vdare--2020-10-16--Amy Keeps A Straight Face, Olberman Lets Loose, And Court-Packing Looms, Etc.

00m55s Judge Barrett keeps a straight face .
( But where is she on Disparate Impact ? )
09m00s Bending @ @ @ @ @ .
( Just strategically , I hope . )
15m48s Our new state religion has @ @ @ @ @ lets loose . )
21m29s Remembering Salamis .
( But the math is wrong .
@ @ @ @ @ .
( Ours , and China 's . )

00m55s Judge Barrett keeps a straight face. (But where is she on Disparate Impact?)
09m00s Bending the knee to CultMarx orthodoxy. (Just strategically, I hope.)
15m48s Our new state religion has zealots. (Keith Olbermann lets loose.)
21m29s Remembering Salamis. (But the math is wrong.)
25m10s Packing the Court. (A nasty mathematical hazard.)
29m18s Approaches to diversity. (Ours, and China's.)
38m37s Signoff. (With harmony.)
01—Intro. And Radio Derb is on the air! Welcome, listeners, from your harmoniously genial host John Derbyshire, here with some snippets from the week's news and commentary thereon.
I have a very nice lady for you, and a very nasty guy. Then I have some math and some history, all seasoned with a sprinkling of jurisprudence and metaphysics.
Let's see how it goes. First, the lady.
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02—Judge Barrett keeps a straight face … Political spectacle of the week has been the confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
I agree with the general opinion that Judge Barrett has handled things very well. I also agree with the particular opinion voiced by Ann Coulter with her usual penetrating eloquence on Wednesday, quote from Lady Ann:
If there were an Olympic sport called "Keeping a Straight Face While Being Lectured by Morons," ACB would take the gold.
End quote.
None of the Democrats has been able to lay a glove on Judge Barrett. Her personal circumstances make it difficult for them. She's a woman; two of her seven children are black adoptees. That rules out charges of toxic masculinity and racism—unless you buy into Ibram X. Kendi's argument that for whites to adopt nonwhites is a species of colonialism, which apparently none of the committee Democrats do buy into, at any rate not in public.
With toxic masculinity and racism ruled out, the Democrats don't have many other arrows in their quiver. If the lady could also manage somehow to be a Muslim lesbian, she'd be totally fireproof, waterproof, and anti-magnetic.
The Democrats have done the best they can with charges that a Court with Judge Barrett on it will strike down Obamacare and Roe v. Wade. Then sick people with no money will be left to die in the gutter and women nationwide will suffer permanent injury from amateur backstreet abortionists.
To the degree there's any real issue there, the remedy is, as the great Calvin Coolidge used to say, in the ballot box. If voters want Medicare for all or abortion on demand, let them vote for legislators who will make the appropriate laws. It's not the job of a Supreme Court Justice to legalize or outlaw anything. That's what legislators are for, yo Senators.
Judge Barrett seems to understand that. She fielded the hostile questions without breaking a sweat. She's obviously a smart lady well able to take care of herself.
Let's not expect too much from her, though, supposing she is confirmed. At this point in our understanding, we shall not get sensible or useful jurisprudence from a person with no grounding in the human sciences. Judge Barrett's background is all Humanities. She seems to have no scientific interests at all.
That's a sad contrast with a different Amy, Radio Derb's favorite legal scholar, Professor Amy Wax of the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Prof. Wax started her academic career in microbiology and actually practiced medicine before turning to the law.
That's exceptional, though. The spirit of cold scientific inquiry is not much taught or cultivated in our law schools.
If I were on the committee questioning Judge Barrett I would, for example, ask her about the Disparate Impact doctrine.
Question One: Judge, in current American society, black and nonblack citizens present vastly different statistical profiles on many key indices of socialization, most notably school misbehavior, educational outcomes, and crime. Decades of legislation, numerous Supreme Court rulings, and great social-engineering projects have done nothing to shrink these differences.
Our conventional wisdom, jurisprudentially enshrined in the doctrine of Disparate Impact, says that these differences are caused by malice—conscious or unconscious, past or present—on the part of nonblacks. Do you think this doctrine is sound?
That would be my first question. I might follow it up with another, even more impertinent.
Question Two: Judge, the opinion of the Supreme Court, delivered by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in Grutter v. Bollinger seventeen years ago, was that, quote: "We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today." End quote.
The interest referenced there was the University of Michigan Law School's interest in striving to, quote, "achieve that diversity which has the potential to enrich everyone's education and thus make a law school class stronger than the sum of its parts." End quote.
Do you agree with the Court's opinion that by year 2028—eight years from now—the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary for the furtherance of those interests?
Probably Judge Barrett would deflect those questions as skilfully as she has the many others posed to her this week. It would be thrilling to hear them asked in a televised hearing, though.
As thrilling as it would be, the event is inconceivable. Anyone who hinted, even interrogatively, at race realism in a forum as public as that would be chased from the hearing chamber by a baying pack of senators and reporters, bipartisan of course, and would never be allowed on any public platform again. So deep are we sunk in fantasies about human nature.
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03—… but bends the knee to PC orthodoxy. There was in fact some depressing evidence that in the matter of conventional wisdom, Judge Barrett's thinking is … conventional, to a degree not really fitting for a court that is supposed to perform at the highest levels of judicial objectivity.
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, for example, asked Judge Barrett what her reaction was to the much-aired video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of uncooperative juiced-up criminal suspect George Floyd back in May. The judge replied, inter alia, quote:
I think it is an entirely uncontroversial and obvious statement, given as we just talked about the George Floyd video, that racism persists in our country.
End quote.
Coming from a person supposedly steeped in formal courtroom procedure, that is unacceptable. It has not been proven to any standard of evidence I recognize that racism—ill will by a person of one race towards a person of another—was a factor in the death of George Floyd. Even supposing that Officer Chauvin caused Floyd's death—also not proven—police officers have been known to cause the death of suspects without racism being a factor at all: Google "Daniel Shaver."
So Judge Barrett is jumping to unwarranted conclusions there. Supreme Court justices should not jump to unwarranted conclusions.
And then, for comic relief, there was the strange little flap about Judge Barrett having used the phrase "sexual preference" when referring to homosexuals and people confused about their sex.
Responding to a question from Dianne Feinstein, Judge Barrett said, striving to be politically correct, quote:
I do want to be clear that I have never discriminated on the basis of sexual preference and would not discriminate on the basis of sexual preference.
End quote.
Unfortunately the lady had not read the latest ukase from PC Central. As of sometime last week it is disgracefully, shamefully heteronormative to suggest that sexual eccentricity is a choice. "It is not," scolded Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, "Sexual orientation is a key part of a person's identity."
Here we get into deep metaphysical waters about identity and free will. I had things to say on this particular subject in Chapter Seven of my paradigm-shifting book We Are Doomed, quote:
Until a generation ago, homosexuality was widely assumed to be something you did, because you chose to. That was the basis of public attitudes, and of our laws.
Now more and more of us are subscribing to the view that homosexuality is not something you do, it's something you are.
End quote.
Human nature being as complex as it is, there are fuzzy boundaries here. The majority opinion among homosexuals is: "I have always been this way. I have always known." Out on the borderlines, however, there are persons who might have ended up either one way or the other, depending on accidents of fate and, yes, choice. The crude reductionism of the Senator from Hawaii does not belong in the human sciences.
Where free will is concerned, if anyone wants to know, I am at one with Art Schopenhauer, quote: "Der Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will." End quote. Translation: "You can do what you want, but you can't want what you want."
Be all that as it may, Judge Barrett cucked, groveled, and genuflected in the face of the Hawaii lady's scolding. Quote:
I certainly didn't mean and would never mean to use a term that would offend LGBTQ Americans. If I did, I greatly apologize for that.
End quote.
I personally would exclude from our public life, after first branding them on the forehead, any person who uttered the phrase "LGBTQ Americans" non-ironically.
That's just me, though; and I will allow that Judge Barrett's cucking may have been strategic. She wants to get confirmed, and this petty annoyance wasn't worth starting a prairie fire over.
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04—Our new state religion has zealots. You probably caught Keith Olbermann's October 9th address to the nation. In case you didn't, or need reminding, here it is.
[Clip: Trump can be, and must be, expunged. The hate he has triggered, Pandora's boxes he has opened, they will not be so easily destroyed.
So, let us brace ourselves. The task is two-fold: the terrorist Trump must be defeated, must be destroyed, must be devoured at the ballot box, and then he, and his enablers, and his supporters, and his collaborators, and the Mike Lees and the William Barrs, and Sean Hannitys, and the Mike Pences, and the Rudy Gullianis and the Kyle Rittenhouses and the Amy Coney Barretts must be prosecuted and convicted and removed from our society while we try to rebuild it and to rebuild the world Trump has destroyed by turning it over to a virus.
Remember it, even as we dream for a return to reality and safety and the country for which our forefathers died, that the fight is not just to win the election, but to win it by enough to chase—at least for a moment—Trump and the maggots off the stage and then try to clean up what they left.
Remember it, even though to remember it, means remembering that the fight does not end on November 3rd, but in many ways, will only begin that day.
An hour or so after watching that, while it was still bouncing around in my head, I took my dog for a walk. Basil gets a good long daily walk: forty-five minutes around the quiet, arborose streets of our middle-middle-class suburb.
So we're strolling along one of those streets when I spot a big yard sign. At first glance from a distance I thought it was something promoting a candidate for the coming election. Then I read it: HATE HAS NO HOME HERE.
That was it. No candidate or party mentioned, just that affirmation of faith in our new religion of Antiracism: the same affirmation Judge Barrett felt obliged to make before the Judiciary Committee, the same affirmation white-collar employees have to make if they don't want to lose their jobs, the same affirmation schoolchildren and college students have to make if they don't want to be shunned by their classmates and marked down by their teachers.
I indulged myself in a brief fantasy about the homeowner coming out from the house just as I was walking past. What would I say to him? In my fantasy, I'm sorry to admit I fell to sarcasm, which my schoolmasters told us is the lowest form of wit. In my imaginary encounter I said something like this:
Hey, I saw your yard sign there. What good people you must be! What good, moral people! I'm proud to share my neighborhood with such virtuous citizens. Thank you, thank you for living here! Down with hate! …
Something like that.
Back at home, I wondered where they had acquired the sign. Doing a Google search, I found pages and pages of these signs, from a dozen or more vendors, in all patterns and colors. Walmart will sell you one; so will Amazon. There's money to be made in virtue signaling.
Then the Keith Olbermann connection clicked on. Is there any doubt that the owner of that yard sign votes the same way Olbermann does, and quite possibly agrees word for word with the sentiments Olbermann expressed last week? Olbermann isn't that far out in left field. I know a couple of sober, well-educated middle-class citizens who share those same sentiments.
