The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

No, the KKK Hasn’t Taken Over Arkansas (and Never Trust the SPLC Anyway)

Posted on | September 9, 2019 | 1 Comment

Picturesque downtown Harrison, Arkansas.

Harrison, Arkansas, is a prosperous little town in Boone County, adjacent to the Missouri border and just 30 miles from the resort of Branson. Located in the scenic Ozarks, Harrison wants to be known as the “Best Small Town in America.” Unfortunately, they have a public-relations problem involving a Klan kook, Wikipedia and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Let’s start with the Klan kook: Thom Robb calls himself the “national director of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.” Robb lives about 10 miles from Harrison and his “Knights” receive mail at a post office box in Harrison, which gives the town a dot on the SPLC “hate map.”

This reflects a problem I’ve addressed at The American Spectator (“Another Dot on the ‘Hate Map’,” Feb. 22), where the SPLC targets entire communities as “hate” locations based on dubious claims, in order to create an exaggerated sense of menace for fund-raising purposes. By the standards of the SPLC, just about every Baptist church in America could be designated an “anti-LGBT hate group,” and if hate groups are everywhere, what’s the point of all those dots on the map?

How many “Knights” does Thom Robb command? If he wanted to organize a KKK rally, how many Klansmen would show up?

Like so many of the dots on the SPLC’s “hate map,” Robb is just one guy with a P.O. Box, and if his “Knights” are a serious threat to anyone, certainly the FBI should be able to handle them. Smearing an entire town of 13,000 people on the basis of their proximity to this one guy is irresponsible, and by engaging in such smear tactics, the SPLC is arguably creating hate where it would not otherwise exist.

So now, Wikipedia, where the entry for Harrison, Arkansas, includes this:

The predominantly white community is noted for its racial history, which includes two race riots in the early 20th century and an influx of white supremacist activity in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. . . .
In the 1970s, Thom Robb, a national leader of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, moved to a neighboring town. In 1982, Kingdom Identity Ministries, an anti-gay Christian Identity outreach ministry identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, was founded in Harrison.

Now, the history of race riots in Harrison in 1905 and 1909 is very real, but the information about “Kingdom Identity Ministries” is misleading, since the founder of that group, Mike Hallimore, doesn’t live in Harrison or even in Boone County, but instead lives 20 miles away near Jasper, which is in Newton County. As for being a “predominantly white community,” yes, Boone County is about 98% white, and the population is growing, from about 28,000 in 1990 to more than 37,000 now — a 32% increase in less than 30 years. So it would seem that being unintentionally notorious as a center of “white supremacist activity” hasn’t really hurt Harrison, and maybe it helped. Like, if you’re in a crime-plagued city like St. Louis or Little Rock and want to move somewhere safe to raise your kids, Harrison might be the place to go.

Notwithstanding the possibility that their “white supremacist” reputation is actually good publicity, folks in Harrison are upset about the way their community is represented by Wikipedia:

The Wikipedia page for Harrison is the first hit when “Harrison, Arkansas” is searched on Google.com.
Harrison’s Wikipedia entry had 9,360 page views from July 8 through Aug. 8, averaging 293 per day. . . .
Since the entry for “Harrison, Arkansas” first appeared on Wikipedia in 2002, the article has been edited more than two dozen times specifically regarding the terms “klan,” “KKK” and “race riots,” dating back to 2007. In most cases, one editor removed the reference, then another added it back in.
Harrison’s Wikipedia entry currently contains these two sentences: “Race riots by whites in 1905 and 1909 drove away black residents, establishing Harrison as a sundown town. Today (2019) it is known as a center of white supremacist activity, including the national headquarters of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.”
Layne Ragsdale, public information officer for the Harrison Community Task Force on Race Relations, said the city has been trying to remove those sentences, but every time, they pop back up in the article.
“It was almost so fast it looked like it was a bot changing it back,” she said, referring to a computer program that performs tasks automatically. “We thought we could just go in and change it. But a few minutes after we changed it, they’d change it back.” . . .
Harrison’s race relations task force was formed in 2003 to promote diversity and respond to racial-bias accusations against the city.
Ragsdale said the task force has battled white supremacists on several fronts, most visibly alongside city streets.
When a billboard went up in Harrison in 2013 that read “Anti-Racist is a Code Word for Anti-White,” the task force responded with a “Love Your Neighbor” billboard campaign.
The task force has served as a sort of quick-response crisis-communications team, but it has been unable to remove the disputed Wikipedia sentences.

