In which the MFM tries to make the hippie cult leader into a conservative Republican #MAGA Trump-supporter.

Per The Hill this morning, he has been upgraded from Serious to Fair condition.

I didn’t see this coming: Bono gives Scalise a shout-out. Meaning something positive.

“You’ve been through some troubling days here with the shooting in Alexandria,” Bono says on-stage in the video. “We are so grateful that Congressman Scalise and his comrades made it through. So grateful. We hold them up, as love holds us all up.”

…U2 performed Tuesday night in Hyattsville, Maryland, at FedExField, home of the Washington Redskins. FedExField is located about 19 miles northeast of Alexandria.

But they’re still stuck on a motive for the shooting. ABC’s article is totally silent on it. The Hill’s article touches on it in a way that disguises the truth:

The FBI said Wednesday that the shooter, who died shortly after sustaining injuries in a confrontation with police, worked alone and that the incident had “no nexus to terrorism.”

The agency also confirmed Hodgkinson had a paper list containing six lawmakers’ names, although they said they would not classify it as a “hit list.”

So, the FBI is politically correct? Yikes! Reminder:

• The “six names” were a hit list.
• They were all GOP – and specifically, the (rare) anti-Establishment, pro-liberty type of GOP known as the House Freedom Caucus.
• The failed murderer, James T. Hodgkinson, was a “Bernie bro” who wanted to kill them for political reasons and terrorize conservatives.

From the comments: James reminds us that Bono has kinda-sorta been getting sensible for awhile. Nice to see!

Laura Loomer and Jack Posobiec disrupt a performance of that Julius Caesar we’ve been talking about:

It’s inspiring – Jack gets out the words “The blood of Steve Scalise is on your hands!” – but what struck me was, the packed house. Does Shakespeare in the Park draw that kind of crowd, normally?

Laura was arrested; you can help her defense fund at freelaura.com (scroll down).

She discusses it all at length with Stefan Molyneux. After seeing it in person, she agrees with his suggestion that the staging is intentional, graphic, bloody “assassination-orgy porn” recalling ISIS tactics. (So much for any comparisons to that 2012 production in which an Obama-like Julius Caesar was handled with dignity.)

Art Depicting A Crucified Trump Submerged in Urine Will Be Unveiled In Portlandia.

I wouldn’t read too much into it, but apparently his next installation is going to be Ted Nugent suspended in a vat of urine.

In the aftermath of yesterday’s attempted mass murder of Republican congressmen (which was stopped only by Steve Scalise’s security detail and the would-be assassin’s sub-par shooting skills), the knee-jerk reactions from the Democrat left included “they deserved it because they voted against Obamacare” and “they deserved it for being against gun control” and “they deserved it for being racist.”

And this lovely Posh Being weighed in again.

More threats followed.

After the attack, the office of Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) received an email reading “One down, 216 to go”. Congressman Tom Garrett (R-Va.) needed security after receiving threats reading, “This is how we’re going to kill your wife”. Other threats described graphic atrocities against his daughters and even his dog.

Congresswoman Martha McSally (R-AZ.) went to the FBI after phone messages warning, “Martha our sights are set on you, right between your **** eyes” and “Can’t wait to **** pull the trigger.”

Democrats have used hate to fuel their political fortunes for quite a long time. From Dan Savage’s “I wish all Republicans would drop dead” to Hillary Clinton’s proud statement that “Republicans are my enemies,” to a Seattle City Councilwoman proclaiming “I don’t have any Republican friends” (she was cheered and applauded), the Democrat Left has promoted a climate of hate against Republicans. “Republicans are racist. Republicans are homophobic. Republicans hate poor people and want them to die.” Hate is what makes rich leftists write checks to the DNC. Hate is what drives the Democrat base to the polls. Hate has become the tool Democrats are most familiar and comfortable with using.

I don’t think they can stop. I don’t think Democrats know of any way, other than promoting hate against Republicans, to win elections. And as long as hate is acceptable, there will be violence.

I fear that the attempted mass murder of Republicans in Alexandria was not the apex of the left’s campaign of violent resistance against Republicans, but a harbinger of more violence to follow.

Some criminals’ names are worth remembering, as pathetic examples of futility. Such an individual is James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, IL.

