It must have been frightening for horror writer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/stephen-king">Stephen King</a> to apologize for a tweet about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ron-desantis">Ron DeSantis</a> that turned out to be pure fiction.
The far-left novelist told his 6.7 million Twitter followers on July 6 that the popular Florida governor had signed a bill requiring Sunshine State students and professors to register their political views with the state. But when people pointed out that it was a bogus claim from an old Salon article, King first apologized, then took down the tweet.
“I deleted a tweet about Ron DeSantis requiring notice of political views of students and teachers,” King tweeted. “That really was fake news. Sorry.”
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I deleted a tweet about Ron DeSantis requiring notice of political views of students and teachers. That really was fake news. Sorry.
&mdash; Stephen King (@StephenKing) <a href="https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1545866656689393664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Twitter, which selectively cracks down on anything it deems misinformation, did nothing about the tweet for several days before King acted. When the writer initially apologized, he blamed his source in a statement to CNN.
“I regret having posted the headline without being more confident the story was correct,” said King, who had retweeted the old phony story with the words “I. Can’t. Even.’ “Salon is usually more reliable. Twitter is a constant learning experience, and I will try to do better.”
The law DeSantis signed, and Salon botched, requires public colleges and universities in Florida to perform voluntary annual surveys on the subject of “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity.”
Politifact, the left-wing fact-check site run by the Poynter Institute, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jul/07/stephen-king/florida-not-requiring-professors-students-register/">deemed King&#8217;s claim misinformation</a>.
&#8220;King claimed DeSantis signed a ​​bill &#8220;requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with (the) state,&#8221; Politifact wrote. &#8220;We rate King’s statement False.&#8221;
Salon finally changed the headline, which a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/politics/fact-check-desantis-florida-students-professors-political-views/index.html">CNN fact-check</a> also called out as false, this week.
The 74-year-old author, whose far-left views are well known, is a prolific Twitter user. Earlier this year, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/seriously-ignorant-stephen-king-gets-buried-over-hot-take-on-putin-and-biden">he was roundly ridiculed</a> when he tweeted that Russian President Vladimir Putin had met his match in President Joe Biden, who he said would punish the Russian leader for invading Ukraine.
“Mr. Putin has made a serious miscalculation. He forgot he’s no longer dealing with Trump,” King tweeted.

Stephen King

Stephen King’s ‘Fake News’ Tweet About Ron DeSantis Debunked, Writer Apologizes

Stephen King's 'Fake News' Tweet About Ron DeSantis Debunked, Writer Apologizes

Fake News

Florida

Ron DeSantis

Salon

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/george-washington-is-the-greatest-president-of-all-time-and-we-need-him-now-more-than-ever">George Washington</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/thomas-jefferson">Thomas Jefferson</a>, Joe Biden: Which president is not like the others? Not a joke, as the latter might say.
According to far-left online magazine <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/salon">Salon</a>, they’re all similar. In an article whose headline assured readers it was not a joke, writer Matthew Rozsa said Biden, like the founding fathers, is a “visionary” whose greatness is missed by his peers.
&#8220;From the start of his administration, he has pushed for an ambitious economic program: expanded access to health care, major investments in job creation, financial assistance to parents, accelerated development of green energy and other steps to address climate change,&#8221; Rozsa wrote. &#8220;To this point, the political fates have cursed Joe Biden with the same bad luck that afflicted Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and other founding fathers at their most ambitious but least effective — but without granting him anything close to their storied accomplishments or historical legacy.&#8221;
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As a historian, I can find no similarities among Jefferson, Washington and Biden. This is pure fiction on the part of the Salon reporter. Biden has no leadership skills and has been in government service for 47 years with no progress for the people but enriched himself.
&mdash; Jimmy Williams (@JimmyW_CFP) <a href="https://twitter.com/JimmyW_CFP/status/1543746911324225537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The headline of the article, &#8220;How Joe Biden is like America&#8217;s Founding Fathers &#8211; and no, I&#8217;m not kidding,&#8221; seems to anticipate some skepticism from readers. Many conservatives consider Biden, whose approval rating is below 40%, to be at least the worst American president since Jimmy Carter, and possibly of all time.
Rozsa got clobbered on Twitter for the comparison.
“I’m getting nauseous!” <a href="https://twitter.com/Jeffkirsh1/status/1543775728185081857?s=20&amp;t=TCHkWtrfRlrtHbesZM_2Ng">wrote Jeff Kirsh</a>. “It’s July 4th and you’re putting Biden in the same sentence with Washington &amp; Jefferson!”
“Washington and Jefferson were great leaders,” <a href="https://twitter.com/gpettisusa/status/1543754831235620866?s=20&amp;t=TCHkWtrfRlrtHbesZM_2Ng">tweeted Gary Pettis</a>. “Can you deny that? History will remember Joe Biden to be a weak leader who handled self-created crises ineptly. He&#8217;s like Carter, which proves that Progressive Democrats talk a good game to the middle class but they can&#8217;t govern.”
Rozsa charitably admits that without the founding fathers, “the United States would not exist today,” and acknowledges that Jefferson was a “complicated genius.” But just like Biden, he writes, Jefferson had many progressive ideas that got shot down by small-minded contemporaries.
&#8220;Jefferson&#8217;s inability to realize his economic vision doesn&#8217;t detract from his overall legacy, but it certainly offers some perspective on how even revered statesmen can have important ideas that go nowhere,&#8221; Rozsa writes.
One Twitter user said Rozsa should spend more time reading and less writing.
“Far left Salon writer should read the Federalist Papers before making a fool of himself saying Biden comparable to Jefferson &amp; Washington,” <a href="https://twitter.com/JackBones10/status/1543763892551053312?s=20&amp;t=TCHkWtrfRlrtHbesZM_2Ng">wrote Jack Bones</a>.
A <a href="https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2021/?page=overall">2021 survey of historians by C-Span</a> rated Washington as the second-greatest U.S. president, behind only Abraham Lincoln. It ranked Jefferson seventh. Biden was not included in the survey.

