If you’d like to read this issue on my website, click here! If you’d like to sign-up and receive this in your inbox each week, click here! Read past issues here.
Good Friday Morning! While prepping for this newsletter, a friend and reader texted me, “How did we get anti-Jewish rhetoric as a major political topic? How in the monkey did we get back to WWII Germany?” It’s a fair question in a week dominated by Representative Ilhan Omar’s continual use of anti-Semitic remarks when talking about Jews or Israel. I have a column coming out for the Conservative Institute covering that whole ordeal.
But to answer the question posed, for communism and socialism, anti-Semitism is a feature, not a bug. Jonah Goldberg has an excellent essay on this point from the March 2018 issue of Commentary Magazine called: Karl Marx’s Jew-Hating Conspiracy Theory: Marx didn’t supplant old ideas about money and commerce; he intensified them. To sum it up, Marx was a staunch anti-Semite, and many of his attacks on wealthy elites doubled as attacks on Jews. And so when you look at modern socialism, a lot of that hatred for wealthy Jews continues to hold weight.
This week I’m taking a step back and looking at the year Democrats have had so far, and what that projects moving forward into the 2020 primaries. I’m also sharing a few quick hits from the week. Links follow.
Where you can find me this week
Make sure to sign up for the Conservative Institute’s daily newsletter. You can also go to their Facebook page. You can join Ricochet here. And I do recommend their ever-growing network of podcasts, which you can find on all popular podcast platforms. They have a show for every topic you can imagine, and the list continues to grow.
Incendiary facts on Democrats and infanticide
Accusing Democrats of supporting infanticide is an incendiary charge. It’s also an incendiary fact.
Finding a privacy solution for the world of tomorrow
We need to start thinking about how to tackle privacy concerns as we advance technologically. Some of the advances we’re making allow for surveillance in ways that were unthinkable at any previous time in our history. We need to set up broad protections now.
You thought 2016 was bad? Wait till you meet 2020
John Podhoretz had a great ending point in Commentary, talking about Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitic comments:
Let’s be clear here. Nobody baited Ilhan Omar into saying Jews were hypnotizing the world, or that Jews were controlling American politics with their money, or that Jews were engaged in a conspiracy to force her to apologize for her words. She said these things herself, on her own, without prompting. They have nothing to do with “policy,” or with her pain as a Somali refugee, or anything else. They have to do with her idea that evil Jews are manipulating reality. This is as anti-Semitic as anti-Semitism gets.
People can play whataboutism games all they like, but not with me, people. I’ve attacked Donald Trump over Charlottesville. I’ve attacked Steve King for his racism. Ilhan Omar is a despicable anti-Semite and rather than trying to find a way to separate themselves from her, the grandees of the Democratic Party are actually, or effectively, or implicitly embracing her.
This could be an inflection point in American political history—the moment at which the Democratic Party decided that it had to choose between Jews and intersectionality and chose the latter.
The question is what American Jews are going to do about it.
And I think he’s right, that this could be a potential inflection point in American political history. It’s undoubtedly a clarifying moment, watching Democrats and the media cover for Omar. Democrats, when faced with standing up to their base, cowered. I wrote a few weeks back that Democratic Presidential contenders were already terrified of the socialist base, it turns out they’re scared of the anti-Semitic/anti-Israel wing too.
The Democratic Party is transforming into a pro-Jeremy Corbyn party, complete with old-geezer socialists, like Bernie Sanders, and rabid anti-Semites, Omar and Tlaib. Democrats liked jabbing Republicans during the 2016 election over Trump, asking why no one would stand up to him. The shoe is on the other foot now. Bernie Sanders leads their field and anti-Semites rule the roost. The Democrats who do stand up get shot down and Nancy Pelosi is a shell of herself after the anti-hate resolution debacle.
The Clinton’s don’t control this party. Neither do the Obama’s, Schumer, Pelosi, or any ranking Democrat. A few months ago I wrote a piece for Ricochet, talking about how I didn’t see Democrats as having any guardrails, unlike Republicans:
Watching the Antifa marchers and the growing number of Bernie-lite politicians supporting any socialist idea out there makes me wonder: what guardrails can the left place around their crazy wing?
They’ve so accepted the premises of moral relativism that they’re incapable of fighting against an idea they see as evil (besides conservatism).
So while I don’t see Trump driving the American bus off the side of a cliff because of no guardrails, I do wonder about Democrats.
There was clear opposition to Trump, both ideologically and literally within the Republican Party, including up to the election. #NeverTrump and the “Against Trump” issue of National Review were distinct moves against reactionary and populist politics. There remains to this day a large contingent group of conservative writers and thinkers who regularly criticize the President.