As V noted Wednesday, he opened fire on Republican representatives from Congress who were practicing to play baseball for charity, and he critically wounded one of them, Rep. Steve Scalise (R – LA).

I don’t know if Hodgkinson was mentally ill? I do know the media reports that he was a Republican-hating and Trump-hating supporter of the Democrat-socialist, Bernie Sanders. (To the Controlled Media’s credit, they have been presenting this fact; not hiding it.)

I don’t know what Hodgkinson’s life was like; if he accomplished much or had kids or did charity or had overcome abuse or handicaps? I don’t know his life, but I do know that his death was malicious (on his part), pointless and stupid.

He gave his life to injure others, express his hatred and injure America. And he failed. He didn’t make a single kill. (He would still be futile and one of life’s losers, if he had; the point is that, even on his own evil terms, he still failed.) A likely proponent of gun control, he made himself into a cautionary tale in favor of guns; specifically, their ability to stop would-be mass-murderers like Hodgkinson quickly – when good people are around, who have them.

I only hope that, in his last moments of consciousness as he died from the bullets that rained back upon him, Hodgkinson realized his error and had a second or two of repentance. If he did, God in His mercy and power will still be able to make something good of Hodgkinson’s soul.

UPDATE: Hannity notes that Bernie is not to blame for this. He’s right. Except we have to put a qualifier on it.

While Bernie is NOT responsible for every act of his supporters – just as Trump isn’t – it can’t be denied that the Left has been fomenting a Climate of Hate. It has many elements, including falsehoods and smears that Bernie has helped to spread.

What we know is that Republican Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot by an assailant during a baseball practice in suburban Virginia.  Everything else is speculation for now.

• “Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., told Fox News he left just before the shooting. As he walked to his car, a man asked DeSantis if it was Republicans or Democrats practicing. About three minutes the shooting began, DeSantis said.”
• Ignorant progressives immediately scream for gun control; it’s okay for their side to politicize tragic events.
• Assailant identified as James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, IL.  Hm, here is a Facebook page for a James T. Hodgkinson. May or may not be the same guy.
• “Hodgkinson has a varied arrest record in St. Clair County, for offenses such as failing to obtain electrical permits, damaging a motor vehicle, resisting a peace officer, eluding police, criminal damage to property, driving under the influence and assorted traffic offenses?
• Belonged to many anti-Republican hate groups on FaceBook, wrote hate-letters to the liberal media about Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly, was part of a “99%” protest against the 1%.
• Leftist New Republic contributor: “If the shooter has a serious health condition then is taking potshots at the GOP house leadership considered self defense?”
• Progressive twitterverse explodes with joy-rage over shooting of Republican. (Post now updated under category ‘Violence on the Left’).
• The would-be mass-murderer has assumed room temperature. Another tragic victim of “gun violence,” I guess. The good news is, as a resident of Illinois, Mr. Hodgkinson will still be able to vote Democrat for many more elections.
• Markos Moulitsas (DailyKos) “Republicans are getting what they want.”
• Another leftist laments that a more organized assault would have yielded a better result: “For violent resistance to work it’d need to be organized. Individual acts can be understandable, but likely counterproductive/ineffective.”

This post will be updated as the story develops.

As might as well cover this story today. Since the shooter is a member of ‘The Resistance,’ the press will forget about it by tomorrow afternoon.

Hipsters with no better place to be on a sunny weekday morning than in a bar with fellow hipsters watching Congressional testimony in hopes that it will somehow lead to the impeachment of a Republican president. Then, getting the sads when the testimony turns out to be a big nothingburger.

Sad, really.

From Breitbart, Joss Whedon Film Imagines World Without ‘Beacon of Hope’ Planned Parenthood

The 3-minute film shows tears, frustration, and desperation in its imaginary world without Planned Parenthood, where scholarships are lost and projects interrupted all because the abortion giant isn’t present to erase the consequences of people’s sexual decisions…

As if people wouldn’t quickly move to a mix of adoption, privately-funded abortion, privately-funded birth control, non-vaginal sex, abstinence and/or condoms.

And I say that as a supporter of first-semester abortion rights. Even I can recognize when abortion advocates are dishonest.