Joe Biden

Not A Joke: Far-Left Mag Says Biden A ‘Visionary’ Like Founding Fathers

Magazine Says Biden A 'Visionary' Like Founding Fathers

American History

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

Top former military officials and combat veterans have come to the defense of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) after a far-left publication published a hit piece on him over the weekend claiming that he falsified his military service record.
Salon <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/01/22/sen-tom-cotton-campaigned-on-his-experience-as-an-army-ranger--but-he-didnt-have-any/">claims</a> that when Cotton launched his political career during his 2012 congressional campaign that &#8220;he felt compelled to repeatedly falsify that honorable military record&#8221; by &#8220;claiming to have been &#8216;a U.S. Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan,&#8217; and, in a campaign ad, to have &#8216;volunteered to be an Army Ranger.'&#8221;
&#8220;In reality, Cotton was never part of the 75th Ranger Regiment, the elite unit that plans and conducts joint special military operations as part of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command,&#8221; the article continued. &#8220;Rather, Cotton attended the Ranger School, a two-month-long, small-unit tactical infantry course that literally anyone in the military is eligible to attend. Soldiers who complete the course earn the right to wear the Ranger tab — a small arch that reads &#8216;Ranger&#8217; — but in the eyes of the military, that does not make them an actual Army Ranger.&#8221;
Adding to the story, far-left Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), who has been accused of repeatedly <a href="https://twitter.com/joelpollak/status/1353508601206173697">lying</a> while in Congress, tweeted: &#8220;Hey @SenTomCotton, unless you wore one of these berets you shouldn&#8217;t be calling yourself a Ranger. Truth matters.&#8221;
Numerous top former military officials and combat veterans came to Cotton&#8217;s defense in response to the hit piece.
Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Rick Merritt, a former regimental sergeant major of the 75th Ranger Regiment, <a href="https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/jan/24/article-questions-cottons-status-as-army-ranger/">told</a> the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the attacks on Cotton&#8217;s record were &#8220;so absurd.&#8221; The local newspaper noted that none of Cotton&#8217;s political opponents have ever challenged his Army Ranger credentials.
&#8220;It&#8217;s unfair. It&#8217;s almost slanderous,&#8221; Merritt said. &#8220;He&#8217;s 100% a Ranger. &#8230; He will always be a Ranger. An attack on him is an attack on every veteran who has served honorably.&#8221;
Retired General Raymond A. Thomas III, who served as the 11th Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), slammed Crow over his tweet, writing: &#8220;First, wear your beret correctly. Second, you are a Congressman now, act like it. This is a dumb debate (feel pretty qualified to say that). Need you to focus on more important things for the good of the nation. You and @SenTomCotton get together and work like &#8216;Ranger buddies.'&#8221;
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First, wear your beret correctly. Second, you are a Congressman now, act like it. This is a dumb debate (feel pretty qualified to say that). Need you to focus on more important things for the good of the nation. You and <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenTomCotton</a> get together and work like “Ranger buddies.” <a href="https://t.co/9r3vCjGOXt">https://t.co/9r3vCjGOXt</a>
&mdash; Tony Thomas (@TonyT2Thomas) <a href="https://twitter.com/TonyT2Thomas/status/1353348918852145153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Retired Army Colonel Kurt Schlichter also slammed Crow, writing: &#8220;This is a blue falcon move and it’s embarrassing. What the hell is wrong with you?&#8221;
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This is a blue falcon move and it’s embarrassing. What the hell is wrong with you? <a href="https://t.co/0sBlVX80jo">https://t.co/0sBlVX80jo</a>
&mdash; Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) <a href="https://twitter.com/KurtSchlichter/status/1353404643183718400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Sean Parnell, a decorated combat veteran, also weighed in on the matter, writing: &#8220;This is a BS line of attack on @SenTomCotton . If your (sic) earn your tab &amp; proudly wear the words RANGER on your shoulder, you’re a RANGER. There are 2 ways to qualify for the Ranger Hall of Fame. 1) serve in a Ranger unit in combat Or 2) graduate from Ranger school The end.&#8221;
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This is a BS line of attack on <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenTomCotton</a>. If your earn your tab &amp; proudly wear the words RANGER on your shoulder, you’re a RANGER. There are 2 ways to qualify for the Ranger Hall of Fame. 1) serve in a Ranger unit in combat Or 2) graduate from Ranger school
The end. <a href="https://t.co/6R5x4rDbsS">https://t.co/6R5x4rDbsS</a>
&mdash; Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanParnellUSA/status/1353512049721176065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2021</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;There are Soldiers in Ranger battalions who aren’t Ranger qualified. Likewise there are Soldiers who are Rangers in non Ranger units. Bottom line: You earn the Ranger tab. You live the creed. You’re a Ranger,&#8221; Parnell added. &#8220;You wear the uniform honorably. You volunteer to serve &amp; sacrifice for America. That’s what matters. People need to focus on that.&#8221;
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You wear the uniform honorably. You volunteer to serve &amp; sacrifice for America. That’s what matters. People need to focus on that.
&mdash; Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanParnellUSA/status/1353513551537836034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Washington Post columnist Hugh Hewitt said that accusations that Cotton had &#8220;stolen valor&#8221; amounted to &#8220;purposeful slander.&#8221;
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It is purposeful slander to accuse <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenTomCotton</a> or any other Ranger of “stolen valor” for pride in their Ranger tab. The Senator has always been precise and proud to have served in 101st and Old Guard, never claimed to have served in 75th Ranger Regiment. Simple slander. <a href="https://t.co/e4WC6Rm4ZW">https://t.co/e4WC6Rm4ZW</a>
&mdash; Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) <a href="https://twitter.com/hughhewitt/status/1353360710588272640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2021</a></blockquote>
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New York Times reporter Nick Confessore noted: &#8220;A friend who went to Ranger school but didn’t serve in the Regiment tells me, the civilian, that people in the service have long argued about &#8216;who’s a *real* Ranger&#8217;, and there’s not really a definitive answer, but that some people are a-holes about it.&#8221;
https://twitter.com/nickconfessore/status/1353535162861154306
Trump-critic David French came to Cotton&#8217;s defense, writing: &#8220;On Tom Cotton’s military service — He was a Ranger-qualified and led troops in combat. When I served I heard Ranger-qualified soldiers described as &#8216;Rangers&#8217; all the time. Cotton’s service was brave and honorable. He’s described his service fairly and accurately. Move on.&#8221;
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On Tom Cotton’s military service — He was a Ranger-qualified and led troops in combat. When I served I heard Ranger-qualified soldiers described as “Rangers” all the time. Cotton’s service was brave and honorable. He’s described his service fairly and accurately. Move on.
&mdash; David French (@DavidAFrench) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1353890872551759872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Cotton was asked about the story during a Fox News appearance on Monday with Bret Baier.
&#8220;Were you straightforward with voters about your military service?&#8221; Baier asked. &#8220;You’re a decorated veteran, but there’s a story &#8212; a couple of stories popping up about you saying that you were an Army Ranger.&#8221;
&#8220;Yes, thanks, Bret. I graduated from the ranger school,&#8221; Cotton responded. &#8220;I wore the Ranger Tab in combat with 101st Airborne in Iraq. This is not about my military record; this is about my politics.&#8221;
&#8220;Ranger regiment legends like General Scottie Miller or General Craig Nixon have used the term to describe both alumni of the Ranger Regiment and graduates of the ranger school, as did the secretary of Army, as did most of my buddies in the Army, as did most of the liberal media until a conservative veteran was using the term that way,&#8221; Cotton added. &#8220;But if some people disagree, that’s fine. I respect their views. But what’s most important, I respect the service of all rangers, and indeed, all soldiers who volunteered to serve our country.&#8221;
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I graduated from Ranger School and I wore the Ranger Tab in combat with the 101st Airborne.
This isn&#39;t about my service&#8211;it&#39;s about my politics. <a href="https://t.co/BdPdsxYmmj">pic.twitter.com/BdPdsxYmmj</a>
&mdash; Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1353871522037968897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Treasury Secretary Mnuchin And Fed Chair Powell Testify On CARES Act Before Senate