Where is this on the left?
Where is the widespread condemnation for Antifa? Where is the extensive questioning of socialism re-entering the party? If you view old ideas like fascism as bad, you should equally hold communism and socialism in the same light.
Socialism, communism, and their variants have destroyed every country they’ve been allowed to run free. Many nations haven’t fully recovered culturally from the atrocities of those ideological systems.
Where are the left-wing guardrails that would keep them from running the bus off the side of the cliff?
I don’t know of one on the left, nor do I see one developing. That concerns me for the future of our politics and country. Because eventually, Democrats will retake power of all the branches of government. These cycles come and go.
Who or what will control the Democratic Party then? No one knows.
I raise these issues because power vacuums must get filled. Nature abhors a vacuum, and the Democratic Party may stay in a state of utter chaos for a while, but someone will fill that void. And right now we see no constraints on what could rise through the ranks.
Take a step back and note the scandals this year:
- Democrats in multiple states support outright infanticide legislation — killing babies when they’re outside the womb, not part of an abortion procedure.
- Virginia politicians kick off the black face/KKK costume scandal, with #MeToo sprinkled in. You’ll note, no one resigned.
- Omar and Tlaib are openly making unprovoked anti-Semitic remarks on Twitter and before liberal crowds.
- The Green New Deal, which is an open call for state control of every aspect of your life.
This overview doesn’t count Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris’s campaign implosions. It doesn’t count Joe Biden already fumbling random statements he makes. And it doesn’t count the stupidity of the shutdown debate.
And we haven’t even entered the meat of the Democratic primaries yet. Things are going to get far weirder and extreme. You can guarantee Omar is going to make more anti-Semitic remarks. That’s who she is — and Democrats will have to contend with that for the rest of the year, if not election cycle (unless the media decides to bury her — hard to do now that she’s the new star with AOC).
Bret Stephens was accurate in his assessment in the New York Times:
It says something about the progressive movement today that it has no trouble denouncing Republican racism, real and alleged, every day of the week but has so much trouble calling out a naked anti-Semite in its own ranks. This is how progressivism becomes Corbynism. It’s how the left finds its own path toward legitimizing hate. It’s how self-declared anti-fascists develop their own forms of fascism.
If Pelosi can’t muster a powerful and unequivocal resolution condemning anti-Semitism, then Omar will have secured her political future and won a critical battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. At that point, the days when American Jews can live comfortably within the Democratic fold will be numbered.
If the American left goes full-Jeremy Corbyn, that is they’re fully socialist and anti-Semitic, it will marginalize them as a party, which is good for Republicans. But that also means they’re mainstreaming a form of evil that deserves no light of day in any of the national, regional, or local news.
Watch this summer, especially as the significant leftist conventions like Netroots happen, at how anti-Semitic they’ll be now. Omar has thrown off the covers. We’ll get to see how bad things are soon.
CNN attacking Biden
CNN is bizarrely attacking Joe Biden this week. They sent the KFile team to dig up old Senate speech tapes of Biden talking on crime. Their piece aired: “Biden in 1993 speech pushing crime bill warned of ‘predators on our streets’ who were ‘beyond the pale’” The piece states:
His central role in shaping and shepherding the tough-on-crime bill will likely face scrutiny in a Democratic primary should he run for president in 2020. His 1993 comments, which were in line with the broad political consensus to tackling crime at the time, are at odds with a new bipartisan coalition of activists and lawmakers who are trying to undo what they say is a legacy of mass incarceration fostered by that era.
Biden’s word choice could also pose a problem with a new generation of Democrats who view the rhetoric at the time as perpetuating harmful myths about the black community.
CNN’s KFile came across the 1993 speech during a review of the former vice president’s record.
That last sentence is critical, and I don’t believe it. CNN is running an open opposition research hit on Biden and someone on the left tipped them off. The other prominent person in the Biden lane of the party, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, announced he wasn’t running for President this week. By appearances only, judging by Brown and Biden, someone may be trying to clear the field.
Whatever is happening, it’s bizarre to see this out now and not, say, in 2008 or 2012, when Biden was on the ticket. Biden has a big mouth and frequent gaffes on tape. CNN is magically deciding to hold him accountable now? Those 1993 tapes have been around forever.
Right…
CNN wants to be the Democratic Party kingmaker, and Biden is not the flavor of the month.