Antiracism is an ersatz religion, but it's a religion none the less and religions have zealots. A religion of peace, love, and divine justice can burn heretics alive and wage pitiless war against infidels. People who proudly advertise their intolerance for "hate" can shriek hot hatred at those who disagree with them, as Keith Olbermann's rant illustrates.
Our society has taken a seriously wrong turn somewhere.
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05—Remembering Salamis. Will you permit me a couple of math items, please? Just short ones, I promise. Thanks!
For this first one, I swing into nitpicking mode. Yes, I'm going to pick a nit, just a tiny one.
Reading last week's Economist, in the section on Europe I noticed a brief article about the Battle of Salamis, the greatest naval engagement of the ancient world, fought between Greeks and Persians in the early fall of 480 b.c. off the little island of Salamis, near Athens.
Here comes the math: 480 b.c., Battle of Salamis; a.d. 2020, this year; 480 plus 2,020 equals 2,500. So this year looks like the 2,500th anniversary of the battle—the quinquiesquincentennial, formally speaking.
The island of Salamis is still with us, although The Economist tells us it's a bit of a dump nowadays, with nothing much to see related to the battle other than a couple of bronze statues. The inhabitants had been planning a big celebration none the less; but the coronavirus has put the kibosh on that. The Salamisians are naturally vexed. "It's been a big disappointment," says Georgios Panagopoulos, the mayor.
Here comes Radio Derb to vex them some more by pointing out that their arithmetic is wrong. You see, our system for numbering years was worked out by people who did not have a properly modern approach to numeration. If they had had, they would have given us a year zero in between the year 1 b.c. and the year a.d. 1. They didn't, though, so 1 b.c. is followed directly by a.d. 1.
It follows that the 480th anniversary of the Battle of Salamis falls not in the year zero, because there isn't one. The 480th anniversary falls in the year a.d. 1. Adding 2,020 to both parts of that, the 2,500th anniversary falls in the year a.d. 2021—next year, not this year.
That may be the smallest nit Radio Derb has ever picked.
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06—Packing the Court. From picking to packing. My other math item is actually related to the political news, to news about the possible packing of the Supreme Court by the Biden-Harris administration. It comes with a tip of the hat to Dennis Prager over at the American Greatness website.
Prager points out a mathematical hazard in the idea of packing the Supreme Court. Let's suppose, says Dennis, that Judge Barrett is confirmed to the Court, and that conservatives then have a 6-3 majority, counting Justice Roberts as a conservative—which, as Prager says, is a stretch, but hey.
And let's suppose then that President Joe Biden appoints six new liberal justices, giving the left a 9-6 majority. Nine out of fifteen is three-fifths, so Dennis calls that a 60 percent advantage.
So far, so good. But now suppose Republicans gain Congress and the White House in some future election cycle. Pointing to the precedent set by Biden, they'd want to have a 60 percent advantage of their own on the Court. That would mean appointing 7½ more conservative justices, which would be a little tricky. They'd probably appoint eight, giving them a not-quite-61-percent advantage, fourteen justices to nine on a 23-seat Court.
Lather, rinse, repeat every time there's a total change of party control. If you understand the meaning of the word "exponential," you can see where this is going.
Prager takes it to the year 2120, a hundred years from now, when the Court comprises 522 justices, with a conservative majority of 104. The Democrats regain Congress and the White House and expand the Court to 783 justices …
Prager's math is sound, but his politics is too optimistic. If the Democrats win Congress and the Presidency next month, they will do all they can think of to make sure that no other party takes power for decades to come. Mass amnesties, open borders, statehood for Puerto Rico, D.C. American Samoa, Guam, and any other place they can think of. Our Antarctic territories? Why not?
It will be like the Whig Supremacy in 18th-century Britain, only more corrupt and totalitarian.
That aside, the math is kind of neat. Prager, as I said, only takes it to the year 2120. If you roll that exponential forward a further 180 years, there will be a million justices on the Supreme Court. They could secede and form a nation: Supremistan!
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07—Approaches to diversity. Let's have some foreign news. Lifting my gaze above our nation's borders, I see … Mongolia.
Say what, Derb? Mongolia? I should care about Mongolia … why?
Patience, please. I'm going somewhere with this.
First, a little history. We all know about Genghis Khan and his empire back in the 13th and 14th centuries. That empire rose and fell, as empires do. By the end of the 17th century Mongolia had been swallowed up by the Manchus, a Siberian tribe who had, earlier in that century, taken over China. So Mongolia was part of the Manchus' Chinese empire.
In the fullness of time, actually in 1911, that empire also fell. China became a republic under Chinese rulers. The central goverment was weak, though. Regions of the Manchu empire that didn't have many Chinese people in them became de facto independent—notably Tibet.
Also Mongolia … except that, for complicated reasons to do with the way the Manchus had dealt with Mongolia's elites, only the northern part of Mongolia got real independence. In 1924 it became a People's Republic under communist rule—a Soviet satellite.
China's rulers were not happy about this, but they were too weak to stop it. Northern Mongolia—commonly called Outer Mongolia—stayed independent even when China got her political act together, more or less, under Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist Party in the late 1920s. The other piece, Inner Mongolia, was organized as Chinese provinces, although there was still a big Mongolian population in them.
Then the Japanese invaded China and everything got messed up. When the dust settled after WW2, China herself fell into civil war, Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists versus Mao Tse-tung's Communists.
That bout was decided in 1949. Chiang decamped to the island of Taiwan and governed there as the Republic of China, with a seat in the United Nations, in fact on the Security Council. Mao took over the rest of China, including Inner Mongolia, as the People's Republic. Outer Mongolia went on being a Soviet satellite nation.
Neither Mao nor Chiang was happy with Outer Mongolia being independent. Both of them figured that China's territory should include all the pieces claimed by the Manchu Empire: Tibet, East Turkestan, and all of Mongolia, even though Manchu rule over those places was mostly light-handed.
So when the Soviets tried to get Outer Mongolia a seat in the U.N. in 1955, Chiang Kai-shek's government, which still held China's seat in the Security Council, used its veto—the only time they used it. And when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited Mao in Peking in 1958, Mao demanded the "return" of Outer Mongolia.
Fast forward to the present. China is now rich and strong under totalitarian government. Outer Mongolia is still the sovereign nation of Mongolia, with a capitalist economy and democratic elections and, yes, a seat in the U.N.
Inner Mongolia is officially an "autonomous region" within China, along with Tibet, East Turkestan—called Xinjiang nowadays, home of the Uighurs you've been reading about—and some lesser specimens. The autonomy is of course fictitious; all significant decisions about the place are made in Peking. The population is about eighty percent Han Chinese, but that's not evenly distributed. Quite big areas are solidly Mongolian.
Still, there's no prospect the Mongolians of Inner Mongolia will make as much trouble for the ChiComs as the Tibetans and the Uighurs have. The ChiComs, however, are taking no chances. As in Tibet and East Turkestan, they've instituted a stiff program of Sinification, suppressing local language, culture, and religion.
In June this year they announced that schools in the region would change the language of instruction from Mongolian to Chinese. That's got the Mongolians riled up. Quote from the Guardian, September 1st:
Parents threatened to keep their children home and circulated petitions, and large crowds gathered outside schools to chant protest slogans and sing.
End quote.
Attacks on the Mongolian identity by Xi Jinping's government have now spread abroad. A museum in France had planned to stage an exhibition about Genghis Khan, in collaboration with a museum in Inner Mongolia. They've had to postpone the show indefinitely because of Chinese interference.
The ChiComs wanted the exhibition's brochures, maps, and explanatory materials all rewritten to conform to their version of history, with certain words omitted, including "Genghis Khan," "Empire" and "Mongol." You can see the French museum's problem. It's tough to stage an exhibition about a guy and his empire if you can't use the guy's common title or the word "Empire."
Bottom line here: China's approach to demographic diversity is like a photographic negative of ours.
Leaders of their dominant ethny, the Han Chinese, aim to crush minority identitarianism out of existence; our leaders exhort us to "celebrate" diversity and worship minority identities.
The ChiCom authorities have rewritten history to scrub all memory of Han Chinese weakness or failure; the authorities here have rewritten history to show our dominant ethny, white Europeans, in the worst possible light, as oppressors, enslavers, misogynists, and so on.
Two great nations, embarked on two utterly different courses. They both seem wrong-headed to me, but history will judge.
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08—Signoff. That's all I can offer you this week, ladies and gentlemen. I'm afraid I must forgo the usual closing miscellany; I've overrun my time. Thank you for your time and attention; and if you have a birthday round about now, may it be a happy one!
I mention that because both Mrs Derb and a dear friend have birthdays on the same day towards the end of this week, so we'll be doing some serious partying with our friend and his family this weekend.
Something new for signoff music here. In this line of work, you don't get away with anything. Mis-statements of fact, grammatical flubs, eccentricities of pronunciation: Some listener or reader will be sure to email in with a correction.
I don't mind this myself. It keeps us honest, and online opinionating is not a sphere of activity overloaded with honesty. My correctors are anyway always polite, with at worst a more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger style of criticism. Nobody acquainted with human fallibility could mind these gentle corrections.
Well, here's one from a few days ago, writing in about a segment in my October 2nd podcast. I was scoffing at the idea that white supremacy was any kind of a factor in our public life today. Along the way there I said the following thing, quote from self:
I understand of course that white supremacy was once a thing in the U.S.A. There was a system of social rules, and in some places actual laws, to keep black Americans subordinate to whites. That you can fairly call "white supremacy."
It's long gone, though, and about as likely to come back as barber-shop quartets or three-pack-a-day cigarette habits. In fact we haven't just corrected ourselves; we've over-shot the correction mark, into a zone where blacks enjoy favors and privileges not available to nonblacks — a state of affairs you could fairly call "black supremacy."
End quote.
That brought a gentle rebuke from a listener, quote:
The barbershop quartet is indeed a song form that was popularized more than a century ago, but it is most assuredly not dead. I am a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society, and we are more than 20,000 men (and now women, as per modern Woke sensibilities) who enjoy the fine old art of quartetting.
End quote.
I should actually have known that. A cousin of mine in England, who unfortunately I lost touch with forty years ago, was at that time—i.e. around 1980—a keen quartettist. I'm glad to know it's still a thing forty years further on—a healthy, social, upbeat pastime giving pleasure to thousands. Good luck to you all!
So, continuing the Beatles theme from last week, here's a bit of the Trudbol Barbershop Quartet singing "When I'm Sixty-Four."
And there will of course be more from Radio Derb next week.
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[Music clip: The Trudbol Barbershop Quartet, "When I'm Sixty-Four."]


vdare--2020-10-15--Patrick J. Buchanan: Can Trump Pull A Second Rabbit Out Of The Hat?