Top Ex-Military Officials Defend Senator Tom Cotton Against ‘Absurd’ Hit Piece On His Military Career

Tom Cotton

In a recent <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/01/10/1917-nationalism-wwi-trump/">Salon article</a>, writer Matthew Rozsa criticizes the new World War I drama “1917,” directed by Sam Mendes. Rozsa’s primary issue with the film isn’t artistic, however, but political. He feels that the movie is too nationalistic and that it doesn’t do the thematic heavy lifting required of a modern war movie.
Rozsa states that the Great War didn’t necessarily spring from a larger, black and white issue – such as slavery or fascism – but instead from different countries attempting to assert their own dominance. As such, claims the author, any WWI story – like “1917” – told from the perspective of a single country is perpetuating a dangerous mindset; one that assumes the superiority of one’s own country. In other words, a movie like “1917” has a responsibility to think globally, even as it tells a limited story.
Of course, Rozsa is entitled to his opinion. We all have ideas of what a movie should or shouldn’t do, especially when it falls into a specific genre, such as horror or, in this case, war. But, of course, just because we have opinions doesn’t mean they’re valid, particularly if they start to become prescriptive. Suddenly, a personal preference becomes the ultimate standard by which a movie is measured and, if it falls short, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to engage with a movie on its own terms.
Early in the article, Rozsa writes, “Any film set during that conflict has a responsibility to account for the horrors of nationalism, much as a film that takes place during the Civil War must deal with slavery, and one that occurs during World War II must acknowledge fascism.” While I agree that for certain movies to ignore overriding themes or events can be less artistically satisfying than if they acknowledged them, I really dislike the schoolmarmish tone that Rozsa strikes here. He is attempting to dictate how any film that has the temerity to take place at a certain time in history should go about portraying that period, and he does this from a place of assumed 20/20 hindsight. When we have a clearer view of history, surely a filmmaker should try to incorporate that view into their work, right?
Film critic Roger Ebert, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSzP9YV3jbc">when defending</a> the Asian American-centered film “Better Luck Tomorrow” against the claim that the film should do a better job representing its demographic, bellowed out, “Asian American characters have the right to be whoever the hell they want to be! They do not have to ‘represent’ their people!” What Ebert was advocating for was the right of a filmmaker – any artist, really – to have their own point of view, limited though it may be.
When writers like Rozsa, who would appear to approach art first through the lens of politics, insist that a movie has a responsibility to “account for the horrors of nationalism” or “deal with slavery” or “acknowledge fascism,” I’m reminded of that wonderful quote from Roger Ebert. Sure, we may prefer that movies discuss their subjects a certain way, but a director is under no obligation to do so. To require a movie to approach its material the way we’d like is to ignore the notion that a filmmaker may actually have a reason for not doing so.
Many of the best movies ever made have willfully omitted certain facts or different points of view in order to better express the opinions of the filmmaker. This is the very nature of art. We may like it; we may not. But it’s this kind of variety – the opportunity to allow an artist to do something we may not agree with – that makes art so valuable. It is about engagement between the artist and audience, who may have differing opinions. A film has the right to be whatever the hell it wants to be. And the day that art is only considered acceptable when it affirms a pre-approved narrative is the day that art is rendered pointless.

“1917” film.