 

Far be it from me to endorse hate, but as for that billboard, can we have a brief discussion of whether it is actually true? Because I think most Americans understand racism to be a bad thing, and avoid saying or doing anything that could fairly be labeled “racist.” But when you see someone call themselves “anti-racist,” isn’t that person usually a left-wing “social justice warrior” type? Doesn’t “anti-racist” advocacy involve a lot of guilt-trip stuff about 400 years of slavery, blah, blah, blah?

My willingness to raise such questions, and my skepticism toward “social justice” quite generally, goes a long way toward explaining why the SPLC has had me on their radar for the past 20 years. I simply refuse to accept that liberals have a monopoly on moral virtue, and thus hesitate to condemn others who stray beyond the limits of political correctness that liberals seek to impose on public discourse. From time to time, I might say something “offensive,” and would not wish to have my reputation destroyed because of it, so why should I help the SPLC and other self-appointed liberal Thought Police destroy the reputation of others?

Well, last month, the Associated Press ran this headline:

Arkansas, home to supremacist groups,
weighs hate crimes law

As you might have expected, the article included this:

Long before a mass shooting killed 22 people at a Walmart in Texas, the threat of white supremacy was well known in neighboring Arkansas, where extremist groups over the decades have made their home in the mountains and dense woods of the state’s remote rural areas. . . .
Such groups have long flourished in the Ozark Mountain region near the Missouri border where towns are small and scattered far apart and the population is overwhelmingly white.
The largest town, Harrison, population 13,000, was the site of riots in the early 1900s that drove out most of its black population. The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, one of several Klan factions, and the white supremacist Kingdom Identity Ministries are based in the Harrison area. . . .
“Once they get a toehold people follow them in there,” said Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, referring to the remote, wooded area. The group tracked 14 hate groups in Arkansas last year.

As far as I know, all these “hate groups” the SPLC claims are located in Arkansas are basically like Thom Robb and his KKK “Knights,” just one guy with a post-office box, yet the Associated Press uses this to depict the entirety of the Ozark region as “remote rural areas” where everybody is a Klan kook or some other kind of dangerous extremist.

And you know something? That might be good publicity for Harrison, in a way. Like I said, there are plenty of people living in or near big cities where drugs and crime are out of control, and the blessings of “diversity” are otherwise a nuisance, and probably some of those people read the Associated Press article about “remote rural areas” of Arkansas and think, “Hey, maybe I should consider moving to Harrison.”

Wouldn’t it be ironic if Harrison, Arkansas, were to experience an economic bonanza as a result of the SPLC and media smears? Affluent white folks start moving to town and then, unexpectedly, every hipster in the Midwest decides Boone County is a happening place, and next thing you know, downtown Harrison is full of bicycle-riding techies tapping away on their laptops in organic fair-trade coffee shops.

“Gentrification” in the Ozarks? Don’t laugh. It could happen, if the SPLC and the media keep giving Boone County so much free publicity.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

If you enjoy my work — which so often involves finding stories that are below the radar even of most conservative media — I’ll remind you that this is a reader-supported venture in gonzo journalism, and that The Five Most Important Words in the English Language are still:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!

Just this morning, Mrs. McCain mentioned some pressing financial needs, so anything you could contribute — $5, $10, $20, whatever — would be deeply appreciated. Thanks in advance, and God bless.



 

Category: Arkansas, Racism

Rule 5 Sunday: All Hail KBDaBear

Posted on | September 9, 2019 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I got nuthin’. Fresh out of inspiration. Fortunately, @KBDaBear is a public benefactor who routinely posts quality totty to Twitter, and the brunette below is part of his Sunday Swimwear thread. Go forth and enjoy. Also, belated thanks to everyone who bought stuff through my Amazon links last month. It’s very much appreciated.

It looks like a Holstein pattern, but it’s not.

We begin with Hot Pick of the Late Night from Ninety Miles From Tyranny, followed by The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #734, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. At Animal Magnetism, we have Rule Five Cause Analysis Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL’s herd this week includes the Iranian Mata Hari, Carolina Reaper Challenge, Aliette Opheim, Neerja Bhanot (RIP), Kylie Rae Harris (RIP), Felicity Huffman, Margaret Gorman, Nova Scotia Rule 5, and Mary Kate Malat.

Bacon Time brings us Classic Swimsuits.

We regret to announce the passing of longtime Rule 5 contributor and all around good guy Charles Hill, former fellow ASA trooper, proprietor of the Dustbury blog and its periodic Zooeypaloozas. Charles died of complications from an auto accident on September 3. See you at Fiddler’s Green, my friend.