`` Après moi , la déluge , '' predicted Louis XV after his army 's stunning defeat by Prussia 's Frederick the Great at the Battle of Rossbach in 1757 .
`` La deluge , '' the Revolution , came , three decades later , to wash the Bourbon monarchy away in blood and to send Louis XV 's grandson , Louis XVI , and his queen , Marie Antoinette , to the guillotine .
Donald Trump is issuing similar warnings for the republic if Joe Biden wins the presidency and Democrats capture the Senate .
And the stakes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ divides us , are indeed high .
The Democrats are out to remake America , and , 17 days from the election , a Democratic sweep remains a real possibility .
Early turnout is already at record numbers .
According to most polls , Biden is ahead in almost all of the major battleground states—Pennsylvania , Michigan , Wisconsin , Ohio , North Carolina , Georgia , Florida and Arizona .
To win , Trump must carry six or seven of those states .
In national polls , Trump is further behind , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mammoth Democratic majorities in populous and deep-blue California , New York and Illinois .
Still , this thing is not over .
For , at this stage of the 2016 campaign , Hillary Clinton was showing equally impressive poll numbers , and she would go on to lose all eight of those battleground states in the greatest upset since Harry Truman defeated Tom Dewey in 1948 .
Can Trump repeat the miracle of 2016 ?
Perhaps .
When it comes to energy , excitement , enthusiasm and a capacity to bring out crowds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worst of pandemics , Trump is unrivaled .
When Trump calls , his followers come .
Not in living memory has there been a president who could bring out such vast crowds with such consistency as Donald J. Trump .
By contrast , Biden 's meager gatherings seem to evoke as much excitement as a seniors bocce ball tournament .
His appearances , reading from teleprompters and spewing canned attacks written by others , produce polite applause .
Rarely does a day goes by that Biden does not mumble and misremember something or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ essence of the Biden campaign is the avoidance of actual campaigning .
And it has worked .
On some days , the campaign `` puts the lid on '' —has no more news events today—by 9 a.m .
The question this has raised is no longer whether Joe has `` lost a step '' —few deny that—but whether he retains sufficient mental acuity to be a decisive leader of the free world for the next four years .
Two weeks out , however , voters seem not to care , or rather not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ticket .
The issue has been Trump .
And the imperative for the president and his campaign remains to persuade the nation of several truths : Biden is not physically or mentally up to the job .
He will not be able to stand up to the radicals in his party who have extensive plans to enact in the next two years and a real possibility of doing so .
If Biden wins , they will insist that the Senate do what Barack Obama told them to do : abolish the `` Jim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and use 50 Senate Democrats to enact an agenda more sweeping than FDR 's New Deal .
Of what does that agenda consist ?
To shift the goal from equality of opportunity in race relations to equality of results—in income , wealth , power .
Reparations for slavery .
Pursue the Black Lives Matter demand to `` reimagine policing '' and to `` defund the police . ''
On immigration , open an immediate path to citizenship and the ballot box for DACA `` Dreamers . ''
End deportations .
Grant amnesty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ illegal immigrants in the U.S. Abolish ICE .
Open America 's borders to new and higher waves of immigration to make America the most racially , ethnically , socially and culturally diverse society in the history of man .
Pack the Senate by extending statehood to Puerto Rico and D.C. , adding four new Democratic senators and making us a bilingual nation .
Pack the Supreme Court by adding two new justices .
Raise taxes on payrolls , personal incomes , corporations , capital gains and estates .
Accelerate an end to carbon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ending any reliance for energy on coal , oil , gas or fracking .
Free education for all from prekindergarten through college .
On and on the agenda runs .
But again , without the abolition of the filibuster , a GOP Senate minority could block this agenda that is designed to create a new American nation unlike the one we have known .
No , this is not the French Revolution .
But neither is it the country that evolved over two centuries out of the American Revolution .
The antifa and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they go about smashing icons and statues of the men who brought the Christian faith and Western civilization to these shores and founded the republic that may now be fading away .
Patrick J. Buchanan needs no introduction to VDARE.COM readers ; his books State of Emergency : The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America , and Suicide of a Superpower : Will America Survive to 2025 ?
are available from Amazon.com .
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “ The Greatest Comeback : How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ book , published May , 2018 , is “ Nixon ’ s White House Wars : The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever.
” See Peter Brimelow ’ s review : “ Wheel And Fight ” —Pat Buchanan ’ s Nixon Book Provides Road Map For Trump .

"Après moi, la déluge," predicted Louis XV after his army's stunning defeat by Prussia's Frederick the Great at the Battle of Rossbach in 1757.
"La deluge," the Revolution, came, three decades later, to wash the Bourbon monarchy away in blood and to send Louis XV's grandson, Louis XVI, and his queen, Marie Antoinette, to the guillotine.
Donald Trump is issuing similar warnings for the republic if Joe Biden wins the presidency and Democrats capture the Senate. And the stakes, given the magnitude of the chasm that divides us, are indeed high.
The Democrats are out to remake America, and, 17 days from the election, a Democratic sweep remains a real possibility.
Early turnout is already at record numbers. According to most polls, Biden is ahead in almost all of the major battleground states—Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Arizona. To win, Trump must carry six or seven of those states.
In national polls, Trump is further behind, in some by double-digits, reflecting the mammoth Democratic majorities in populous and deep-blue California, New York and Illinois.
Still, this thing is not over.
For, at this stage of the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton was showing equally impressive poll numbers, and she would go on to lose all eight of those battleground states in the greatest upset since Harry Truman defeated Tom Dewey in 1948.
Can Trump repeat the miracle of 2016?
Perhaps. When it comes to energy, excitement, enthusiasm and a capacity to bring out crowds of loyalists, even in this the worst of pandemics, Trump is unrivaled.
When Trump calls, his followers come. Not in living memory has there been a president who could bring out such vast crowds with such consistency as Donald J. Trump.
By contrast, Biden's meager gatherings seem to evoke as much excitement as a seniors bocce ball tournament.
His appearances, reading from teleprompters and spewing canned attacks written by others, produce polite applause. Rarely does a day goes by that Biden does not mumble and misremember something or lose his train of thought.
The essence of the Biden campaign is the avoidance of actual campaigning. And it has worked. On some days, the campaign "puts the lid on"—has no more news events today—by 9 a.m.
The question this has raised is no longer whether Joe has "lost a step"—few deny that—but whether he retains sufficient mental acuity to be a decisive leader of the free world for the next four years.
Two weeks out, however, voters seem not to care, or rather not to care enough to reject the Biden-Harris ticket.
The issue has been Trump. And the imperative for the president and his campaign remains to persuade the nation of several truths:
Biden is not physically or mentally up to the job. He will not be able to stand up to the radicals in his party who have extensive plans to enact in the next two years and a real possibility of doing so.
If Biden wins, they will insist that the Senate do what Barack Obama told them to do: abolish the "Jim Crow relic" known as the filibuster, and use 50 Senate Democrats to enact an agenda more sweeping than FDR's New Deal.
Of what does that agenda consist?
To shift the goal from equality of opportunity in race relations to equality of results—in income, wealth, power. Reparations for slavery. Pursue the Black Lives Matter demand to "reimagine policing" and to "defund the police."
On immigration, open an immediate path to citizenship and the ballot box for DACA "Dreamers." End deportations. Grant amnesty to all 11 million to 22 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Abolish ICE. Open America's borders to new and higher waves of immigration to make America the most racially, ethnically, socially and culturally diverse society in the history of man.
Pack the Senate by extending statehood to Puerto Rico and D.C., adding four new Democratic senators and making us a bilingual nation.
Pack the Supreme Court by adding two new justices. Raise taxes on payrolls, personal incomes, corporations, capital gains and estates.
Accelerate an end to carbon emissions by halting all offshore drilling and ending any reliance for energy on coal, oil, gas or fracking.
Free education for all from prekindergarten through college.
On and on the agenda runs. But again, without the abolition of the filibuster, a GOP Senate minority could block this agenda that is designed to create a new American nation unlike the one we have known.
No, this is not the French Revolution.
But neither is it the country that evolved over two centuries out of the American Revolution. The antifa and BLM radicals remind us of this as they go about smashing icons and statues of the men who brought the Christian faith and Western civilization to these shores and founded the republic that may now be fading away.
COPYRIGHT 2020 CREATORS.COM
Patrick J. Buchanan needs no introduction to VDARE.COM readers; his books State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, and Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025? are available from Amazon.com. Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority.
His latest book, published May, 2018, is “Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever.”
See Peter Brimelow’s review: “Wheel And Fight”—Pat Buchanan’s Nixon Book Provides Road Map For Trump.