“Planned Parenthood is a beacon of hope, and anyone trying to shut it down is committing an act of evil. It’s not just inhumane — it’s inhuman.

No, Joss. What’s evil, inhumane and inhuman (you can picture his face and voice cracking on that one) is:

1. Late-term abortion.
2. Forcing your fellow citizens to fund it.
3. Painting murderers as heroes.
4. Assuming that anything YOU like, has to be funded by taxpayers (rather than yourself).

But we know Joss has problems:

On Mother’s Day, he tweeted his gratitude for his mother’s death 25 years earlier so she wouldn’t have to live in a world where Donald Trump was president…

…and his other tweets gleefully picture graphic violence happening to Republicans.

UPDATE – Unrelated? I almost blogged on this yesterday: Man rompers. Hipsters in baby clothes.

Joss Whedon has nothing to do with this, so I can’t imagine why my subconscious connects it to him. But it does.

He keeps tweeting things which are true or at least defensible, but add fuel to the fire.

Russia must be laughing up their sleeves watching as the U.S. tears itself apart over a Democrat EXCUSE for losing the election.

As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!….

James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!

Again, the story that there was collusion between the Russians & Trump campaign was fabricated by Dems as an excuse for losing the election.

When James Clapper himself, and virtually everyone else with knowledge of the witch hunt, says there is no collusion, when does it end?

Apparently, President Trump had some dinner with Comey which is going to become a football, now. Maybe he has a recording of it. If he does,

• what will it reveal? will it shed more light, or more heat?
• and how will it come out?
• and was it legal?
• and has he been recording everything, creating a Pandora’s Box of new stuff for Democrats to pick over?

Either Trump is doing some brilliant PR strategy (brand-building? distracting people from something more important?) or a dumb one. Sigh.

IN OTHER NEWS: A Third World, brown-skinned woman (automatically credible to you lefties out there, right?) political leader alleges that Hillary Clinton ‘Personally Pressured’ Her to Aid Foundation Donor Despite Ethics Laws.

I don’t know if these particular charges are true, but a large number of these “pay for play” influence-peddling charges have swirled around the Clinton Foundation / Clinton Global Initiative. And continue to.

I think the Democrats have been corrupt for years, and the reason our current political debates are so high-stakes for them – the reason they keep hoping to score a knockout blow on Trump – is because they need to control the Justice Department and FBI. If Democrats can’t control them, the next couple of years will see some huge investigations / prosecutions of Democrat corruption.

And they know it. Hence, Robby Mook being “terrified” if Trump can de-politicize the FBI and DOJ (i.e., remove key Democrat appointees, restore normal practices). My theory.

A histrionic person named Skylar Baker Jordan is absolutely appalled that some gay people in America don’t hate Republicans they we he does. And he has an entire purseful of tiresome leftist clichés to support his position.

Conservatism in America has literally killed gay people. Thousands lost their lives because of Reagan’s homophobic inaction on Aids. The Vice President of the United States only two years ago signed a license-to-discriminate as governor of Indiana. The right uses religion to deny marriage equality, housing protections, job protections, and even trans peoples’ right to use a public toilet. Conservative Americans are so homophobic and transphobic that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had to issue a travel alert to LGBT Britons going to North Carolina.

That is the delusional, paranoid world gay leftists live in every day. AIDS was caused by Reagan not talking about AIDS. (And had nothing to do with bath houses or promiscuous unprotected sex. {In fact, Skylar later in the article praises bath houses as “instrumental in radical sexual politics and political engagement” because that’s how completely fracked up his worldview is.}  Christians who decline to participate in gay weddings is exactly as evil as anything Hitler ever did.

And any gay person who values economic rights, personal liberty, self-defense, and national security more than bath houses and keeping subservient Christian bakers under the bootheel of the bureaucratic state is a traitor and deserves to be ostracized.

Hat Tip: RSG

Apparently, the Talking Point has gone out to all organs of the left to promote the “Republicans are running on FEAR” meme.