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Category: Rule 5

Ace Is Sick and Tired of Jim Swift

Posted on | September 8, 2019 | 1 Comment

One of the amazing things about Ace of Spades is that he will use some of his best material as just throwaway stuff. Like, he’s got a sidebar item now pointing out that Jim Swift, formerly of the Weekly Standard, and currently with the Bulwark, is still ax-grinding against Salena Zito.

OK, I know Salena Zito — a popular reporter and columnist — but I had only the vaguest idea of who Jim Swift is, and I’d never heard of this particular controversy before today. Last year, a bunch of anonymous Twitter accounts began promoting what they claimed was evidence that Zito was plagiarizing, inventing quotes and otherwise engaging in bad journalism. Zito defended herself by producing notebooks and recordings of interviews, and her editors stood behind her reporting.

The reason why Zito became a target was that she had traveled extensively in the small towns of the American heartland to do reporting that contradicted a narrative beloved by the liberal media and the #NeverTrump crowd. Whereas Trump’s critics had asserted that many people who voted for him in 2016 were dismayed and disappointed by his performance as President, Zito talked to lots of Trump voters who were basically happy with the job Trump’s done in the White House. So the hit-job on Zito was not merely an attempt to destroy her career, but also to discredit her account of the pro-Trump mood in the heartland.

Back in January, when Jim Swift was hired at the Bulwark, Ace noted Swift’s role in “attempting to scalp-hunt Salena Zito,” pointing out that this was particularly egregious given that Zito was a reporter for the Washington Examiner, which was owned by the same company (Clarity Media Group) that also owned the Weekly Standard. As Ace says in his current sidebar item:

I’ve heard that Clarity Media were enraged by Jim Swift’s scalp-hunting political op against a fellow employee of Clarity Media, and this was one of the very last straws that led to Clarity Media saying, “F–k you, we’re not even going to wait more futile months for you to try to find a new buyer, we’re pulling the plug, shutting you down, and making a new magazine with your subscriber list.”

Is that true? I don’t know, but it certainly would ill behoove an employee of a major media company to engage in public attacks on the credibility of another employee of the company, especially considering how the Weekly Standard was circling the toilet bowl at that time.

The real question is, why is Swift still grinding that ax? He went to war against Zito and lost and yet, rather than dust himself off and move on, he returns to the battlefield, reliving his defeat.

To quote Wombat: “Who the hell are you, buddy?”

Well, once Mark Sanford defeats Trump, I’m sure everything will work out fine for Jim Swift and his Bulwark buddies . . .



 

Category: Journalism

FMJRA 2.0: A Day Late & A Dollar Short

Posted on | September 8, 2019 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: A Day Late & A Dollar Short

— compiled by Wombat-socho

‘My Word as a Biden’

EBL

‘Mothers Tell Your Children’
Bacon Time

EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Winged Hussars
The Pirate’s Cove

EBL

Death by ‘Social Justice’: Zoe Quinn Drives Game Maker Alec Holowka to Suicide
357 Magnum

EBL

One Less Criminal on the Streets
First Street Journal
Da Tech Guy

EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Labor Day With Jayne Mansfield
Animal Magnetism

Ninety Miles From Tyranny

Proof Positive

EBL

What Was the Texas Gunman’s Motive?

EBL

Let’s Take Chris Hayes Seriously

EBL

Please Go Hit Kirby’s Tip Jar
Bacon Time

EBL

The Dangerous Myth of ‘Gender Equality’

EBL

Book Launch!
357 Magnum

EBL

In The Mailbox: 09.03.19 (Afternoon Edition)
357 Magnum

Proof Positive

EBL

In The Mailbox: 09.03.19 (Late Edition)
357 Magnum

Proof Positive

EBL

‘Monster People’: Were Alec Holowka’s Fears Paranoid — Or Prophetic?

EBL

Oops! Tried to Rob the Wrong Woman!
The Pirate’s Cove
357 Magnum

EBL

Joe Biden’s Slow-Motion Implosion

EBL

Fat, Black, Queer and ANGRY!

EBL

In The Mailbox: 09.05.19 (Morning Edition)

Proof Positive

EBL

In The Mailbox: 09.05.19 (Evening Edition)

Proof Positive

EBL

Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani

EBL

Democrats 2020: ‘Ban All the Things!’

EBL

In The Mailbox: 09.06.19

Proof Positive

EBL

Top linkers for the week ending September 6:

  1. EBL (22)
  2. Proof Positive (6)
  3. 357 Magnum (5)

Thanks to everyone for all the linkagery!