vdare--2020-10-15--The Asian In The Living Room....Who Owns The Black Store

Earlier ( 2006 ) : Andrew Young Was Right , Not That Anyone Dare Admit It One of the more noticeable aspects of the media ’ s hyping of 2020 ’ s Racial Reckoning is the need to not mention Asians .
For example , you know and I know that high schools for the gifted like Manhattan ’ s Stuyvesant and the D.C. suburbs ’ Thomas Jefferson are dominated by Asians .
But that doesn ’ t fit the Narrative so it is seldom mentioned .
Business journalists , however , have a harder time ignoring the Asian in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the New York Times ’ business news section : Black Products .
Black Shoppers .
Black Workers .
But Who Owns the Store ?
At a Chicago beauty supply shop , one American dream has come true .
Another is still waiting for its chance .
The crowd was growing impatient as Crystal Holmes fumbled with the keys to the store .
Dozens of people were swarming the street around Western Beauty Supply , the Chicago shop where Ms. Holmes works .
She had persuaded some of them to let her open the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ breaking the windows .
“ She ’ s taking too long , ” someone yelled .
“ Let ’ s go in and get it.
” Western Beauty Supply sells products like wigs , hair extensions and combs mostly to Black women .
Most of the employees , like Ms. Holmes , are also Black , but the owner is a Korean-American man , Yong Sup Na .
When a few young men appeared outside the store earlier that evening in May , Mr. Na went out to speak with them .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they walked away .
At that point , Mr. Na told Ms. Holmes that he felt confident his business was safe .
“ They are not going to break into the store , ” he told her .
A few minutes later , though , a larger group showed up .
A woman snatched Mr. Na ’ s keys , but Ms. Holmes persuaded her to give them back .
Then she ordered Mr. Na , her boss , to leave .
“ You don ’ t know what could happen , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Holmes tried to save the store from ruin that evening , when protests and looting followed the police killing of George Floyd , she understood what was causing the turmoil roiling Chicago and dozens of other cities .
“ I understand where the rage is coming from , ” Ms. Holmes , 40 , said in an interview .
“ We don ’ t have any businesses in the community and we are getting killed by the police and killing each other , and we are just getting tired.
” In the years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , customers have constantly told her that she should open her own store .
But she has watched some Black women struggle as owners in the industry , and her priority has been keeping a steady job to support her family .
Outside the store , people in the crowd kept pushing for Ms. Holmes to let them in .
But she couldn ’ t get the keys into the lock .
Her hands were shaking too much .
‘ The same small slice of pie ’ Mr. Na , who is 65 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a home with an outhouse .
He watched television by standing outside a neighbor ’ s window and peering in at the set .
Mr. Na was in his late 20s when he arrived in the United States .
He knew only one person , a friend from his village who had moved to Chicago .
I saw the same phenomenon in Chicago ’ s extremely diverse Uptown neighborhood almost three decades ago .
Our drycleaners were run by a pleasant Korean family .
They mentioned that their in-laws had just opened a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wife and I promised to go buy something to help their in-laws get off to a good start .
But when we looked in the beautifully set-up new shop , we discovered there wasn ’ t a single hair care product in the store for naturally straight hair .
The owners and employees didn ’ t speak English , but clearly Korean wholesalers were publishing three-ring binders of how to run a black hair care products store that anybody off the 747 from Seoul could follow perfectly .
That led me to some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was as beneficial for Americans as we had been told .
Retailing black hair care products had traditionally been a fairly easy first rung on the ladder to prosperity for African-Americans , going back to the first black millionaire , Madame CJ Walker , inventor of the conk .
But now workaholics were coming from 10,000 miles across the Pacific to crush our black fellow citizen retailers .
Sure , black customers would get cheaper prices and longer store hours from Korean retailers , but how big would the price of foreclosing black @ @ @

Earlier (2006): Andrew Young Was Right, Not That Anyone Dare Admit It
One of the more noticeable aspects of the media’s hyping of 2020’s Racial Reckoning is the need to not mention Asians. For example, you know and I know that high schools for the gifted like Manhattan’s Stuyvesant and the D.C. suburbs’ Thomas Jefferson are dominated by Asians. But that doesn’t fit the Narrative so it is seldom mentioned. Business journalists, however, have a harder time ignoring the Asian in the Living Room. Thus, from the New York Times’ business news section:
Black Products. Black Shoppers. Black Workers. But Who Owns the Store? At a Chicago beauty supply shop, one American dream has come true. Another is still waiting for its chance. Michael Corkery
By Michael Corkery
Oct. 15, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET The crowd was growing impatient as Crystal Holmes fumbled with the keys to the store. Dozens of people were swarming the street around Western Beauty Supply, the Chicago shop where Ms. Holmes works. She had persuaded some of them to let her open the store so they could rob it without breaking the windows. “She’s taking too long,” someone yelled. “Let’s go in and get it.” Western Beauty Supply sells products like wigs, hair extensions and combs mostly to Black women. Most of the employees, like Ms. Holmes, are also Black, but the owner is a Korean-American man, Yong Sup Na. When a few young men appeared outside the store earlier that evening in May, Mr. Na went out to speak with them. He offered some of them cash, and they walked away. At that point, Mr. Na told Ms. Holmes that he felt confident his business was safe. “They are not going to break into the store,” he told her. A few minutes later, though, a larger group showed up. A woman snatched Mr. Na’s keys, but Ms. Holmes persuaded her to give them back. Then she ordered Mr. Na, her boss, to leave. “You don’t know what could happen,” she told him. Even as Ms. Holmes tried to save the store from ruin that evening, when protests and looting followed the police killing of George Floyd, she understood what was causing the turmoil roiling Chicago and dozens of other cities. “I understand where the rage is coming from,” Ms. Holmes, 40, said in an interview. “We don’t have any businesses in the community and we are getting killed by the police and killing each other, and we are just getting tired.” In the years she has spent working for Mr. Na, customers have constantly told her that she should open her own store. But she has watched some Black women struggle as owners in the industry, and her priority has been keeping a steady job to support her family. Outside the store, people in the crowd kept pushing for Ms. Holmes to let them in. But she couldn’t get the keys into the lock. Her hands were shaking too much. ‘The same small slice of pie ’
Mr. Na, who is 65, grew up in South Korea in a home with an outhouse. He watched television by standing outside a neighbor’s window and peering in at the set. Mr. Na was in his late 20s when he arrived in the United States. He knew only one person, a friend from his village who had moved to Chicago.
I saw the same phenomenon in Chicago’s extremely diverse Uptown neighborhood almost three decades ago. Our drycleaners were run by a pleasant Korean family. They mentioned that their in-laws had just opened a hair care products next door. My wife and I promised to go buy something to help their in-laws get off to a good start.
But when we looked in the beautifully set-up new shop, we discovered there wasn’t a single hair care product in the store for naturally straight hair. The owners and employees didn’t speak English, but clearly Korean wholesalers were publishing three-ring binders of how to run a black hair care products store that anybody off the 747 from Seoul could follow perfectly.
That led me to some of my earlier Doubt about whether immigration was as beneficial for Americans as we had been told. Retailing black hair care products had traditionally been a fairly easy first rung on the ladder to prosperity for African-Americans, going back to the first black millionaire, Madame CJ Walker, inventor of the conk. But now workaholics were coming from 10,000 miles across the Pacific to crush our black fellow citizen retailers. Sure, black customers would get cheaper prices and longer store hours from Korean retailers, but how big would the price of foreclosing black entrepreneurship be?
[Comment at Unz.com]


vdare--2020-10-15--Democrats Vote Early and...

Democrats Vote Early and...

Among those polled who have already cast a ballot—one-quarter of the voting electorate claim to have done so—Joe Biden leads @ @ @ @ @ 68 % -29 % margin .
The left is pushing hard for people to request @ @ @ @ @ immediately .
This may negate the seeming election night victory predicted here for Trump , @ @ @ @ @ `` overturned '' in the days following .
On the other hand , mail-ins are @ @ @ @ @ All other things equal , it ’ s preferable to have your supporters out in @ @ @ @ @

Among those polled who have already cast a ballot—one-quarter of the voting electorate claim to have done so—Joe Biden leads Donald Trump by a staggering 68%-29% margin.
The left is pushing hard for people to request ballots and send them in immediately. This may negate the seeming election night victory predicted here for Trump, a victory suspected to be "overturned" in the days following.
On the other hand, mail-ins are where mistakes are made. All other things equal, it’s preferable to have your supporters out in person on election day.
[Comment at Unz.com]


vdare--2020-10-14--Trump To The Economic Club: Dems Will Abolish Immigration Enforcement, Safe Suburbs—"Millions Of Peo

Trump To The Economic Club: Dems Will Abolish Immigration Enforcement, Safe Suburbs—"Millions Of People Would Flood Into Our Country"

Earlier : Trump 's Defense Of The Suburbs Against Obama-Legacy Social Engineering Is TERRIFYING To Democrat-MSM Complex and Biden Vows To Rip Out Roots Of Systemic Racism , i.e .
Seize The Equity In Your Home Trump spoke via video to the Economic Club of New York .
Here 's he 's hitting the Dems immigration plans ... and their plans to ruin the mostly white suburbs with AFFH .
The Democrat platform would suspend all immigration enforcement and give free healthcare and mass amnesty to illegal aliens .
The problem is our country ca n't afford it , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ millions and millions of people , despite the wall , which is almost finished and by the way , paid for by Mexico , despite all of these things that we 've done , millions of people would flood into our country .
This would obliterate Medicare and would totally demolish your social security .
Democrats in Washington are also pushing a plan to abolish the suburbs by eliminating single-family zoning and linking federal highway grants to a federal takeover of local zoning .
Your suburbs will be gone .
The American dream @ @ @ @ @ @ @ devastate the property values of millions of middle-class homeowners , including the majority of African-American Hispanic , American , and Asian American households who live in the suburbs .
The policies of the left would unleash a lasting economic catastrophe of unimaginable proportions , and I know I 'm speaking to some Democrats , and some of you are friends of mine , you will see things happen that will not make you happy .
Remarks : Donald Trump Delivers Remarks Via Video to The Economic Club of New York - October 14 @ @