SMITH: Salon Writer’s Criticism of ‘1917’ Is Ridiculous

Hollywood

According to feminist Amanda Marcotte, a &#8220;politics&#8221; writer at Salon, Hallmark Channel movies are &#8220;fascist propaganda&#8221; filled with &#8220;shiny-teethed, blow-dried heteronormative whiteness.&#8221;
&#8220;Hallmark movies, as cloying and saccharine as they are, constitute the platonic ideal of fascist propaganda,&#8221; Marcotte posits in a think piece for <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/12/25/hallmark-christmas-movies-fascist-propaganda/">Salon</a> published on Christmas day.
The predictable romantic comedies always center around &#8220;MAGA-style ideas about what constitutes &#8216;real&#8217; America,'&#8221; the feminist complains, adding, &#8220;Their money comes from selling a vision of America that increasingly authoritarian conservatives wish to believe once existed and can be restored again — an America that excludes most of an increasingly urban, racially diverse, cosmopolitan nation.&#8221;
If you were unaware that your sweet 60-year-old mother was consuming fascist propaganda in enormous quantities, particularly during the holidays, that&#8217;s likely because the fascist messaging is applied subtly, just like they did in Nazi Germany, the feminist explains:
<blockquote>When most of us think about fascistically propagandistic movies, we think of the grotesque grandeur of <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/leni-riefenstahl">Leni Riefenstahl&#8217;s films celebrating the Third Reich</a> — grand, but cold sweeping shots of soldiers goose-stepping and flags waving, all meant to inspire awe and terror. But the reality is, even in Nazi Germany, the majority of movies approved by the Nazi minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/11/archives/escapist-movies-from-wartime-germany-german-war-movies.html">were escapist and feather-light,</a> <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-expert-on-nazi-films-and-propaganda/a-2728383">with a Hallmark movie-style</a> emphasis on the importance of &#8220;normality.&#8221;</blockquote>
Kate, a workaholic who finally made partner, getting stranded in her hometown during the holidays only to predictably fall in love with the sweet, simple boy next door seems harmless, but that&#8217;s all part of developing an &#8220;authoritarian worldview,&#8221; warns Marcotte.
&#8220;There&#8217;s plenty of reason that empty-headed kitsch fits neatly in the authoritarian worldview,&#8221; she writes. &#8220;It&#8217;s storytelling that imitates the gestures of emotion without actually engaging with real feeling. The Hallmark movie steers clear of the real passion or deeper emotion that tends to be the engine driving more artful fiction. Characters who have real feelings, after all, can prompt empathetic reactions in the audience, and empathy for others is the greatest single threat to the authoritarian mindset. And so schmaltz walks through the paces of &#8216;love&#8217; without touching on any of the messy but compelling realities of it.&#8221;
Marcotte&#8217;s screed against Hallmark Channel movies comes on the heels of a lesbian kiss controversy surrounding the channel.
As reported by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hallmark-channel-apologizes-will-allow-lgbt-ads-promises-to-work-with-glaad">The Daily Wire</a>, a #BoycottHallmarkChannel hashtag trended easier this month after The New York Times reported that the channel pulled four ads from wedding planning and registry website Zola that featured a same-sex marriage kiss. The company was pressured by activist family group One Million Moms, which denounced the lesbian kiss as inappropriate for the “family-friendly” channel.
Hallmark, however, ultimately <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hallmark-channel-apologizes-will-allow-lgbt-ads-promises-to-work-with-glaad">caved</a> to left-wing pressures after initially pulling the ad.
“The Crown Media team has been agonizing over this decision as we’ve seen the hurt it has unintentionally caused,” CEO of Hallmark Cards, Inc. Mike Perry said in a statement. “Said simply, they believe this was the wrong decision. Our mission is rooted in helping all people connect, celebrate traditions and be inspired to capture meaningful moments in their lives. Anything that detracts from this purpose is not who we are. We are truly sorry for the hurt and disappointment this has caused. … Across our brand, we will continue to look for ways to be more inclusive and celebrate our differences.”

Hallmark Channel Hosts

Feminist: ‘Hallmark Movies Are Fascist Propaganda’

Fascism

Feminism

Hallmark

Homosexuality

Leftism

Lesbian

LGBTQ

Has President Trump&#8217;s promise to &#8220;Make Christmas Great Again&#8221; pushed hardcore leftists into becoming an angry horde of Scrooges? The latest <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/11/29/how-donald-trump-ruined-christmas-i-wont-celebrate-this-year-and-hes-why/">op-ed from feminist Amanda Marcotte of Salon</a>, titled &#8220;How Donald Trump ruined Christmas,&#8221; indicates that might be the case.
Even though Christmas was never &#8220;of great importance&#8221; to Marcotte, she admits that the holiday at least carried some level of meaning to her over the years. What little enthusiasm she had for the holiday, however, has all but evaporated in the age of Trump, who &#8220;ruins everything he touches.&#8221; As an atheist, Marcotte never appreciated the holiday&#8217;s religious roots, but she at least appreciated the time of &#8220;the nation coming together in the spirit of joy and generosity.&#8221; Even that, Marcotte claims, no longer holds sway over her.
&#8220;But all that feels like a lie in Trump&#8217;s America,&#8221; writes Marcotte. &#8220;Forget Tiny Tim declaring, &#8216;God bless us, everyone!&#8217; It&#8217;s clear that for that 40% of people in the Trump cult, it&#8217;s closer to &#8216;Damn anyone to hell who isn&#8217;t exactly like us!'&#8221;
Marcotte charges Trump and his supporters of wielding the Christmas season to perpetuate some sort of white supremacist ethos that has driven a wedge between her and other Trump supporters, such as members of her own family.
&#8220;For me, it&#8217;s personal. My family is mostly a bunch of Trump voters, sucked up into a vortex of propaganda and lies, unable even to admit basic facts about the world that run contrary to what their tribal politics dictate,&#8221; she argues. &#8220;That sort of thing is stressful on a normal day but makes a mockery of the idea of familial love and harmony.&#8221;
&#8220;This isn&#8217;t a matter of political differences that can be set aside for the sake of the holiday,&#8221; she continues. &#8220;This is about not being able to make merry with people who think nothing of voting for a man who is on tape bragging about sexual assault, a man who cheats in elections and runs concentration camps on the border. A man whose racism has inspired a wave of terrorist violence, including in my hometown of El Paso, Texas.&#8221;
Though Marcotte stopped actually celebrating Christmas with her family out of convenience (the travel made it difficult), she will not even bother to celebrate it silently with her partner.
&#8220;It seems a little silly to make a big thing out of a holiday that just reminds me how my own family and so many other people in America have been sucked up into the Trump cult. I&#8217;d rather just read a book or binge-watch some TV,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Family is a touchy subject and the spirit of communal joy seems like a joke. The only thing left is the materialism of the season. Which, to be fair, seems to be going full force. The pull of capitalism is such that, unless you can plead poverty, the annual round of gift exchanges will go on no matter how much the nation appears to be collapsing around us.&#8221;
In response to the shame and condescension that will surely be coming her way as a result of this op-ed, Marcotte reminds her readers that she is &#8220;not a joyless person.&#8221;
&#8220;On the contrary, I&#8217;m a lucky and even privileged person, who gets to have a lot of fun in her life,&#8221; she concludes. &#8220;It&#8217;s just that Christmas isn&#8217;t fun for me anymore. It&#8217;s a sad reminder that we are not the country we pretend to be when we sing songs about love and joy at this supposedly wonderful time of the year.&#8221;

