We knew that whenever it was that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had to be replaced (and those of us who have not completely forgotten the immutable rules of mortaliy were not shocked when this occurred sooner rather than later) we knew that the Left would freak OUT. That they—by “they” I mean Democrats, “the resistance,” the Trump Deranged, pro-abortion fanatics, feminist ideologues and the substantial segment of social media that can be counted upon to react like the cattle in “City Slickers” when Billy Crystal turns in his battery-powered coffee grinder—would freak out quite this embarrassingly, however, I did not foresee.
This is only because I am an idiot, of course. The way the left has reacted and is reacting to Donald Trump’s election should have prepared me. Surely the despicable way they treated Brett Kavanaugh should have prepared me. It’s just that I find it hard—maybe I should say “painful”— to believe that one whole side of the political spectrum is capable of it all.
Need I mention that metaphorically running around screaming nonsense with one’s hair on fire is unethical? It is irresponsible citizenship, it is neither competent nor prudent, and it upsets the less-intelligent members of the herd, and it is wildly unfair to Judge Barrett.
Let’s just stick with that proposition, and concentrate primarily on examples that are res ipsa loquitur, meaning in this case that if you have to be told why some things are nuts, then you’re nuts too.
- Senator Gillibrand’s tweet:
The fact that this outrageous statement is not out of character for the Junior Senator from New York doesn’t make it any more tolerable. The statement itself is another iteration of The Big Lie. Of course Barrett is qualified for the Court. Her former colleagues say so, the ABA says so, and and the current membership of the Court itself says so, since there are more than one Justice whose qualifications upon being confirmed were considerably less impressive.
Gillibrand represents the dangerous brand of anti-democratic thought her party is now peddling, albeit more openly and flagrantly than most of her compatriots, who are smarter than she is. That false principle is that only those who bow to Leftist cant are “qualified” to have any influence, legitimacy or power at all.
- USA Today’s Chelsey Cox. You know those scenes in some action movies movies where someone is so stuck in berserker mode that they begin attacking and killing everyone within reach, friend, foe or bystander? This is the level of hysteria some journalists have reached now in their panic, and Ms Cox is the saddest example I have seen thus far. The Babylon Bee, the satirical website that makes it clear that its stories are jokes because they know what they are doing, mocked progressive hysterics over Ginsburg’s death and the frantic search for some way to stop the President from naming a conservative successor with this story:
You know how the current toxic mutation of the news media deals with something they disagree with, right? They “factcheck” it. And that’s what Cox did with this gag. Moreover. the editors at the paper thought it was worth printing, thus mandating this clip:
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- Ibram X. Kendi, the director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, thinks this is responsible criticism of Barrett: prompted by the Rose Garden ceremony announcing her nomination, during which the public learned that among her seven children are two Haitian children her family adopted to save them from the ordeal of trying to survive in that persistent third-world hellhole, Kendi wrote
“Some White colonizers ‘adopted’ Black children. They ‘civilized’ these ‘savage’ children in the ‘superior’ ways of White people, while using them as props in their lifelong pictures of denial, while cutting the biological parents of these children out of the picture of humanity.” The obvious implication is that the Barrett’s may have used their adopted children as mere props as part of a possible effort to hide their racism.
I suppose its possible to be a more flagrant race-baiter than that, but right now I lack the imagination to conceive of it. As an adoptive parent myself, I find the implication beyond despicable. The BU professor even puts “adopted” in quotation marks to suggest that this wasn’t a true adoption mad out of love and compassion, but merely virtue signaling by racists to confound critics. Kendi then added “And whether this is Barrett or not is not the point. It is a belief too many White people have: if they have or adopt a child of color, then they can’t be racist.”
What does he mean whether Barrett is doing this is “not the point”? Of course it’s the point—this is like suggesting that a prominent American displays the characteristics of a serial killer and then claiming that the point wasn’t to create suspicion that the individual is dangerous. Moreover, as Professor Turley pointed out last week, “the only thing more disturbing than this outrageous attack is the relative silence of the media or Kendi’s colleagues.”
I disagree with the professor, upon further consideration. The most disturbing aspect of this is that Kendri, and irresponsible hate-mongers like him, is employed in a prominent position at an esteemed educational institution.
More to come…
Ethics Alarms 
Two more thoughts 1) I ran out of space quickly, and there is so, so much, with more coming by the hour. 2) I’m posting all of these on Facebook. I’m sure it will trigger some people, but to hell with it: they should be ashamed of themselves for supporting these awful human beings.
The solution to the madness lies in an ability to take a short term loss to win the abortiin battle.
Step one: declare unconditional surrender to the progressives on the abortion issue.
Step two: sponsor bills in the House and Senate to pay for abortions of BIPOC persons and offer a $1000 cash payment to the pregant female who undertakes tbe procedure.
Step 3. Stand back and watch the progressives heads explode.
If they want to support eugenics make sure they vote for it.
Isn’t it obvious? It means the facts don’t matter.