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Category: FMJRA Award

Nigerian Immigrant Ayoola Ajayi Now Charged in Another Sex Crime

Posted on | September 8, 2019 | Comments Off on Nigerian Immigrant Ayoola Ajayi Now Charged in Another Sex Crime

Ayoola Ajayi (left) is accused of murdering Mackenzie Lueck (right).

When last we updated you on the Mackenzie Lueck case on Aug. 14, her accused killer, 31-year-old Nigerian immigrant Ayoola Ajayi, had been charged with 19 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor after police say they found child pornography on his computer.

Lueck, a 23-year-old member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority at the University of Utah, had apparently been meeting men through “sugar baby” sites and dating apps. Police say she met up with Ajayi on June 17; her charred remains were found in a canyon July 3, and Ajayi was charged with aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, desecration of a human body, and obstruction of justice. Since then, another woman has come forward claiming that she was sexually assaulted by Ajayi more than a year before Lueck was murdered:

A woman told investigators that she began communicating with Ajayi through a dating app in March of 2018. The woman went to Ajayi’s house, 547 N. 1000 West, where he cooked her dinner. But then he started to “intensely” kiss her and touch her, according to the new charges.
The woman attempted to get away, but Ajayi “pinned her down on the couch against her will,” charging documents state. Ajayi continued to sexually assault the woman, leaving bruising and bite marks on her, according to the charges.

On Aug. 20, Ajayi was charged with aggravated kidnapping and three counts of forcible sexual abuse in that case.



 

Category: Crime, Utah

Atheist Vegan YouTuber ‘Onision’ Accused of Being a Creepy Sexual Predator

Posted on | September 7, 2019 | Comments Off on Atheist Vegan YouTuber ‘Onision’ Accused of Being a Creepy Sexual Predator

“Let me ask you something: If you murder animals on a regular basis, do you really think I give a f–k about your opinion?”
— Onision, April 2009

Gregory Daniel Jackson, a/k/a “Onision,” is a YouTube personality with about 2 million subscribers who was originally famous for a silly performance called “I’m a Banana.” Now 33 years old, Onision has been called “YouTube’s most troubled star” because of his “bizarre and disturbing” content and his habit of provoking controversy. He is militant about veganism, for example, calling meat-eaters “murderers,” and despises Christianity, calling the Bible “a book of hate.”

Left to right: Onision, “Laineybot” and Sarah in 2017.

What has generated the most controversy about Onision in recent months, however, is a sort of #MeToo scandal involving a former fan named Sarah. When she was 14, Sarah says, she began communicating with Onision and his wife, then known as “Laineybot.” When she was 16, Sarah moved in with the couple, who referred to her as their foster child. Of course, Onision’s critics (“haters,” who are numerous) suspected that this was a ménage à trois, especially considering Onision’s history of sexual behavior toward teenage girls. Sarah would occasionally appear in videos with Onision and his wife, who is implicated in this scandal as an alleged perpetrator, and also is possibly a victim.

From what can be determined by a few hours of online research (I never heard of any of these people before Friday), about the time Onision’s first marriage ended in divorce in 2010, he cultivated a relationship with Laineybot, who was then 17. The couple married in 2011, and now have two children, born in 2014 and 2016. It was in 2017 that Sarah moved in with them, supposedly at Laineybot’s request. There are a lot more dimensions to the Onision scandal than this brief summary, however. For example, at one point there was a controversy about an online fan forum group where Onision’s underage fans were encouraged to post photos of themselves in their underwear so that Onision could “rate” them. Also, Onision’s wife has recently started calling herself “Kai” and claiming to identify as male, so that many accounts of the Onision scandal refer to her as “him” and call her Onision’s “husband.”

 

Popular transgender YouTube personalty Blaire White recently uploaded a video about this scandal that includes an interview with Sarah and, as Blaire emphasizes in the video, the word “allegedly” is necessary to any reporting about these accusations. No criminal charges have been filed against Onision or his wife/“husband,” but rather this situation has been described as “grooming” — they developed a relationship with Sarah as a minor, and then had sex with her after she turned 18, allegedly.

Well, you might ask, why pay attention to this bit of YouTube drama? First of all, recall that since Trump’s election in 2016, YouTube has been engaged in efforts to de-monetize, de-platform and otherwise suppress content from conservatives. Last year, conservative talk-radio host Dennis Prager filed a federal lawsuit accusing YouTube of illegal behavior toward his popular “Prager University” video channel.