• Talking Points Memo: Riding Fear of Muslims, Trump Rockets to New Lead
• Democrat Hack Paul Begala: Republicans’ Dominant Emotion is ‘Fear’
• The New Republic: The GOP is the Party of Fear
• New York Times: Fear of Terrorism Lifts Donald Trump
• MSNBC: GOP fear of refugees spins wildly out of control
• Slate: State of fear: The Republican debate after San Bernardino

This ‘Fear’ rhetoric is a back-handed way for the left — people so frightened by words that they require Speech Codes and Safe Spaces — to call Republicans cowards, and portray themselves as brave for standing strong in their politically correct Groupthink. The meme is summed up by this has-been, washed-up blogger desperately trying to suck up to the Democrat Left:

“Fear is what the Republican Party’s selling this election. Well, every election to be precise, but this time around it’s pretty much taken over all the messaging: fear of immigrants, fear of refugees, fear of liberals, fear of Hillary Clinton, fear of socialism and communism and all kinds of imaginary stuff that goes bump in the Republican night. And above all, fear of Muslims. Since fear’s closest cousin is hatred, we’ll be getting a serving of that, too, but it’s really just a thin layer on top of a rich base of pure fear.”

The thesis that all of the “fears” raised by Republicans are illegitimate would only be (somewhat) valid if there had been no Islamist terror attacks under Obama, that there were no Islamist terror organizations threatening future terror attacks against Americans, and is there were no possible way that terrorists would enter the USA (or France) under a refugee, visa, or immigration program.

Look, just because I fasten my seatbelt when I drive, does that mean I’m “living in fear” of other drivers? Does the fact that I wash my hands after handling raw chicken mean that I’ve “given into fear” of Salmonella? No, it means I am taking common sense measures to protect myself against tangible dangers.

Securing the border, making sure the people we let into the country aren’t going to murder Americans… these aren’t crazy, fear-driven ideas. They are utterly rational and common sense. And so is Donald Trump’s idea of suspending immigration from hotbeds of Islamist terror until we get a better handle on how to manage it.

Irrational fear would be something like, oh I don’t know, suspending Constitutional Rights to deny law-abiding Americans the right to own a gun.

Ever since Barack Hussein Obama became president, there has been a notable acceleration in the use of State power to punish, harass, and wreak vengeance on those the left perceives as their enemies. Just a few examples:

• Barack Obama’s use of the IRS to target conservative opponents for harassment.
• Partisan Democrat prosecutors in Wisconsin conducting a campaign of harassment and intimidation against conservative political groups in that state.
• Radical Feminists imposing California’s “Yes Means Yes” law, stripping college males of the rights of due process and the presumption of innocence, all so they can settle their scores with the “Patriarchy.”
• Harry Reid and 52 senate Democrats attempting to gut the First Amendment’s free speech protections; all to get even with a handful of rich donors who support non-Democrat causes.
• And, of course, the Gay Fascist Left using the power of the state to punish bakers, florists, and photographers who do not support gay marriage.

Inevitably, when the left-wing comes to power, the first order of business is to punish their perceived enemies. That has been the case in every country in which any brand of Marxism has come into power. There was a naive assumption that the political system of the United States, with its body of laws and system of checks and balances, was immune to these types of abuses. Clearly, the last six years have shown that it is not.

Modern leftism is less a set of political beliefs than a militant pathology. If your political philosophy is based on the idea that those who disagree with you are evil, and/or greedy, and/or racist, and/or homophobic, and/or sexist, then, of course, they need to be punished, and of course, the reason your side was elected was to punish them. Obama himself admitted as much when he stated that the purpose of elections was “to punish our enemies and … reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.” And his administration and his party have done exactly that.

And the worst part is that if, somehow, the left’s greedy fingers are ever pried from the levers of state power, the Republicans will do nothing to reverse what has been done, will do nothing to undo what the Obama left has done. They may not abuse power so flagrantly as the left does, but they like having the power all the same.

The only way to keep the State from abusing power is to not let the State have that power in the first place.

Even for the left, this is pretty childish.

#MittRomney is on the plane with me. #gag

— Laverne Cox (@Lavernecox) September 25, 2014

If you don’t know who (or what) Laverne Cox is, join the club.