NYT: Google tries to address wage gap issues with women, instead finds out its underpaying men
You literally couldn’t make this story up if you tried:
When Google conducted a study recently to determine whether the company was underpaying women and members of minority groups, it found, to the surprise of just about everyone, that men were paid less money than women for doing similar work.
The study, which disproportionately led to pay raises for thousands of men, is done every year, but the latest findings arrived as Google and other companies in Silicon Valley face increasing pressure to deal with gender issues in the workplace, from sexual harassment to wage discrimination.
Gender inequality is a radioactive topic at Google. The Labor Department is investigating whether the company systematically underpays women. It has been sued by former employees who claim they were paid less than men with the same qualifications. And last fall, thousands of Google employees protested the way the company handles sexual harassment claims against top executives.
Also, that same story had the following real sentence, spoken by a real person, about the topic of “equality,”
Google seems to be advancing a “flawed and incomplete sense of equality” by making sure men and women receive similar salaries for similar work, said Joelle Emerson, chief executive of Paradigm, a consulting company that advises companies on strategies for increasing diversity.
That’s right — men and women receiving the same salaries, for the same work, is problematic now. The literal dictionary definition of pay equality is bad now.
Don’t do intersectionality drugs kids.
Links of the week
Ilhan Omar Knows Exactly What She Is Doing: The Minnesota Democrat is bringing Corbynism to the Democratic Party. – Bret Stephens, The New York Times
I’ve Faced the Charge of Dual Loyalty: It was anti-Semitic then, and it’s anti-Semitic now. – Rahm Emanuel, The Atlantic
The Anti-Semitism Monster Democrats Can No Longer Control: Turning on its creator. – Noah Rothman, Commentary Magazine
The Left Is Making Jews Choose: Our Progressive Values Or Ourselves – Batya Ungar-Sargon, The Forward
Ilhan Omar’s Remarks about Israel Don’t Provoke the Ire of Many Democrats – Jim Geraghty, National Review
Anti-Semitism Is Bi-Partisan. Why Isn’t Fighting It? – Eli Steinberg, The Forward
Democrats’ refusal to call out Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitism is just appalling – John Podhoretz, The New York Post
‘I knew he was my son’: Rare adoption gives dying child a second life – Kokomo Tribune
‘Bring People Together’ Always, Always Means ‘Do What I Want’ – Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review
Nationalizing 5G Is Not the Way to Beat China – Brendan Carr, National Review
Prominent Democratic super PAC says Ohio isn’t a top priority in 2020 – Cleveland.com
Don’t pass this ‘pimp protection act’ – Laila Mickelwait, The New York Post
A Word on Abortion and Conservatism – Alexandra DeSanctis, National Review
The Public Isn’t Warming to Socialism – Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review
In Venezuela, Will Maduro’s Paramilitary Shock Troops Stay Loyal? That’s Not a Given: Many Venezuelans see the ‘colectivos’ as nothing more than regime thugs terrorizing the public. In an exclusive interview, one of their leaders presents a different picture. – Annika Hernroth-Rothstein, The Daily Beast
Children Don’t Always Live – Jayson Greene, The New York Times
Uber and Lyft are losing money. At some point, we’ll pay for it. – Megan McArdle, The Washington Post
The Temptation of John Roberts – David French, National Review
Trump Just Might Have Won the 2020 Election Today: The president’s speech at CPAC was a bedazzling mix of bravado, B.S., humor, and positive vision no Democrat will be able to top. – Nick Gillespie, Reason Magazine
RIP CULTURE WAR THREAD – Scott Alexander, Slate Star Codex (A long read on how the liberal mob attacked a fellow liberal for running a discussion on the culture wars).
“Mom, When They Look at Me, They See Dollar Signs”: How rehab recruiters are luring recovering opioid addicts into a deadly cycle. – Mother Jones
Satire piece of the week
Ilhan Omar Withdraws Support From Bill To Save The Earth After Learning That’s Where Israel Is – The Babylon Bee
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal hit a snag when it lost the support of another freshman representative, Ilhan Omar. Omar had been an enthusiastic supporter of the Green New Deal and wanted to save the earth, but then she noticed something very disturbing when looking at a map of the earth: Earth is the planet on which Israel resides.
“You’ve been hypnotized by the Jews!” Omar accused a surprised Ocasio-Cortez. Omar then ripped up a copy of the Green New Deal. “This is just a plot to help Israel keep existing! Did AIPAC pay you off?”
Ocasio-Cortez was very apologetic, saying she hadn’t considered how her plan would affect Israel. She then vowed to change her plan so it might save the whole planet except where Israel resides.
Thanks for reading!