The President and First Lady will participate in the NORAD Santa tracker phone calls

Salon Op-Ed: I’m Skipping Christmas Because ‘Donald Trump Ruined’ It

Christmas

Donald Trump

The leftist ingrates at Salon have decided to &#8220;celebrate&#8221; Independence Day — which is celebrated on July 4th for the sole reason that our beautiful republic&#8217;s Declaration of Independence was ratified on that day in Philadelphia in 1776 — today in a rather peculiar manner. In what can only be described as a dissemination of the most stereotypically woke of all stereotypically woke takes, the Salon dullards today tweeted: &#8220;Despite its positive impact on history, the #DeclarationOfIndependence was also a product of its time—and bears some of the shortcomings of its era, including racism, sexism and prejudice against #NativeAmericans.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Despite its positive impact on history, the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DeclarationOfIndependence?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DeclarationOfIndependence</a> was also a product of its time—and bears some of the shortcomings of its era, including racism, sexism and prejudice against <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NativeAmericans?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NativeAmericans</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/4thofJuly?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#4thofJuly</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IndependenceDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IndependenceDay</a><a href="https://t.co/W3Hz8NO0n5">https://t.co/W3Hz8NO0n5</a>
— Salon (@Salon) <a href="https://twitter.com/Salon/status/1146766310036168704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The accompanying <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/07/04/fourth-of-julys-ugly-truth-exposed-the-declaration-of-independence-is-sexist-racist-and-prejudice/">piece</a>, courtesy of an obscure Ph.D. named Matthew Rozsa, concludes that America&#8217;s Founding Fathers &#8220;were fallible human beings, and some of their flaws had terrible consequences for people who were not fortunate enough to be born into privileged groups.&#8221;
Suffice it to say that such a &#8220;celebration&#8221; of the Declaration of Independence is a far cry from how John Adams described his vision for future annual celebrations in a July 1776 letter to his wife Abigail: &#8220;I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.&#8221;
But Matthew Rozsa and Salon are not merely profoundly ungrateful. They are not merely flipping a proverbial middle finger to the epistolary legacy of John Adams. They are also affirmatively wrong to muddle and belittle the genius that was Thomas Jefferson&#8217;s drafted Declaration of Independence, and it is important to understand why.
Chattel slavery was the original sin of the American republic, and one would be an inveterate fool to deny that obvious truth. The continuation of slavery from the colonial era through the early decades of the constitutional republic represented a brutal compromise of annunciated principle for the sake of maintaining a fragile unity of disaggregated and often self-interested states.
But what Salon misses — and what leftists routinely miss — is that America&#8217;s original sin of chattel slavery was just that: A compromise of principle. Slavery was not in any way a tenet of the American Founding; it was an institution manifestly athwart the Founding. The sagacity of the Declaration, in fact, was that it actually laid the seeds — the very codified foundation — for the eventual eradication of that most horrific of compromises of principle.
For the greatest statesman in the history of the republic, Abraham Lincoln, the Declaration was precisely the tool he needed to latch onto in order to finally bring the American republic in conformity with its Founding-era principles. For Lincoln, the Declaration was paramount to understanding America — the Constitution, in fact, <a href="https://online.hillsdale.edu/document.doc?id=279">was to Lincoln</a> merely an encompassing &#8220;frame of silver&#8221; for the Declaration&#8217;s underlying &#8220;apple of gold.&#8221; Lincoln spoke eloquently of that Founding-era creed — what he called the &#8220;political revolution of &#8217;76&#8221; — all throughout his adult life, including during his <a href="http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/temperance.htm">famous 1842 speech</a> to the Springfield Washington Temperance Society: &#8220;Of our political revolution of &#8217;76, we all are justly proud. It has given us a degree of political freedom, far exceeding that of any other nation of the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long mooted problem, as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of mankind.&#8221;
It is thus the Declaration — the &#8220;apple of gold&#8221; — that provided the Great Emancipator with the moral and intellectual sustenance he needed to &#8220;grow and expand &#8230; the universal liberty of mankind&#8221; insofar as that growth and expansion meant the eradication of America&#8217;s original sin. And the eradication of that original sin, following the bloody horror of the Civil War, tangibly took the eventual form of modifying the Constitution — the &#8220;frame of silver&#8221; — via the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. For Lincoln, none of this would have been possible had it not been for the <a href="https://amgreatness.com/2019/07/03/lincoln-americas-founders-iron-men-2/">&#8220;electric cord&#8221;</a> of the Declaration — which &#8220;links &#8230; patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.&#8221;
But perhaps no one <a href="https://amgreatness.com/2019/07/03/coolidge-declaration-men-created-equal-final-2/">said it better than President Calvin Coolidge</a> on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration&#8217;s ratification, in 1926:
<blockquote>About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.</blockquote>
It is a great paradox of modern &#8220;progressivism&#8221; — the likes of which is embodied by Salon&#8217;s self-hating screed published today — that such insipid idiocy is, in the Coolidge formulation, not &#8220;progress&#8221; at all. It is &#8220;reactionary.&#8221;

HAMMER: Salon Attacks The Declaration Of Independence. Here’s Why They’re So Wrong.