Another reason to pay attention to this scandal, however, is what it says about 21st-century youth culture. A guy who first gained notoriety for dancing around in a video wearing a banana costume somehow became an influential “celebrity” with more YouTube subscribers than CNN has primetime viewers on an average night. Most of Onision’s fans are teenagers, or young adults who first subscribed to his channel when they were teenagers, so that his bizarre worldview — where Christianity is “hate” and eating a cheeseburger is “murder” — reflects an increasingly common attitude among American youth.

Twenty or 30 years ago, it was common for conservatives to speak of the cultural Left as endorsing “moral relativism,” but we see now that what the Left actually does is a sort of moral reversal, substituting new quasi-religious beliefs (e.g., pro-LGBT or anti-fossil fuels) as the basis of morality, while stigmatizing traditional beliefs.

A third point, closely related to the second, is the way celebrity culture is based on idolatry of superficially attractive people. This was a growing trend throughout the 20th century, before the Internet existed. When John Lennon said The Beatles had become “bigger than Jesus” in 1966, he was merely acknowledging the reality of their influence. Before the Beatles, teenage boys were wearing crewcuts and dreaming of becoming astronauts or whatever; by 1966, many thousands of those boys had hair down to their shoulders and were doing LSD, protesting the Vietnam War and exploring Eastern mystical religions. This sudden shift in youth culture had many influences, but there can be no doubt that the decisive moment was that February night in 1964 when Ed Sullivan said, “Ladies and gentlemen — The Beatles!” Once those four lovable moptops from Liverpool were established as objects of idolatrous adoration, whatever they said or did was sure to be emulated by many of their fans.

The effect of television’s influence on popular culture was critically examined in Neil Postman’s 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. Quite simply, TV elevates image over substance. Television’s pervasive influence produced a culture devoted to adoration of visual imagery, in which the Beautiful People can persuade their audience of almost anything — which is why TV advertising is so lucrative.

Once a person becomes addicted to this kind of visual imagery (think about people who “binge watch” certain TV series and then become part of online “fandom” communities devoted to the series), they tend to lose interest in the written word. Endless hours absorbed in YouTube videos are hours not spent in reading books, and also, these are hours not spent interacting in real life with actual human beings. The fantasy world of visual imagery — TV, movies, YouTube videos — means more to such addicts than do their real-life relationships with their parents, siblings, classmates or other acquaintances. And in this culture of visual imagery, the Beautiful People hold the reins. Whatever else you might say about Onision, he is remarkably good-looking, with his mop of dark hair and big blue eyes, which is no doubt a major factor in his YouTube success.

Unfortunately for Onision, however, time is running out on his Dorian Gray gig. When he first became a YouTube sensation, he was in his mid-20s and could function as a sort of “peer mentor” to teen viewers, but now that he’s approaching his mid-30s, he is increasingly implausible in such a role. Also, there is now more competition in the “YouTube celebrity” game, with younger up-and-coming personalities. Furthermore, the adjustments of YouTube algorithms and his own self-created scandals have reduced Onision’s revenue stream, so that in 2018 he and his wife/“husband” reportedly had to downsize their housing situation, moving to a smaller residence.

Eventually, and perhaps sooner than later, the downward trajectory of Onision’s career will reach a crisis point, as it becomes apparent that he has no sustainable future as a YouTube performer. But I’m just a meat-murdering “hater,” why should I expect him to care about my opinion?



 

Category: Celebrities, Crime, Culture, Video

In The Mailbox: 09.06.19

Posted on | September 7, 2019 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Ransomware Attacks On Cities, Schools, & Dentists
EBL: Only The Good Die Young – Robert Mugabe Dies At 95
Twitchy: Candace Owens Calls Down The Thunder On Jemele Hill For Supporting Segregation
Louder With Crowder: Mike Rowe Spanks Whiny, Insulting SJW Commenter
According To Hoyt: Culture & Its Effects
Monster Hunter Nation: I’ll Be At Salt Lake FanX This Weekend
Vox Popoli: A Fake Conservative’s Fake History Of #Gamergate