Earlier: Trump's Defense Of The Suburbs Against Obama-Legacy Social Engineering Is TERRIFYING To Democrat-MSM Complex and Biden Vows To Rip Out Roots Of Systemic Racism, i.e. Seize The Equity In Your Home
Trump spoke via video to the Economic Club of New York. Here's he's hitting the Dems immigration plans...and their plans to ruin the mostly white suburbs with AFFH.
The Democrat platform would suspend all immigration enforcement and give free healthcare and mass amnesty to illegal aliens. The problem is our country can't afford it, and as soon as you announce that, millions and millions of people, despite the wall, which is almost finished and by the way, paid for by Mexico, despite all of these things that we've done, millions of people would flood into our country.
This would obliterate Medicare and would totally demolish your social security. Democrats in Washington are also pushing a plan to abolish the suburbs by eliminating single-family zoning and linking federal highway grants to a federal takeover of local zoning. Your suburbs will be gone. The American dream will be gone.
This plan will devastate the property values of millions of middle-class homeowners, including the majority of African-American Hispanic, American, and Asian American households who live in the suburbs. The policies of the left would unleash a lasting economic catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, and I know I'm speaking to some Democrats, and some of you are friends of mine, you will see things happen that will not make you happy.
Remarks: Donald Trump Delivers Remarks Via Video to The Economic Club of New York - October 14, 2020


vdare--2020-10-16--San Francisco School Board Has A Plan To Exorcise The Badness Out Of Its Schools

Despite its vast wealth , San Francisco has notoriously awful public schools with low test scores .
But don ’ t worry , the school board has a plan to fix the badness of its schools : the rectification of names .
From SFGate.com : San Francisco may rename 44 schools named after Washington , Lincoln , Feinstein and more George Washington , Abraham Lincoln and even Sen. Dianne Feinstein have been deemed too problematic to be featured in the names of schools in the San Francisco Unified School District by a panel of 12 community members appointed by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ panel found that 44 of the 125 schools in the district might have to change their names after their review .
KGO reported that panel members sought to rename schools currently featuring the names of , `` anyone directly involved in the colonization of people , slave owners or participants in enslavement , perpetrators of genocide or slavery , those who exploit workers/people , those who directly oppressed or abused women , children , queer or transgender people , those connected to any human rights or environmental abuse [ and ] those who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ espoused racist beliefs . ''
The Chronicle reported Wednesday that parents and principals were formally asked this week to brainstorm potential new names by Dec. 18 , a move that was not well-received given the fact that schools are still in distanced learning due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic .
The school board will then vote on any potential name changes in January or February of 2021 ... .
Schools named after former presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are on the list due to the two presidents ’ slave-owning status , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the list because of his treatment of Native Americans .
Dianne Feinstein Elementary School made the list because she reportedly replaced a vandalized Confederate flag flying outside City Hall when she was mayor in 1984 .
Progressives have recently been irate at Feinstein after her embrace of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham at the end of the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court nomination hearings .
Also on the list is El Dorado Elementary School , because panel members took issue with the concept of El Dorado .
“ The concept of El @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lot to do with the search of gold , and for the indigenous people that meant the death of them , ” panel member Mary Travis Allen said during a September meeting .
“ I don ’ t think the concept of greed and lust for gold is a concept we want our children to be given .
”

Despite its vast wealth, San Francisco has notoriously awful public schools with low test scores. But don’t worry, the school board has a plan to fix the badness of its schools: the rectification of names. From SFGate.com:
San Francisco may rename 44 schools named after Washington, Lincoln, Feinstein and more
by Eric Ting
Oct. 16, 2020
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and even Sen. Dianne Feinstein have been deemed too problematic to be featured in the names of schools in the San Francisco Unified School District by a panel of 12 community members appointed by the superintendent.
Three weeks ago, the panel found that 44 of the 125 schools in the district might have to change their names after their review. KGO reported that panel members sought to rename schools currently featuring the names of, "anyone directly involved in the colonization of people, slave owners or participants in enslavement, perpetrators of genocide or slavery, those who exploit workers/people, those who directly oppressed or abused women, children, queer or transgender people, those connected to any human rights or environmental abuse [and] those who are known racists and/or white supremacists and/or espoused racist beliefs."
The Chronicle reported Wednesday that parents and principals were formally asked this week to brainstorm potential new names by Dec. 18, a move that was not well-received given the fact that schools are still in distanced learning due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The school board will then vote on any potential name changes in January or February of 2021....
Schools named after former presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are on the list due to the two presidents’ slave-owning status, and a school named after Abraham Lincoln is on the list because of his treatment of Native Americans.
Dianne Feinstein Elementary School made the list because she reportedly replaced a vandalized Confederate flag flying outside City Hall when she was mayor in 1984. Progressives have recently been irate at Feinstein after her embrace of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham at the end of the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court nomination hearings.
Also on the list is El Dorado Elementary School, because panel members took issue with the concept of El Dorado.
“The concept of El Dorado, especially in California, had a lot to do with the search of gold, and for the indigenous people that meant the death of them,” panel member Mary Travis Allen said during a September meeting. “I don’t think the concept of greed and lust for gold is a concept we want our children to be given.”


vdare--2020-10-16--John Derbyshire: “Hate Has No Home Here” = “Prosecuted And Convicted And Removed From Our Society.”

John Derbyshire: “Hate Has No Home Here” = “Prosecuted And Convicted And Removed From Our Society.” Thanks For Telling Us, Keith Olbermann!

[ Excerpted from the latest Radio Derb , now available exclusively through VDARE.com ] See also : You ’ re Next !
If Biden/ Harris Win , A Crackdown On Whites Is Coming ; You probably caught Keith Olbermann 's October 9th address to the nation .
In case you did n't , or need reminding , here it is : Trump can be , and must be , expunged .
The hate he has triggered , Pandora 's boxes he has opened , they will not be so easily destroyed .
So , let us brace ourselves .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ must be defeated , must be destroyed , must be devoured at the ballot box , and then he , and his enablers , and his supporters , and his collaborators , and the Mike Lees and the William Barrs , and Sean Hannitys , and the Mike Pences , and the Rudy Giulianis and the Kyle Rittenhouses and the Amy Coney Barretts must be prosecuted and convicted and removed from our society while we try to rebuild it and to rebuild the world Trump has destroyed by turning it over to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we dream for a return to reality and safety and the country for which our forefathers died , that the fight is not just to win the election , but to win it by enough to chase—at least for a moment—Trump and the maggots off the stage and then try to clean up what they left .
Remember it , even though to remember it , means remembering that the fight does not end on November 3rd , but in many ways , will only begin that day .
[ Links added ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And His Enablers And Supporters Must Be `` Removed From Our Society '' , RCP , October 9 , 2020 An hour or so after watching that , while it was still bouncing around in my head , I took my dog for a walk .
Basil gets a good long daily walk : forty-five minutes around the quiet , arboreal streets of our middle-middle-class suburb .
So we 're strolling along one of those streets when I spot a big yard sign .
At first glance from a distance , I thought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coming election .
That was it .
No candidate or party mentioned , just that affirmation of faith in our new religion of Antiracism : the same affirmation Judge Barrett felt obliged to make ( emphasis added ) before the Judiciary Committee ( “ I think it is an entirely uncontroversial and obvious statement , given as we just talked about the George Floyd video , that racism persists in our country ” —but it has not been proven that racism—ill will by a person of one race towards a person of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death , even supposing Officer Chauvin caused it , also not proven ) ; the same affirmation white-collar employees have to make if they do n't want to lose their jobs ; the same affirmation schoolchildren and college students have to make if they do n't want to be shunned by their classmates and marked down by their teachers .
I indulged myself in a brief fantasy about the homeowner coming out from the house just as I was walking past .
What would I say to him ?
In my fantasy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to sarcasm , which my schoolmasters told us is the lowest form of wit .
In my imaginary encounter I said something like this : Something like that .
Back at home , I wondered where he had acquired the sign .
Doing a Google search , I found pages and pages of these signs , from a dozen or more vendors , in all patterns and colors .
Walmart will sell you one ; so will Amazon .
There 's money to be made in virtue signaling .
Then the Keith Olbermann @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doubt that the owner of that yard sign votes the same way Olbermann does , and quite possibly agrees word for word with the sentiments Olbermann expressed last week ?
Olbermann is n't that far out in Left field .
I know a couple of sober , well-educated middle-class citizens who share those same sentiments .
Antiracism is an ersatz religion , but it 's a religion none the less and religions have zealots .
A religion of peace , love , and divine justice can burn heretics alive and wage pitiless war @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their intolerance for `` hate '' can shriek hot hatred at those who disagree with them , as Keith Olbermann 's rant illustrates .
As I wrote in 2017 : “ Like Nazis After 1945 ” —Never Forget The Bullet We Dodged When Hillary Was Defeated .
Our society has taken a seriously wrong turn somewhere .
email him ] writes an incredible amount on all sorts of subjects for all kinds of outlets .
( This no longer includes National Review , whose editors had some kind of tantrum and fired him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We Are Doomed : Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism and several other books .
He has had two books published by VDARE.com com : FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT ( also available in Kindle ) and FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT II : ESSAYS 2013 .
For years he ’ s been podcasting at Radio Derb , now available at VDARE.com for no charge .
His writings are archived at JohnDerbyshire.com .
Readers who wish to donate ( tax deductible ) funds specifically earmarked for John Derbyshire 's writings at VDARE.com can do so here .