Declaration of Independence

Patriotism

Slavery

United States

On Friday, Salon magazine, never missing an opportunity to denigrate men, ran a piece <a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/08/24/in-the-wake-of-mollie-tibbetts-death-dont-blame-immigrants-for-murder-blame-men/">titled</a>, &#8220;In the wake of Mollie Tibbetts&#8217; death, don&#8217;t blame immigrants for murder. Blame men.&#8221;
Writer Amanda Marcotte begins her screed by claiming that accused murderer Cristhian Bahena Rivera &#8220;is a Mexican immigrant, though his legal status is in dispute.&#8221; Marcotte makes that dubious claim based on the <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/403095-man-charged-with-killing-iowa-college-student-death-was-in-us">claims of Rivera&#8217;s attorney</a>, despite the fact that both U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have clearly stated Rivera was an illegal immigrant.
But as <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/08/22/mollie-tibbetts-undocumented-immigrant-suspect/1060204002/">The Des Moines Register reported</a>, &#8220;Yarrabee Farms, Rivera&#8217;s employer, issued a statement Tuesday night saying Rivera was vetted through the government&#8217;s E-Verify system. However, <a href="https://www.e-verify.gov/about-e-verify/e-verify-data/participating-employers">a government archive</a> does not indicate the Brooklyn, Iowa, farm as a participating member of the system. On Wednesday, officials from the farm acknowledged they did not use the E-Verify system and that Rivera gave them false information.&#8221;
Calling right-wing pundits and Republican politicians &#8220;gleeful squadrons of vultures,&#8221; Marcotte segues to attacking the Trump administration, writing that President Trump and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders have &#8220;exploited this murder from the podium,&#8221; and have been joined in the effort by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Vice President Mike Pence.
Then Marcotte gets to the real target of her vengeful fury: men. She writes:
<blockquote>
But if people want to talk about the link between demographic identity markers and violent crime &#8212; especially murders like this one &#8212; then they shouldn&#8217;t focus on ethnic identity or immigration status. There is one trait that Rivera has in common with the vast majority of people who commit crimes like this, and it&#8217;s not his skin color or the nation where he was born. It&#8217;s his gender.
</blockquote>
Marcotte states further, &#8220;Instead of exploiting this situation to shore up a narrative about immigrants, people should be talking about how to change our social conceptions of gender so that men don&#8217;t resort to violence.&#8221;
Marcotte retells the apparent facts of Tibbetts&#8217; murder, as detailed in police reports and what she terms &#8220;Rivera&#8217;s apparent confession&#8221;: &#8220;She was jogging and minding her own business until some guy started running alongside her and harassing her. She declined to give him attention, and he got angry with her. She threatened to call the police and Rivera says he blacked out after that. But he knew exactly where to find her body when the law caught up with him.&#8221;
But back to castigating men:
<blockquote>
Women have a lot to fear from strange men. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/07/homicides-women/534306/">But the truth is that only 16 percent of female homicides </a>are committed by strangers. More than half of women who get killed are murdered by a current or former partner. For violent men, the sense of entitlement to control over a woman is much greater if they&#8217;re in a relationship with her (or were in the past). So it makes sense, sadly, that that scenario can lead to murder.
</blockquote>
Marcotte concludes that Tibbetts was murdered because her killer supposedly felt emasculated: &#8221;&#8230; the murder of Mollie Tibbetts fits a well-known and well-documented pattern of men killing women because they can&#8217;t control them. That anger and entitlement is not inevitable, no matter what right-wingers claim to believe. Another way of viewing manhood, one that&#8217;s not about violence and control, is possible.&#8221;

Salon: Don’t Blame Mollie Tibbetts’ Murder On Illegal Immigration. Blame Men.

A far-left publication was forced to delete an article they published on Sunday that slammed the Bible for being &#8220;poorly written&#8221; after they were heavily mocked on social media.
The publication, Salon, which previously published an op-ed partly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/109/salon-pedophilia-new-normal-aaron-bandler">defending pedophilia</a> (which has since been pulled), published an article that originally appeared on AlterNet &#8212; an extreme left-wing fringe website. AlterNet&#8217;s Valerie Tarico <a href="https://www.alternet.org/belief/why-bible-so-badly-written">writes</a>:
<blockquote>
Millions of evangelicals and other Christian fundamentalists believe that the Bible was dictated by God to men who acted essentially as human transcriptionists. If that were the case, one would have to conclude that God is a terrible writer. Many passages in the Bible would get kicked back by any competent editor or writing professor, kicked back with a lot of red ink &#8212; often more red than black.
Mixed messages, repetition, bad fact-checking, awkward constructions, inconsistent voice, weak character development, boring tangents, contradictions, passages where nobody can tell what the heck the writer meant to convey. This doesn&#8217;t sound like a book that was dictated by a deity.
</blockquote>
The reaction to Salon&#8217;s article was so negative, they put out the following statement: &#8220;Thank you for your feedback. We heard you. Upon further review, we determined that this article, which was republished to Salon from a partner website, did not meet our editorial standards.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Thank you for your feedback. We heard you. Upon further review, we determined that this article, which was republished to Salon from a partner website, did not meet our editorial standards.
&#8212; Salon (@Salon) <a href="https://twitter.com/Salon/status/961681717693165568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Here are just a few of the comments from people on Twitter that led Salon to delete the article:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
It&#8217;s a book only smart people can read. You should just stick with Harry Potter.
&#8212; Tracy, drinking wine (@lipstickclergy) <a href="https://twitter.com/lipstickclergy/status/961619786353459200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
Salon writers only read books with pictures in it.. Harry Potter is beyond their mental capacity to understand.
&#8212; Jason Eugene Davidson (@JasonEugeneDav2) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonEugeneDav2/status/961625977787961345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
Your article decrying a &#8220;badly written&#8221; book can&#8217;t even bother to quote or cite any scholarly evangelical definitions or defenders of inerrancy or inspiration.
&#8212; Andrew Stroud (@AndrewStroud92) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewStroud92/status/961621427416903680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
Was this article written by a fifteen year old who just discovered atheism?
&#8212; Eric M Hamilton (@ericmhamilton) <a href="https://twitter.com/ericmhamilton/status/961618400765186049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
Frontiers in Theology By 12-Year-Olds
&#8212; Michael Gebert (@skyfullofbacon) <a href="https://twitter.com/skyfullofbacon/status/961609908658626560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
The fact that it is still amongst us after almost 3000 years shows it has the relevance of Shakespeare and all the other things. How many thousands of religious texts have been lost? Yet, the Bible remains. And will long after the factually laughable writing of Salon dies.
&#8212; Jared Huber (@jaredhuber98) <a href="https://twitter.com/jaredhuber98/status/961623260411711488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
Kinda hypocritical of salon to talk about bad writing
&#8212; Bush (@bushdid411) <a href="https://twitter.com/bushdid411/status/961634727777259520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
The Bible is an anvil that has worn out a lot of hammers.
&#8212; John Young (@jeyoung67) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeyoung67/status/961640623618056192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
Why is <a href="https://twitter.com/Salon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@salon</a> still in business?
&#8212; Omniscient Owl (@sfrepublican76) <a href="https://twitter.com/sfrepublican76/status/961629593726631936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