When called out for childish rudeness, Cox claimed that *gag* is just a word gay people use to express surprise.  As in, “I just won the lottery. *gag*”

Obviously, if Mitt Romney had been a solid “man-of-the-people” “champion-of-the-middle-class” Democrat like Al Gore or Hillary Clinton, he could have avoided the whole issue by flying on a private jet like they do.

Because I live in Maryland, a deeply corrupt one-party state, I have no political representation at the state or national level. Fortunately, my real hometown has a most excellent congressman in the form of Libertarian Republican Justin Amash; who was the target of a primary campaign by the Establishment GOP and their patrons in the US Chamber of Crony Capitalists. (Whereas the Republican Party uses the word “conservative” the way a prostitute uses cheap perfume.) The GOP and their Big Business buddies were angry because Amash is truly fiscally conservative and does things like vote against corporate welfare. So, they found a party hack with big business loyalties, Brian Ellis, to run against him, and backed his opponent to the hilt.

Their strategem failed. Amash won his primary handily with 57% vote.

And he did not exactly make nice with the GOP country club in his victory speech.

“Brian Ellis, you owe my family and this community an apology,” Amash said in his speech.

“You had the audacity to try to call me today after running a campaign that was called ‘the nastiest in the country,’” Amash continued. “I ran for office to stop people like you.”

Ellis, according to MLive.com, left a voicemail for Amash to congratulate him on his win.

During the campaign, Ellis, who had the backing of business interests, ran an ad including footage of Amash being called “Al Qaeda’s best friend in Congress.”

Amash also used his remarks to take aim at supporters of Ellis, including former Rep. Pete Hoekstra. “I want to say to lobbyist Pete Hoekstra,” Amash said. “You are a disgrace. And I’m glad we could hand you one more loss before you fade into total obscurity and irrelevance.”

That’s right, the GOP actually ran an ad against a Republican Arab-American congressman calling him “Al Qaeda’s best friend.”

Wow. Just … wow.

If only the GOP went after Obama and the Democrats with the zeal with which they attack fiscally conservative, Constitutionalist Republicans.

And they do it as only leftists can: by blaming nasssssty Republicans for magically changing how the voters feel about the word “entitlement”, which now begins to sound bad.

From the linked article:

Obama Programs Derided by Republicans as Pejorative Entitlements

…Republicans have been working to convert the once-neutral entitlement label into a negative…

…“‘Entitlement’ used to be a fairly positive thing,” said historian Edward Berkowitz, an expert on social-welfare policy at George Washington University in Washington. “Now, the term is being changed. Entitlement is this form of social spending that’s getting out of control.”

Look, Mr. Berkowitz: If Republicans’ power to mold language/voters were that good, Romney would have won in 2012.

But further down, some facts creep into the article:

…Obama [ed: yes; not Republicans] last week proposed changing the formula for calculating cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security recipients [to reduce future benefits]…

Spending on Social Security and…Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and jobless benefits — rose 40 percent over the decade ending in 2012…more than twice the inflation-adjusted increase in the size of the economy…

…while Democrats portray the most costly entitlements as benefits that voters have paid for, typical wage-earners retiring in 2010 will receive at least $3 for every $1 they contributed to [Medicare]…

Social Security’s disability trust fund is expected to be exhausted in 2016…A two-income couple with both individuals earning an average wage of $44,600 who reached age 65 in 1960 received more than seven times as much in lifetime benefits as they paid in…

Golly, do you think maybe the facts are what make the word “entitlement” seem bad? That maybe entitlements are a “form of social spending that’s getting out of control”?

Perhaps like me, you’re enjoying this great new TV show I just found on C-SPAN2 called Mr. Paul Goes to Washington where my favorite Senator is currently filibustering President Obama’s nominee to head the CIA, John Brennan. As I write this, he’s currently about to ring in his sixth hour. The goal of Senator Paul’s soliloquy is, as he has stated several times since I’ve been watching, simply to elicit one thing: A straight-forward answer to the question, (to paraphrase) ‘Does the president believe he has the legal authority to execute through drone strike non-combatant citizens on American soil?’

