedly target “violent extremists” but is more accurately described as the beginnings of a Biden police state.”
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/05/25/welcome-to-joe-bidens-police-state/
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BOOKS
“Don’t Call It 'Stolen' — How the Big Tech Masters of the Universe Imposed Their Will on the American Electorate” by Alex Marlow
Review of "1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project." By Peter W. Wood
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/1620-critical-response-1619-project-danusha-v-goska/
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PROGRESSIVE WATCH
Senator Kaine Compares Catholic Views on Abortion to Sharia Law, Says It Wouldn't Be a 'Primary Concern' For Jesus
The Mob Is After Chip And Joanna Gaines Again, This Time Over Critical Race Theory
https://dailycaller.com/2021/05/26/chip-joanna-gaines-critical-race-theory-sister-campaign/
AOC reveals she’s in therapy and then insults combat veterans by comparing serving in Congress on 1/6 to having effectively ‘served in war’
Michigan Prosecutors Determined to DESTROY Young Conservative's Entire Life After Posting a "Snowflake" Joke in Private Snapchat Group
Fury as $47,000-a-year Manhattan school forces juniors to attend compulsory PORN lessons
Asians need not apply: Eugene Chung: ‘NFL team said I'm not 'right minority' in interview.’
https://nypost.com/2021/05/22/eugene-chung-nfl-team-said-im-not-right-minority-in-interview/
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COVID
Illegal immigrants' COVID-19 rate twice that of U.S. population
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/may/26/illegal-immigrants-covid-19-rate-twice-us-populati/
Dr Ted on “The COVID Vaccine: The Facts”
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/05/the_covid_vaccine_the_facts.html
Now it looks as if China did create and unleash COVID on the world
Facebook suddenly lifts ban on user comments about COVID-19 being man-made
Fauci and NIH confirm that $600,000 of public money went to Wuhan - two weeks after fight with Sen. Rand Paul at hearing.
Rand Paul: Dr. Fauci Committed Perjury over Gain of Function Comments
WaPo Edits Fauci Op/Ed to Obscure His Support of Making Viruses More Dangerous in Lab Experiments
Calls for Fauci to resign after flip-flopping on origins on COVID
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9619697/Calls-Fauci-resign-flip-flopping-origins-COVID.html
Long article, worth the read: “The Drug that Cracked COVID”
https://www.mountainhomemag.com/2021/05/01/356270/the-drug-that-cracked-covid
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ARTICLES
No Race Has Ever Done More for Another Race than White Americans Have Done for Black Americans
“How American Journalism Became a Mouthpiece of the Deep State…..After decades of success abroad with info ops, the CIA and others turned those weapons on us. We are seeing the Deep State meddle in presidential politics, simultaneously destroying (albeit mostly with their cooperation) the adversarial media while crushing faith in both our leaders and in the process of electing them. Democracy has no meaning here.”
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/spies-journalists-and-info-ops-against-america/
“Masks, Theater, and the New Awareness Ribbons….. Awareness ribbons are so yesterday. Today it’s the mask that demonstrates caring, scientific acumen, and virtue. It also represents the political left. Forget driving around with a Biden/Harris bumper sticker on your car. Just wear a mask while driving alone and everyone will know who you voted for.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/05/masks_theater_and_the_new_awareness_ribbons.html
‘Equity’ is just racial discrimination by another name.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/05/25/equity-is-just-racial-discrimination-by-another-name/
Here's some real white supremacy: The phony word 'Latinx' "Latinx" is a white supremacist term used by racist, left-wing Americans to marginalize Spanish speakers and disparage their culture. The term "Latinx" itself is overtly racist. Not only is Latinx not a Spanish word, it can't even be pronounced in Spanish. How offensive…..is it of liberal, white Americans to rip the identity from brown-skinned people, and then impose on them a new identity, which is an unpronounceable collection of consonants…. One of the embarrassing bigotries of left-wing, monolingual, white supremacists is that they are oblivious to the fact that the entire Spanish language is gendered.
“…why is the left suddenly so brazen in pushing its agenda, after decades of slinking in the shadows and deceiving its voters? One of two scenarios, I believe: 1) leftists know they are going to be exposed for their election crimes, and they are desperate to act to push their radical agenda, or 2) they are dumb enough to believe they have a majority of Americans behind them and believe their wacky ideas are widely accepted.”
Those Dirty Electric Vehicles And A Bolt Of Green Hypocrisy
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/05/26/those-dirty-electric-vehicles-and-green-hypocrisy/
In addition to the military-industrial complex, Eisenhower also predicted lockdowns, Big Tech, and Leftist Colleges.
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SATIRE
Army Introduces New Gender Reveal Grenades For Trans Soldiers
https://babylonbee.com/news/army-introduces-new-gender-reveal-grenades-for-trans-soldiers
CDC Introduces New Anti-Virus Hat For Concerned Liberals To Wear
https://babylonbee.com/news/cdc-introduces-new-anti-virus-hat-for-concerned-liberals-to-wear
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