Salon Deletes Article Slamming The Bible After They Get Wrecked On Twitter

Bible

Christianity

Judaism

This afternoon, Otto Warmbier <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17699/terrible-american-student-released-north-koreans-hank-berrien">passed away</a> at home after losing a significant amount of brain tissue during his 17-month imprisonment in the communist totalitarian nation North Korea. He was 22 years old. North Korea sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor after he <a href="http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2016/01/22/student-cincinnati-area-arrested-north-korea/79158226/">attempted</a> to steal a propaganda poster.
When he was sentenced, leftist &#8220;news&#8221; sites like Salon and Huffington Post mocked Warmbier&#8217;s plight and argued that he deserved to be harshly punished by the communist regime. Here is what the Huffington Post <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/la-sha/on-the-revocation-of-whit_b_9531122.html">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>
&#8220;That&#8217;s what the hell he gets. Good for him!&#8221; My mother had uttered those words in her typical matter-of-fact tone one morning as she watched the news. &#8220;He&#8221; was Michael Fay,an 18-year-old from Ohio who had confessed to vandalizing cars in Singapore, and was subsequently sentence to six lashes from a rattan cane. I was in sixth grade and all I could imagine was how horrible the pain would be. My mother was unmoved at the thought, remarking, &#8220;He earned that.&#8221;
I thought about my mother&#8217;s words a few days ago while watching video of 21-year-old Otto Warmbier, another man from Ohio who last week was convicted of subversion for stealing a propaganda banner in North Korea, and sentenced to 15 years hard labor. Just as in Fay&#8217;s case, I was shocked by the severity of the punishment. I&#8217;ve tried to imagine spending a decade and a half performing what the North Korean state deems hard labor and I can&#8217;t. But I&#8217;m not 11 anymore, and now, my mother&#8217;s callous reaction to [Michael] Fay&#8217;s sentence is my reaction to another young white man who went to an Asian country and violated their laws, and learned that the shield his cis white male identity provides here in America is not teflon abroad.
</blockquote>
In short, the author believed that Warmbier deserved to get arrested because he did not believe he would experience the consequences of breaking North Korea&#8217;s laws because he was white. This woman, a black woman, also nonsensically compared the harsh sentence Warmbier received from North Korea to being black in America:
<blockquote>
As I&#8217;ve said, living 15 years performing manual labor in North Korea is unimaginable, but so is going to a place I know I&#8217;m unwelcome and violating their laws. I&#8217;m a black woman though. The hopeless fear Warmbier is now experiencing is my daily reality living in a country where white men like him are willfully oblivious to my suffering even as they are complicit in maintaining the power structures which ensure their supremacy at my expense. He is now an outsider at the mercy of a government unfazed by his cries for help. I get it.
</blockquote>
Amazingly, Salon&#8216;s take on Warmbier was magnitudes worse than The Huffington Post, which referred to him as &#8220;<a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/03/02/this_might_be_americas_biggest_idiot_frat_boy_meet_the_uva_student_who_thought_he_could_pull_a_prank_in_north_korea/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=socialflow">America&#8217;s biggest idiot frat boy</a>&#8221; quoting supposedly funny Comedy Central comedian Larry Wilmore. Here&#8217;s an excerpt:
<blockquote>
Wilmore noted that Warmbier may have also been coerced into the stunt as part of an initiation into UVA&#8217;s secretive Z Society.
&#8220;So you have to commit an international crime to get into that clique?&#8221; Wilmore added. &#8220;If your hazing includes international crimes, you&#8217;ve got to read the fine print on your American frat bro warranty &#8230; it says, &#8216;Frat Bro Privilege not valid in totalitarian dystopias.&#8217;&#8221;
</blockquote>
According to the Left, Warmbier was a privileged white fraternity boy who deserved his fatal sentence because he arrogantly believed he could get away with breaking their laws. Now Warmbier is dead and whatever &#8220;privilege&#8221; the Left claimed he had cannot logically include being savagely murdered by the North Koreans for supposedly stealing a poster.
Disgusting.
Follow Elliott on <a href="https://twitter.com/ElliottRHams">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ElliottRHams/">Facebook</a>

FLASHBACK: Leftist ‘News’ Sites Mocked Otto Warmbier After North Korea Sentenced Him

Huffington Post

North Korea

In a recent <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/03/23/why-are-republicans-so-cruel-to-the-poor-paul-ryans-profound-hypocrisy-stands-for-a-deeper-problem/">opinion piece</a> targeting Speaker Paul Ryan, Chauncey DeVega, a politics staff writer at Salon, decries conservatism as &#8220;hostile to members of groups on the lower rungs of the social hierarchy&#8221; and the ultimate source of &#8220;the deep moral rot at the heart of American society.&#8221; DeVega’s baseless criticism of conservatives as elitist, biologically inferior brutes is a desperate attempt to avoid discussing his own ideology’s regressive hostility toward the poor.
Ryan, claims DeVega, &#8220;has dreamed of slashing Medicaid since his keg-party days — and that blithe hostility is widespread.&#8221; Conservatives, he claims, are biologically wired to &#8220;exhibit social dominance and bullying behavior,&#8221; with no bigger culprit than Ryan, who &#8220;has combined meanness, cruelty and callousness toward the weak and the vulnerable with gross and unapologetic hypocrisy.&#8221;
&#8220;The bad news is that conservatives’ brains cannot be modified to make them more empathetic and sympathetic toward their fellow human beings,&#8221; he writes. &#8220;Nor is the harmful messaging and narratives from the right-wing media about poor folks — and ‘the other’ more generally — likely to change in the foreseeable future.&#8221;
According to DeVega, anyone who believes in a society that values free markets, less government bureaucracy, and individual liberties is guilty of &#8220;greed and a slavish devotion to a revanchist right-wing ideology.&#8221; He compares the conservative voting block to &#8220;Pavlov’s dogs, seeking out abuse from their masters in the hope that the latter will hurt other Americans even more.&#8221;
&#8220;Conservatism is a type of motivated social cognition that by its very nature is hostile to members of groups on the lower rungs of the social hierarchy,&#8221; which is a function of its &#8220;authoritarian tendencies,&#8221; he asserts. Because conservatives want to make government smaller and more accountable to the people, DeVega declares that conservatives are conspiring &#8220;to take food, shelter and health care away from poor people.&#8221;
DeVega’s only criticism of actual conservative thought was the unevidenced claim that right-wing media outlets have maliciously suppressed information about the &#8220;success&#8221; of the New Deal and Great Society to sway the American public. If &#8220;success&#8221; is defined by prolonged unemployment and economic devastation in the first case, and the erosion of families and poor communities in the second, then they’ve both been quite successful. No just individual would support an ideology that treats society’s most vulnerable like expendable government serfs, dependent on the state for their basic provisions.
DeVega attempts to use the rest of his piece to blame conservatives for all of society’s ills, from income inequality, to moral decline, to robbing the poor of their &#8220;individuality, humanity, and dignity.&#8221; Not once does he develop a robust policy argument, instead resorting to ad hominem slanders as a substitute for supporting evidence.
DeVega’s criticism of conservatives as &#8220;the deep moral rot at the heart of American society&#8221; is a feeble attempt to ignore the reality that he represents the true moral rot. Shifting the blame onto the political right may make him feel better about his own regressive ideology, but it won’t change the facts. If America is really in decline, it’s because of people like him, not because of conservatives.