[Excerpted from the latest Radio Derb, now available exclusively through VDARE.com]
See also: You’re Next! If Biden/ Harris Win, A Crackdown On Whites Is Coming;
You probably caught Keith Olbermann's October 9th address to the nation. In case you didn't, or need reminding, here it is:
An hour or so after watching that, while it was still bouncing around in my head, I took my dog for a walk. Basil gets a good long daily walk: forty-five minutes around the quiet, arboreal streets of our middle-middle-class suburb.
So we're strolling along one of those streets when I spot a big yard sign. At first glance from a distance, I thought it was something promoting a candidate for the coming election.
Then I read it:
HATE HAS NO HOME HERE.
That was it. No candidate or party mentioned, just that affirmation of faith in our new religion of Antiracism: the same affirmation Judge Barrett felt obliged to make (emphasis added)before the Judiciary Committee (“I think it is an entirely uncontroversial and obvious statement, given as we just talked about the George Floyd video, that racism persists in our country”—but it has not been proven that racism—ill will by a person of one race towards a person of another—was a factor in Floyd’s death, even supposing Officer Chauvin caused it, also not proven); the same affirmation white-collar employees have to make if they don't want to lose their jobs; the same affirmation schoolchildren and college students have to make if they don't want to be shunned by their classmates and marked down by their teachers.
I indulged myself in a brief fantasy about the homeowner coming out from the house just as I was walking past. What would I say to him?
In my fantasy, I'm sorry to admit I fell to sarcasm, which my schoolmasters told us is the lowest form of wit. In my imaginary encounter I said something like this:
Hey, I saw your yard sign there. What good people you must be! What good, moral people! I'm proud to share my neighborhood with such virtuous citizens. Thank you, thank you for living here! Down with hate! …
Something like that.
Back at home, I wondered where he had acquired the sign. Doing a Google search, I found pages and pages of these signs, from a dozen or more vendors, in all patterns and colors. Walmart will sell you one; so will Amazon.
There's money to be made in virtue signaling.
Then the Keith Olbermann connection clicked on. Is there any doubt that the owner of that yard sign votes the same way Olbermann does, and quite possibly agrees word for word with the sentiments Olbermann expressed last week?
Olbermann isn't that far out in Left field. I know a couple of sober, well-educated middle-class citizens who share those same sentiments.
Antiracism is an ersatz religion, but it's a religion none the less and religions have zealots. A religion of peace, love, and divine justice can burn heretics alive and wage pitiless war against infidels.
People who proudly advertise their intolerance for "hate" can shriek hot hatred at those who disagree with them, as Keith Olbermann's rant illustrates.
As I wrote in 2017: “Like Nazis After 1945”—Never Forget The Bullet We Dodged When Hillary Was Defeated.
Our society has taken a seriously wrong turn somewhere.
John Derbyshire [ email him] writes an incredible amount on all sorts of subjects for all kinds of outlets. (This no longer includes National Review, whose editors had some kind of tantrum and fired him.) He is the author of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism and several other books. He has had two books published by VDARE.com com: FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT (also available in Kindle) and FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT II: ESSAYS 2013.
For years he’s been podcasting at Radio Derb, now available at VDARE.com for no charge. His writings are archived at JohnDerbyshire.com.
Readers who wish to donate (tax deductible) funds specifically earmarked for John Derbyshire's writings at VDARE.com can do so here.


vdare--2020-10-14--Columbus Statues Under Attack in Mexico City, Too.

Earlier : What Sort Of Man Was Columbus ?
Traditionally , Columbus has been honored in Latin America .
After all , if it were n't for Columbus and the Spanish Conquest , Latin America would n't exist .
Columbus Day in Latin America is called Día de la Raza , `` Day of the Race '' , that is , the Mestizo Race , a hybrid race of Europeans and Indians which would not exist had it not been for Columbus and the Spaniards .
But in recent decades , Columbus has been under attack in Latin America .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the five hundredth anniversary of the Discovery of America , this was going on .
In Mexico City , there are two statues of Columbus : 1 .
A monument on Paseo de la Reforma in which Columbus symbolically lifts a veil from a globe , thus revealing another part of the earth .
This one was set up in 1877 and was sculpted by French sculptor Charles Cordier .
2 .
The other statue , sculpted by Mexican sculptor Manuel Vilar , was put up in 1892 for the four hundredth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intersection of Avenida Buenavista and Héroes Ferrocarrileros .
Public architecture is a true art form in Spanish-speaking nations .
Hispanic culture displays a strong aesthetic sensibility , with public buildings , parks and monuments in large cities as important and symbolic elements of identity and culture .
It 's a shame to see the same destructive forces we see in our own society , the power of the mob ( Spanish la chusma ) , of those who do n't create but only destroy .
As a longtime former resident of Mexico myself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
On October 10 , two days before Día de la Raza , the Columbus statue on Paseo del la Reforma , an annual target of protesters , was taken down from its pedestal .
Maybe so , but the timing was significant .
After all , on social media , a group had announced that `` Lo Vamos a Derribar '' - `` We are Going to Bring it Down '' .
Their manifesto reads `` We assume as a sovereign act the overthrow of execrable monuments as an homage to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our ancestors ... . ''
You can see the announcement in this article , with an illustration .
It 's very clear the group planned to pull down the statue , they even announced the time to be there .
Of course Mexico has a large Indian population , but much of this is driven by leftist descendents of the conquistadores themselves .
The article features a social media posting by a certain `` Pablo Moctezuma B '' who tweets that `` All over the world they are throwing down statues of slavers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] who began a genocide and invasion of our lands . ''
`` Our lands '' ?
If you look at this individual 's photo , it appears to me to be a very European appearance .
With a beard he resembles a conquistador himself !
Look at his photo here and see what you think .
Taking down the statue might have actually saved it , however , here is what Claudia Sheinbaum , Mexico 's first Jewish chief of government , had to say about it : Yes , of course @ @ @ @ @ @ @ existed before Columbusarrived .
But Columbus brought Western Civilization , and the Spanish and Portuguese created what is now Latin America , which would not have existed without them .
As for the other statue of Columbus ( see above ) it was attacked on October 12th , but the Mexican police defended it .
Good for them .
Many American municipal governments could learn from them .
See this video here .
Around the 30 second mark , you can see a formation of Mexican cops protecting the statue , and then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's encouraging , however , to see the PAN ( National Action Party ) call for the restoration of the Columbus satue to its place .
The battle for Western Civilization has many fronts .

Earlier: What Sort Of Man Was Columbus?
Traditionally, Columbus has been honored in Latin America. After all, if it weren't for Columbus and the Spanish Conquest, Latin America wouldn't exist. Columbus Day in Latin America is called Día de la Raza, "Day of the Race," that is, the Mestizo Race, a hybrid race of Europeans and Indians which would not exist had it not been for Columbus and the Spaniards.
But in recent decades, Columbus has been under attack in Latin America. I recall as far back as 1992, the five hundredth anniversary of the Discovery of America, this was going on.
In Mexico City, there are two statues of Columbus:
1. A monument on Paseo de la Reforma in which Columbus symbolically lifts a veil from a globe, thus revealing another part of the earth. This one was set up in 1877 and was sculpted by French sculptor Charles Cordier.
2. The other statue, sculpted by Mexican sculptor Manuel Vilar, was put up in 1892 for the four hundredth anniversary, and is located at the intersection of Avenida Buenavista and Héroes Ferrocarrileros.
Public architecture is a true art form in Spanish-speaking nations. Hispanic culture displays a strong aesthetic sensibility, with public buildings, parks and monuments in large cities as important and symbolic elements of identity and culture.
It's a shame to see the same destructive forces we see in our own society, the power of the mob (Spanish la chusma), of those who don't create but only destroy. As a longtime former resident of Mexico myself, I hate to see this happen.
On October 10, two days before Día de la Raza, the Columbus statue on Paseo del la Reforma, an annual target of protesters, was taken down from its pedestal.
From Infobae:
"Two days from the commemoration of 528 years from the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Western Hemisphere, the government of Mexico City decided to remove, early Saturday morning, the sculpture of the Genoese navigator....According to Mexico City authorities, the reason for that decision was to restore it...after suffering damages in 1992 [in the protest I mentioned] and 'to preserve the cultural and artistic inheritance'" [Por qué causó polémica que el Gobierno de la CDMX retirara la estatua de Cristóbal Colón en vísperas del Día de la Raza (Why Did the Decision of the Mexico City Government to Remove the Statue of Christopher Columbus on the Eve of Día de la Raza Cause Controversy?") by Infobae, October 10, 2020].
Maybe so, but the timing was significant. After all, on social media, a group had announced that "Lo Vamos a Derribar" - "We are Going to bring it down." Their manifesto reads "We assume as a sovereign act the overthrow of execrable monuments as an homage to the millions of massacred Indians and Afro-Descendents, our ancestors...."
You can see the announcement in this article, with an illustration. It's very clear the group planned to pull down the statue, they even announced the time to be there.
Of course Mexico has a large Indian population, but much of this is driven by leftist descendents of the conquistadores themselves.
The article features a social media posting by a certain "Pablo Moctezuma B" who tweets that "All over the world they are throwing down statues of slavers and colonizers such as he [Columbus] who began a genocide and invasion of our lands."
"Our lands"? If you look at this individual's photo, it appears to me to be a very European appearance. With a beard he resembles a conquistador himself! Look at his photo here and see what you think.
Taking down the statue might have actually saved it, however, here is what Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico's first Jewish chief of government, had to say about it:
"Maybe it would be better, now that it is being restored, to have a collective reflection of what it represents, especially for next year: 700 years from the lunar foundation of Tenochtitlan [Aztec capital founded 1325], 500 years from the Conquest [1521], 200 years of independent Mexico [1821] and this vision we all learned of the discovery of América, as if América [the Western Hemisphere] didn't exist before Columbus arrived".
Yes, of course, the land of the Western Hemisphere existed before Columbus arrived. But Columbus brought Western Civilization, and the Spanish and Portuguese created what is now Latin America, which would not have existed without them.
As for the other statue of Columbus (see above) it was attacked on October 12th, but the Mexican police defended it. Good for them. Many American municipal governments could learn from them.
See this video here.
Around the 30 second mark, you can see a formation of Mexican cops protecting the statue, and then another anti-European Euro-Mexican starts ranting.
It's encouraging, however, to see the PAN (National Action Party) call for the restoration of the Columbus statue to its place.
The battle for Western Civilization has many fronts.