It’s just pure maligning of her character. Kendi throws out some 1619 Project nonsense that someone having black children (or being married to a black person) can still be racist and claims he’s not talking about Barrett, but hopes that it will stick anyway. With some members of the AUC, it will.
I submit again: How will Mitt Romney handle these egregious insults to Barrett’s diverse family? Stay silent? Stand up for her (as people stood up for him when his family photo got the snarky, “One of these things is not like the other” from a guest on Melissa Harris-Perry’s show)? This is an integrity moment for Mitt.
I really want Ken White (who’s done an admirable job with his three adopted kids) to take down Kendri on the adoption issue. Back in the Popehat days that would be an expected blog post. I wonder if he’ll be able to write that for the Atlantic today.
He has a new blog, so stay tuned!
https://popehat.substack.com/
Uh, thanks! Will keep an eye on that. His legal analysis is spot-on.
I guess he might have mentioned that on Twitter, but apparently I got blocked for associating with people he dislikes. 😦
Thanks, Rich—I just signed up, and shared on Facebook.
“only those who bow to Leftist cant are “qualified” to have any influence, legitimacy or power at all.”
Bullseye. Everybody else needs to produce, perform, pay their damn taxes, and STFU.
I sponsor a not-insignificant percentage of the children in a small community in Zimbabwe.
This started in a walk through the mall. I’d just landed my first serious professional job, and I thought I’d do something nice. There was a World Vision kiosk at the mall (70% of donations to the cause, which is still better than the Clinton Foundation), and they approached me, and I decided to say yes. I must have walked past that kiosk 100 times that Winter, and they’re easy enough to ignore, but they hit me when I was in exactly the right mood.
I think I’ve related this before, but as a refresher: They pull you up to the counter and take all your information, they show you a wall of kids faces. “Boy or Girl” is the first question, Do you have a preference on location? Do you have a preference on age? Would you like siblings? Hundreds and hundreds of photos, each with their own stories. It was a buzzkill. There’s this wall of need, hundreds and hundreds of smiling faces, hoping that I’d pick their card. How the hell do you do that? Stare into a void of need that you cannot possibly comprehend and pick a star out of it? I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t possibly pick based on gender or age like they were puppies or something, I thought, maybe I could pick a place particularly hard hit, but when I asked, the employee didn’t have comparisons. So I solved the problem the way I solve all my unsolvable problems: I made a decision and lived with it. I closed my eyes, reached out, and picked a card. My first sponsored child was a 6 year old boy named Lovejoy. He’s 13 now, and a hell of a snappy dresser. We send letters back and forth monthly.
But I’m white. So apparently I’m colonizing Zimbabwe. Or something. I have progress pictures of the school being built in Sikobokobo. I’ve seen the videos of the spread put on for Christmas. I have the letters that always start out in the very neat script the nuns write out for them, and then the letters written by the children as they learn to write (with translations attached). I can’t say this with more meaning: Fuck Ibram Kendi, black kids go to bed fed and with future prospects because of me, which is more than I can say for his Olympics level woke-huckstering.
The left now has too many rules it is what’s going to wreck the party. It is impossible to live your life and not trip a grievance grenade. One of my neighbors is IBEW union member with 20 IBEW for Biden banners in his front yard that he ripped out yesterday in responce to the catholic mother hate being spewed by the party.
I just don’t really know where the country is at right now, northwest Ohio certainly doesn’t feel like the democratic party has much chance, I am seeing more trump signs going up and biden signs that have been up for weeks taken down.
I don’t know what much of these prognostications mean because I think Biden has more support than is visualized… I think his followers just avoid open crowds because of fear of the pandemic.
BUT, I live in a mildly blue neighborhood that was just on the “pro-Hillary” side of the vote tallies for our precinct. During the 2016 election season you could see quite a few Democrat campaign signs and maybe one…possibly two…Trump signs.
This year? I’ve seen maybe two or three Biden signs and a half dozen or more Trump signs.
Again, I’m doubtful that’s indicative of anything. But we’ll see.
This guys sums up my growing opinion on how I am increasingly likely to cast my vote-
I have my doubts about BU being an esteemed institution. AOC and Howard Stern? I’m not impressed.
So I read that fact check article in USA Today. The worst thing about it, from what I saw? It’s so weird that it is actually hard to tell where the article is being serious (to be charitable) and where they are quoting or referencing the Babylon Bee.
I mean, having read the Bee article — which, as usual, was hilarious — I kept thinking that this author is going to see the humor in the story, Real Soon Now. But…….never happened. Guess TDS atrophies your sense of humor.
“The most disturbing aspect of this is that Kendri, and irresponsible hate-mongers like him, is employed in a prominent position at an esteemed educational institution.”
It may be disturbing, but it is pretty much mandatory these days.
So, why am I working so hard? I should just start calling white conservatives racists in the most outrageous and irresponsible ways and a prestigious university will give me an endowed chair. Can it be that easy?