Brings up a very interesting point: For eight solid years, we heard screeching and gnashing of teeth from the Left about how George W. Bush wants to kill us all and eat our babies and of course shred the Constitution through wars based on lies and the horrible PATRIOT Act. But in the end, who is it who’s actually standing up for these ideals? Well, so far I’ve seen Senator Paul in exchanges with Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Pat Toomey. Odd, don’t you think, that it’d be these ‘Tea Party right-winger knuckle-draggers’ who are actually doing the work that the Bush-haters allegedly wanted done while the leaders of their nominative party are lining up with their president in his expansion of Bush’s ‘unitary executive’ policies?

Clearly it’d be expecting waaay too much for the addlepated adherents to the Bush-is-Satan school of political thought to recognize the irony of the situation, let alone find that realization a great opportunity for self-reflection. Sad, that.

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HHQ)

NB: I had originally written the paraphrase of Sen Paul’s question as “power” to execute. Clearly that’s within the president’s power, but I’ve clarified (I hope) by changing my original post to read “legal authority”, which I think is likely more to his point.

Glenn linked something yesterday which really gets at the advantage the legacy media accord to Democrats.  When some fringe figure at a Republican rally hurls an angry epithet, prominent Democrats call for party leaders to “differentiate themselves” from the lone nut-bag lest he come to define the party.  And folks in the legacy media often pick up on the story, portraying the isolated voice as representative of the GOP.

But, when an angry leftist hoists a mean-spirited sign at a liberal rally, that’s just one angry liberal and not a representative of the party.  Heck, if a prominent Democrat says something stupid, well, it’s just not news.  And when a liberal columnist uses harsh language to describe Republican, there’s no need for any differentiation–because the Republicans really are that bad.

Democrats, Stephen Kruiser writes

. . . will forever be aided by the MSM lap dogs who do their bidding when it comes to false narrative writing. This one is basically parroting the president. That doesn’t mean it is impossible to counter. But it will take leadership who is willing shout “Oh, HELL no!” every time they’re painted as evil or violent.

Read the whole thing.

Is is just me — or are others noticing that their left-of-center Facebook friends are still posting more links (and commentary) critical of Republicans (and conservatives) than they are posting pieces praising the reelected president and promoting his second-term agenda?

How quick some were to pounce on General Powell’s suggestion about dark undercurrents of racism in the GOP. (They didn’t bother to come up with facts backing up their assertion — and ignored the fact that most Republicans seem pleased the the nation’s only Indian-American woman governor appointed a black man to serve in the United States Senate. And when you provide examples of Democrats saying similar things to those Republican statements Powell singled out, well, it comes time to insist that Republicans really, really are racist.)

One friend just linked something from an outfit called Americans Against the Tea Party. Is it that those folks define themselves not by what they’re for, but by their against?

Just wonderin’.

Contending that Republicans “have a rhetoric and practical wisdom problem”, a young correspondent of The Weekly Standard’s William Kristol, considering New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s popularity, addressed the GOP’s image problem:

So I wonder, are Christie’s recent negative comments about Republicans something like Xenophon’s frequent sacrifices and invocations of the gods throughout the Anabasis? Might Republicans learn something from this? The vast majority of people are liberal today not because they have reasoned their way to that position, but because they believe in it as the average person used to believe in god. Authority—in schools, on TV and in print—tells them that the Republicans are evil. Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that hating Republicans is the Last Man’s god. (I believe it was Allan Bloom who said that “anti-bourgeois ire is the opiate of the last man…”). So Christie makes sacrifices, as he must, to that hateful god. He invokes that god. He publicly embraces that god.

Via Powerline Picks.  Emphasis added.  Read the whole thing.  This guy is onto something.  My only quibble is that I would add “who are” between the word, “people,” and phrase, “are liberal”,  and add “arrive are this ‘designation'” after “liberal today” in the italicized portion

I do find that, in interactions with many who call themselves liberal or who support President Obama have not, as Kristol’s correspondent put it, “reasoned their way” there, but have accepted the designation or come to the support because that is what they believe “good” people do.  They talk more in abstractions than details, often preferring clichés to arguments.  Many seem oblivious when you point out details of Obama’s policies.

And some seem dumbfounded when they learn that ideas for change that they support are similar to policy reforms Republicans have put forward.

At present, I don’t have a solution to this problem Republicans face.  But, we need at least recognize the GOP’s image problem, especially among the chattering classes and consumers of popular culture. (more…)