vdare--2020-10-17--San Diego Goes Anti-Racist, Kendi-Style

San Diego Goes Anti-Racist, Kendi-Style

I ’ ve mentioned that San Diego is often a West Coast holdout from Wokeness .
For example , San Diego responded to the late May wave of Undocumented Shopping at local malls by calling for the police to use facial recognition software to arrest the looters .
The San Diego Unified School District is overhauling the way it grades students By Alexis Rivas • Published October 15 , 2020 Students will no longer be graded based on a yearly average , or on how late they turn in assignments .
Those are just some of the major grading changes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ second-largest school district .
The San Diego Unified School District ( SDUSD ) is overhauling the way it grades students .
Board members say the changes are part of a larger effort to combat racism .
“ This is part of our honest reckoning as a school district , ” says SDUSD Vice President Richard Barrera .
“ If we ’ re actually going to be an anti-racist school district , we have to confront practices like this that have gone on for years and years.
” According to data presented by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , teachers fail minority students more than White students – a lot more .
During the first semester of last year , 30 % of all D or F grades were given to English learners .
One in four , 25 % , of failing marks went to students with disabilities .
By ethnicity , 23 % went to Native Americans .
Another 23 % of failing grades went to Hispanics .
And 20 % of D or F grades went to Black students .
By comparison , just 7 % of failing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ course there is zero mention of Asian students in this article .
Why would you even ask ?
In an effort to change that racial imbalance , the school board voted unanimously this week to make several big changes to its grading system .
Academic grades will now focus on mastery of the material , not a yearly average , which board members say penalizes students who get a slow start , or who struggle at points throughout the year .
So they are switching K-12 public school students from a system under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year long to keep up with their work to one in which kids can goof off as long as they want and then , like a brilliant Oxford undergrad , stay up for the last 168 hours of the school year straight swotting up on everything they should have studied for in the past and ace the final exam .
That worked out great for former UK prime minister David Cameron at Oxford and numerous other Eton and Harrow grads before him , so why wouldn ’ t it work for public school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Obviously , this new system of grading will be better for Students of Color because it ’ s new and therefore Anti-Racist , unlike all the old Racist systems .
Note : the stay-up-all-week-swotting method didn ’ t work for Cameron ’ s friend in the Bullingdon Club ( made famous in the opening scene of Waugh ’ s Decline and Fall ) , Boris Johnson , who only got an Upper Second .
But I ’ m sure San Diego ’ s public school Students of Color won ’ t come up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s racist to imagine they ’ ll have any problems under the new system .
After all , when they finally go back to school , the badly-behaved students who worsen the learning environment for everybody else shouldn ’ t have their grades penalized .
Instead , the grades of the other kids will have to be lowered because they didn ’ t master as much of the material as they would have if the disruptive kids had more incentives to behave .
As I ’ ve mentioned before , one link @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of institutions into Ibram X. Kendi-ism in 2020 is that the pandemic caused the requirement to re-evaluate various old policies that had been keeping things running because of inertia .
But now that American thinking is so warped by the ideological demands of the Great Awokening , Americans can ’ t competently design new policies anymore .

I’ve mentioned that San Diego is often a West Coast holdout from Wokeness. For example, San Diego responded to the late May wave of Undocumented Shopping at local malls by calling for the police to use facial recognition software to arrest the looters.
But, from NBCSanDiego.com:
San Diego Unified School District Changes Grading System to ‘Combat Racism’ The San Diego Unified School District is overhauling the way it grades students
By Alexis Rivas • Published October 15, 2020 Students will no longer be graded based on a yearly average, or on how late they turn in assignments. Those are just some of the major grading changes approved this week by California’s second-largest school district. The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is overhauling the way it grades students. Board members say the changes are part of a larger effort to combat racism. “This is part of our honest reckoning as a school district,” says SDUSD Vice President Richard Barrera. “If we’re actually going to be an anti-racist school district, we have to confront practices like this that have gone on for years and years.” According to data presented by the district, under the old grading system, teachers fail minority students more than White students – a lot more. During the first semester of last year, 30% of all D or F grades were given to English learners. One in four, 25%, of failing marks went to students with disabilities. By ethnicity, 23% went to Native Americans. Another 23% of failing grades went to Hispanics. And 20% of D or F grades went to Black students. By comparison, just 7% of failing marks went to White students.
Asian students?
Of course there is zero mention of Asian students in this article. Why would you even ask?
In an effort to change that racial imbalance, the school board voted unanimously this week to make several big changes to its grading system. Academic grades will now focus on mastery of the material, not a yearly average, which board members say penalizes students who get a slow start, or who struggle at points throughout the year.
So they are switching K-12 public school students from a system under which teachers monitor and prod students all year long to keep up with their work to one in which kids can goof off as long as they want and then, like a brilliant Oxford undergrad, stay up for the last 168 hours of the school year straight swotting up on everything they should have studied for in the past and ace the final exam. That worked out great for former UK prime minister David Cameron at Oxford and numerous other Eton and Harrow grads before him, so why wouldn’t it work for public school Students of Color in San Diego? Obviously, this new system of grading will be better for Students of Color because it’s new and therefore Anti-Racist, unlike all the old Racist systems.
Note: the stay-up-all-week-swotting method didn’t work for Cameron’s friend in the Bullingdon Club (made famous in the opening scene of Waugh’s Decline and Fall), Boris Johnson, who only got an Upper Second. But I’m sure San Diego’s public school Students of Color won’t come up short like the PM did. It’s racist to imagine they’ll have any problems under the new system.
Another big change, teachers can no longer consider non-material factors when grading. Things like turning work in on time and classroom behavior will now instead count towards a student’s citizenship grade, not their academic grade.
After all, when they finally go back to school, the badly behaved students who worsen the learning environment for everybody else shouldn’t have their grades penalized. Instead, the grades of the other kids will have to be lowered because they didn’t master as much of the material as they would have if the disruptive kids had more incentives to behave.
The board will also review potential student disparities stemming from its zero-tolerance disciplinary policy on cheating in the coming weeks. Nearly 106,000 students attend a San Diego Unified School District school.
As I’ve mentioned before, one link between the pandemic and the shameful collapse of institutions into Ibram X. Kendi-ism in 2020 is that the pandemic caused the requirement to re-evaluate various old policies that had been keeping things running because of inertia. But now that American thinking is so warped by the ideological demands of the Great Awokening, Americans can’t competently design new policies anymore.
[Comment at Unz.com]


vdare--2020-10-17--UnGoogle: Yes, Google Puts Its Thumb on the Scale

…I took a few random words from a few random articles by a few random writers—some on the left and some on the right—and ran searches on a few different search engines .
Then I counted to see what position the article came up in .
These were the results .
Left-wing writers ranked generally higher in Google than in the other search engines , but for right-wing writers it is a completely different story .
Over and over again , searches that produced articles by conservatives at the top or near the top in all the other search engines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ !
* ( Yippy gave the best results , i.e.
, ranked the original article higher , for both right-wing writers and left-wing writers . )
( View full results here . )
Google ’ s bias is stark , and that should concern anyone—left or right , writer or reader—who abhors totalitarianism and the concentration of power in the hands of a few—anyone who values intellectual and political freedom .
Writers need readers to be successful .
Earning a living writing is a very tough thing to do .
It is an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like 90 percent of the world ’ s search traffic , effectively blocks that traffic from access to the work of writers who don ’ t share Google ’ s worldview .

From Craig Nelsen’s UnGoogle.US:
…I took a few random words from a few random articles by a few random writers—some on the left and some on the right—and ran searches on a few different search engines. Then I counted to see what position the article came up in. These were the results.
Left-wing writers ranked generally higher in Google than in the other search engines, but for right-wing writers it is a completely different story. Over and over again, searches that produced articles by conservatives at the top or near the top in all the other search engines, produced nothing—not ranked at all—in Google!* (Yippy gave the best results, i.e., ranked the original article higher, for both right-wing writers and left-wing writers.) (View full results here.)
Google’s bias is stark, and that should concern anyone—left or right, writer or reader—who abhors totalitarianism and the concentration of power in the hands of a few—anyone who values intellectual and political freedom.
Writers need readers to be successful. Earning a living writing is a very tough thing to do. It is an outrage that Google, which receives something like 90 percent of the world’s search traffic, effectively blocks that traffic from access to the work of writers who don’t share Google’s worldview.


vdare--2020-10-17--NYT: The First Amendment Is History

NYT: The First Amendment Is History

Back in the liberal 1960s-1970s , the most important judge in the United States not on the Supreme Court was David L. Bazelon , chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1962-1980 and best friend of William Brennan , the Svengali of the Warren Court .
Bazelon and Brennan would frequently collaborate on how to tee up cases for the Warren Court to issue landmark rulings upon .
Not surprisingly , back then Judge Bazelon was an ardent supporter of the First Amendment .
From Jessell at Large : In 1975 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , David Bazelon , chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington , wrote an article for the Duke Law Journal that eloquently made the case for why licensed media and the First Amendment were incompatible .
Sometimes the motive of the government is “ laudable , ” perhaps to improve the quality of programming or to mitigate racial discrimination , he wrote .
“ But under the First Amendment , the licensor ’ s motivation should be irrelevant : the exercise of power over speech leads the government knee-deep into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we have always assumed , is forbidden by the First Amendment.
” Bazelon recognized that the temptation to regulate the press is always present .
“ Somehow we do not really think that the press should be free ; they are too powerful , they are arbitrary , they are self serving….
, ” he wrote .
“ I have said before and I repeat now that the press has abused its tremendous power , particularly the power of TV , largely for its own private profit , at the expense of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not personally believe in the efficacy of , nor do I think the First Amendment permits , government intervention to cure those abuses.
” Ironically , but not surprisingly , Judge Bazelon ’ s granddaughter , Establishment legal pundit Emily Bazelon ( who can always be counted on for an amusing lack of self-awareness , such as her massive 2009 article in Slate in 2009 about how New Haven fireman Frank Ricci deserves to be stripped of his promotion because certain white families in New Haven have an invidious culture of studying hard @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School , but her sinecure has nothing to do with her grandfather ’ s eminence ) , writes in the New York Times that while the First Amendment might have been all well and good in the past , it ’ s not worth keeping around today when Bad People are promoting Bad Ideas :