Sorry, Salon, But Liberals Are The True ‘Moral Rot’ In America, Not Conservatives.

Conservatism

Liberalism

Paul Ryan

Salon, the Left&#8217;s favorite online repository, is now positing that the leader of their movement is not President Barack Obama, or Hillary Clinton, or Bernie Sanders, but instead, filmmaker Michael Moore.
Why Moore?
As Penn State professor Sophia A. McClennen <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/01/07/michael-moore-gives-me-hope-5-reasons-why-hes-a-leader-the-left-needs-now/">writes</a>, because Moore got the 2016 election right, and possesses the &#8220;substance, compassion and wit we need to counteract one of the dumbest, meanest, most egotistical presidents our nation has ever seen. He is the perfect foil for a reality TV president.&#8221;
And how did Moore get the 2016 election right, according to McClennen?
Five ways: releasing his short film &#8220;<a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/09/11/michael_moores_utopia_where_to_invade_next_steals_the_best_ideas_from_european_socialism_that_could_save_the_american_soul/">Where to Invade Next</a>,&#8221; which McClennen lovingly notes &#8220;combines a fiercely optimistic patriotism with a sharp, unflinching attack on the evils of American exceptionalism &#8212; and it does it all without shooting a single frame in the United States.&#8221;
Yup, targeting that evil American exceptionalism would undoubtedly make Moore the leader of the left.
McClennen writes, &#8220;As we head into a Trump <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/12/17/degeneration-nation-it-takes-a-village-of-idiots-to-raise-a-kakistocracy-like-donald-trumps/">kakistocracy</a> that promises austerity for us and privilege for them, the message of Moore&#8217;s film will be more important than ever.&#8221; According to <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/12/17/degeneration-nation-it-takes-a-village-of-idiots-to-raise-a-kakistocracy-like-donald-trumps/">another article</a> by McClennen, she calls the Trump Administration a kakistocracy because it means &#8220;<a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=kakistocracy">government by the worst element of a society</a>. A kakistocracy is a government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. Trump plans to bring us the worst of both.&#8221;
McClennen&#8217;s second way Moore got it right? His efforts to focus on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, including<a href="http://michaelmoore.com/ArrestGovSnyder"> an online open letter to Governor Rick Snyder </a>and writing <a href="http://michaelmoore.com/10FactsOnFlint/">&#8220;10 Things They Won&#8217;t Tell You About the Flint Water Tragedy, but I Will.&#8221;</a> McClennen delightedly terms Moore&#8217;s actions as calling for a &#8220;revolution,&#8221; adding, &#8220;Moore&#8217;s fight to hold politicians accountable for the suffering they cause citizens will be a much-needed call to action in the months to come.&#8221;
Thirdly, McClennen notes Moore predicted Trump would win the election, saying the Democratic oligarchy was &#8220;living in a bubble that comes with an adjoining echo chamber.&#8221; Fourth, McClennen points to Moore&#8217;s movie &#8220;<a href="http://trumplandmovie.com/">Michael Moore in TrumpLand</a>,&#8221; released one week before the election in an attempt to exhort Trump supporters to switch their votes to Hillary Clinton. She claims, &#8220;Moore worked to humanize Trump supporters as well as Clinton herself. His message was clear: Without a sense of our common humanity our democracy is doomed.&#8221;
McClennen may have missed that Trump voters stuck by their man.
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If the GOP is lucky, McClennen will get her wish, and the Democratic Party will turn even farther left with Moore leading them off the political cliff.

</blockquote>
Finally, McClennen cites Moore&#8217;s list, released the day after Trump&#8217;s victory, which offered five things Democrats should do, which included: &#8220;Take over the Democratic Party and return it to the people. They have failed us miserably.&#8221; He followed on Dec. 27, by posting on Facebook &#8220;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/mmflint/posts/10154046637756857">5 Things You Can Do Right Now About Donald J. Trump.&#8221;</a> 
McClennen chortles, &#8220;On top of his five-point lists, Moore is <a href="https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/816056118325772288">often blasting Trump on Twitter</a>, refusing to let the blowhard go unchallenged on social media. He also tried to encourage electors to dump Trump.&#8221;
That did really well, too.
If the GOP is lucky, McClennen will get her wish, and the Democratic Party will turn even farther left with Moore leading them off the political cliff. An <a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/liberals-democrats/michael-moore-piers-morgan/">accomplished</a> <a href="http://humanevents.com/2004/07/22/nine-lies-of-emfahrenheit-911em/">liar</a>, Moore can lead the petulant children of the Left just as the Pied Piper of Hamelin did: far, far away.

Leftists: We Want Michael Moore As Our Leader

Michael Moore

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