Back in the liberal 1960s–1970s, the most important judge in the United States not on the Supreme Court was David L. Bazelon, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1962–1980 and best friend of William Brennan, the Svengali of the Warren Court. Bazelon and Brennan would frequently collaborate on how to tee up cases for the Warren Court to issue landmark rulings upon.
Not surprisingly, back then Judge Bazelon was an ardent supporter of the First Amendment. From Jessell at Large:
In 1975, when broadcasting was at its zenith, David Bazelon, chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, wrote an article for the Duke Law Journal that eloquently made the case for why licensed media and the First Amendment were incompatible. Sometimes the motive of the government is “laudable,” perhaps to improve the quality of programming or to mitigate racial discrimination, he wrote. “But under the First Amendment, the licensor’s motivation should be irrelevant: the exercise of power over speech leads the government knee-deep into regulation of expression. And that, we have always assumed, is forbidden by the First Amendment.” Bazelon recognized that the temptation to regulate the press is always present. “Somehow we do not really think that the press should be free; they are too powerful, they are arbitrary, they are self serving….,” he wrote. “I have said before and I repeat now that the press has abused its tremendous power, particularly the power of TV, largely for its own private profit, at the expense of the public interest. “But I do not personally believe in the efficacy of, nor do I think the First Amendment permits, government intervention to cure those abuses.”
Ironically, but not surprisingly, Judge Bazelon’s granddaughter, Establishment legal pundit Emily Bazelon (who can always be counted on for an amusing lack of self-awareness, such as her massive 2009 article in Slate in 2009 about how New Haven fireman Frank Ricci deserves to be stripped of his promotion because certain white families in New Haven have an invidious culture of studying hard to be expert firefighters—Emily herself is the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School, but her sinecure has nothing to do with her grandfather’s eminence), writes in the New York Times that while the First Amendment might have been all well and good in the past, it’s not worth keeping around today when Bad People are promoting Bad Ideas:
The Problem of Free Speech in an Age of Disinformation
A torrent of propaganda, lies and conspiracy theories has weaponized the First Amendment. It’s an article of faith in the United States that more speech is better and that the government should regulate it as little as possible. But increasingly, scholars of constitutional law, as well as social scientists, are beginning to question the way we have come to think about the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. They think our formulations are simplistic — and especially inadequate for our era. Censorship of external critics by the government remains a serious threat under authoritarian regimes. But in the United States and other democracies, there is a different kind of threat, which may be doing more damage to the discourse about politics, news and science. It encompasses the mass distortion of truth and overwhelming waves of speech from extremists that smear and distract.
[Comment at Unz.com]


vdare--2020-10-17--NYT: Trump’s Last Stand For White America

Earlier : Leftists Claim “ Great Replacement ” Is A “ Conspiracy Theory ” …Unless They ’ re Bragging About It From the New York Times opinion page : We face a choice between a true renewal and a warped fantasy of the past .
By Roger Cohen Roger Cohen [ Email him ] has been a columnist for The Times since 2009 .
His columns appear Wednesday and Saturday .
He joined The Times in 1990 , and has served as a foreign correspondent and foreign editor .
@ NYTimesCohen Less than 20 days .
It has been a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I see fearful faces , those of tormented migrants at the Mexican border , and hate-filled faces , those of the white nationalists in Charlottesville chanting , “ Jews will not replace us.
” Donald Trump has been all about the fear of replacement , or as it ’ s sometimes called , “ the great replacement.
” His has been the stand — I am tempted to say the last stand — of whites against nonwhites .
Of America-first nationalists against migrants ; of straight people against L.G.B.T.Q .
people ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Of Trump against all those he believes would replace the likes of him .
… “ The great replacement ” is a phrase generally attributed to a French writer , Renaud Camus , who said : “ The great replacement is very simple .
You have one people , and in the space of a generation , you have a different people.
” That , of course , is a good definition of America .
Of its vitality , its churn , its reinvention , its essential openness .
The America that Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a white America .
Some strange blend of Norman Rockwell and “ Mad Men , ” in an imaginary United States strutting across a world pliant to its will .
Behind “ America first ” lurks a very un-American credo .
The New York Times used to tell you that the Great Replacement is a conspiracy theory , but now it tells you it ’ s your deserved fate .
Teenager of Chechen origin suspected of decapitating teacher in ‘ Islamist attack ’ in Paris suburb By Pierre Bairin , Eva Tapiero , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Paris ( CNN ) An 18-year-old man of Chechen origin has been identified as the suspect in Friday ’ s beheading of a schoolteacher in a suburb of Paris , a French judicial source told CNN Saturday .
The victim was a teacher at a secondary school in the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine area , according to the French National Anti-Terror Prosecutor ’ s office .
The Moscow-born alleged attacker was shot dead by police on Friday afternoon in Éragny , the same area where the victim ’ s body was found .
Nine individuals have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the attack , including the suspect ’ s parents , grandfather and brother , the judicial source added .
French President Emmanuel Macron said the teacher was a “ victim of an Islamist attack.
” Speaking at the scene of the attack , Macron said the educator was “ killed because he was teaching students freedom of speech , the freedom to believe and not believe.
” Back to Roger Cohen in the NYT : In Trump ’ s case , read a white American order replaced by brown Mexican rapists and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Muslims from North Africa .
Germans were once so worried about Jews replacing them that they killed six million of them .
In a world of mass migration , fear rages : Some idea of the nation will be diluted or lost !
America is particularly susceptible to fear today because the world has changed in unsettling ways .
Power has migrated eastward to Asia .
America ’ s recent wars have been unwon .
By midcentury , non-Hispanic whites will constitute less than 50 percent of the population .
The Great Replacement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Roger Cohen , exult that you are being replaced .
But it is a conspiracy theory when you whine about being replaced .
That ’ s just the way it is .
Sorry , but you , unlike me , are just on the Wrong Side of History .
American freedom is in decline .
The freedom to think , because thought depends on truth .
The freedom to dissent , because Trump believes he has “ the right to do whatever I want as president.
” The freedom to breathe , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cozying to dictators , its incessant volume — is suffocating .
… Biden is not a lousy candidate ; he is a good man , a brave man .
I doff my hat to any parent who survives with such dignity the loss of two of his four children .
And then there ’ s the boy who lived…

Earlier: Leftists Claim “Great Replacement” Is A “Conspiracy Theory” …Unless They’re Bragging About It
From the New York Times opinion page:
Trump’s Last Stand for White America We face a choice between a true renewal and a warped fantasy of the past. By Roger Cohen
Roger Cohen [Email him] has been a columnist for The Times since 2009. His columns appear Wednesday and Saturday. He joined The Times in 1990, and has served as a foreign correspondent and foreign editor. @NYTimesCohen Oct. 16, 2020 Less than 20 days. It has been a long, hard road to this election. I see fearful faces, those of tormented migrants at the Mexican border, and hate-filled faces, those of the white nationalists in Charlottesville chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” Donald Trump has been all about the fear of replacement, or as it’s sometimes called, “the great replacement.” His has been the stand — I am tempted to say the last stand — of whites against nonwhites. Of America-first nationalists against migrants; of straight people against L.G.B.T.Q. people; of the gunned-up against the unarmed. Of Trump against all those he believes would replace the likes of him. … “The great replacement” is a phrase generally attributed to a French writer, Renaud Camus, who said: “The great replacement is very simple. You have one people, and in the space of a generation, you have a different people.” That, of course, is a good definition of America.
Of its vitality, its churn, its reinvention, its essential openness. The America that Trump would deny. He wants to freeze a white America. Some strange blend of Norman Rockwell and “Mad Men,” in an imaginary United States strutting across a world pliant to its will. Behind “America first” lurks a very un-American credo.
The New York Times used to tell you that the Great Replacement is a conspiracy theory, but now it tells you it’s your deserved fate.
Change can be frightening, which is what the great replacement conspiracy theory hinges on. Camus warns grotesquely of a “genocide by substitution,” the replacement of a white French and European order by Muslim hordes in a plot orchestrated by cosmopolitan elites.
From CNN:
Teenager of Chechen origin suspected of decapitating teacher in ‘Islamist attack’ in Paris suburb
By Pierre Bairin, Eva Tapiero, Martin Goillandeau and Ivana Kottasová, CNN Updated 5:05 AM ET, Sat October 17, 2020 Paris (CNN)An 18-year-old man of Chechen origin has been identified as the suspect in Friday’s beheading of a schoolteacher in a suburb of Paris, a French judicial source told CNN Saturday. The victim was a teacher at a secondary school in the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine area, according to the French National Anti-Terror Prosecutor’s office. The Moscow-born alleged attacker was shot dead by police on Friday afternoon in Éragny, the same area where the victim’s body was found. Nine individuals have been taken in for questioning in relation to the attack, including the suspect’s parents, grandfather and brother, the judicial source added. French President Emmanuel Macron said the teacher was a “victim of an Islamist attack.” Speaking at the scene of the attack, Macron said the educator was “killed because he was teaching students freedom of speech, the freedom to believe and not believe.”
Back to Roger Cohen in the NYT:
In Trump’s case, read a white American order replaced by brown Mexican rapists and Black pillagers. France is worried about Muslims from North Africa. Germans were once so worried about Jews replacing them that they killed six million of them. In a world of mass migration, fear rages: Some idea of the nation will be diluted or lost! America is particularly susceptible to fear today because the world has changed in unsettling ways. Power has migrated eastward to Asia. America’s recent wars have been unwon. By midcentury, non-Hispanic whites will constitute less than 50 percent of the population.
The Great Replacement is not a conspiracy theory when I, Roger Cohen, exult that you are being replaced. But it is a conspiracy theory when you whine about being replaced. That’s just the way it is. Sorry, but you, unlike me, are just on the Wrong Side of History.
American freedom is in decline. The freedom to think, because thought depends on truth. The freedom to dissent, because Trump believes he has “the right to do whatever I want as president.” The freedom to breathe, because Trumpism — its nepotism, its cozying to dictators, its incessant volume — is suffocating. … Biden is not a lousy candidate; he is a good man, a brave man. I doff my hat to any parent who survives with such dignity the loss of two of his four children.
And then there’s the boy who lived…
[Comment at Unz.com]