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: A Bedtime Story – Doug McMillion, The Walmart Jabberwock
American Power: Democrats Go Off The Rails
American Thinker: American Jews Are In Total Denial About The Democratic Party
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Cause Analysis Friday
Babalu Blog: Miami Dade College Severs Ties With Chicom Confucious Institute After Months Of Pressure
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For September 6
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: Writers Block Blog Update/Move Thoughts Under The Fedora
Don Surber: Coming Out Gay is Easier Than Coming Out MAGA
The Geller Report: NASA Admits Climate Change Caused By Changes In Earth’s Orbit, also, American Airlines Muslim Mechanic Charged With Sabotage Of Plane With 150 Passengers Aboard
Hogewash: Exoplanets In The Beehive Cluster, also, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day
Hollywood In Toto: IT Chapter Two Has Just One True Highlight, also, Sound Of My Voice Nails Ronstadt’s Voice & Grit
Joe For America: Biden Declares He Would Appoint Obama To SCOTUS
JustOneMinute: Make America Think Harder
Legal Insurrection: ICE Confirms Six Of Seven Arrested In Maryland Murder Belong To MS-13, also, Media Beclowns Itself In Stupid “Sharpiegate” Feud With Trump
Power Line: Where’s The Hot Spot? also, CNN’s Insane Town Hall Posse
Shot In The Dark: Cold, also, Hagiography
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday – Is The World Funny?
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, also, FBI – Fake Swabbie Fleeced Females For $2.1 MIllion
Victory Girls: The Obamas Go Low In Trademark Dispute
Volokh Conspiracy: Salt Lake City MLS Team Bans Betsy Ross Flag
Weasel Zippers: CNN To Host LGBTQWTFBBQ Town Hall, also, Prog Website Think Progress Shutting Down Because Nobody Wants To Buy It
Megan McArdle: What’s Making Tech Unicorns Lose Their Magic?
Mark Steyn: A Mockery Of Justice

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Category: Linkagery

Democrats 2020: ‘Ban All the Things!’

Posted on | September 6, 2019 | 1 Comment

No burgers. No plastic straws. No coal. No cars. No offshore drilling. Babies? No, you can’t have babies! Babies cause global warming!

Professor William Jacobson summarizes:

The presidential ambitions of the leading Democrat candidates may not survive CNN’s 7-Hour ‘Climate Change’ Townhall.
It was a man-made disaster, created in the fevered swamps of CNN and fueled by pledges of allegiance to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal.
The candidates came across as not-serious-people. Worse, they came across as nanny-state monsters who really do want to take away your plastic straws and cheeseburgers to save the planet. It was a self-parody of what woke totalitarianism sounds like, with an abnormal focus on meat.
Republican attack-ad makers have hours of footage that can be sliced and diced to make any of the candidates who appeared at the Townhall look insane.

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)

As for banning babies, it was a fanatical vegan who prompted Bernie Sanders to endorse global population control:

A member of the audience, Martha Readyoff of New Milford, Conn., said to Sanders, “Human population growth has more than doubled in the past 50 years. The planet cannot sustain this growth. I realize this is a poisonous topic for politicians, but it is crucial to face. Empowering women and educating everyone on the need to curb population growth seems a reasonable campaign to enact. Would you be courageous enough to discuss this issue and make it a key feature of a plan to address climate catastrophe?”
“Well, Martha, the answer is yes,” Sanders said. “And the answer has everything to do with the fact that women in the United States of America, by the way, have a right to control their own bodies and make reproductive decisions.”
The CNN town hall audience whooped and clapped at this line, having apparently missed all that Readyoff’s position entails.
“And the Mexico City agreement, which denies American aid to those organizations around the world that are — that allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control to me is totally absurd,” Sanders continued.
This is not true — Mexico City only excludes abortion advocacy groups from family-planning funding, in line with federal laws that ban the funding of abortion as a method of family planning. In plainer terms, the Mexico City policy does not prevent funds from going to birth control and other non-abortion means of family planning. So I am not sure what Sanders is on about, unless he is calling specifically for more terminated pregnancies as a means to regulate world populations.
The senator concluded: “So I think, especially in poor countries around the world where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies, and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have, it’s something I very, very strongly support.”

Martha Readyoff, who apparently teaches young children at a charter school in Connecticut, is an animal-rights activist who promotes veganism as an “important social justice movement . . . for the planet.”

The Left has been promoting the “overpopulation” myth for decades. The belief that babies are the cause of a “climate catastrophe” is so easily disproven — it’s been debunked so often by so many qualified researchers — that it seems redundant to do so again, merely because a vegan idiot got hold of the microphone at a CNN town hall. And yet, as with the case of the Connecticut teacher, America’s children are being indoctrinated with this bogus mythology, as John Hayward remarks:

If you’re wondering why so many young people are mired in despair, futility, and occasionally violent nihilism, try listening to the Democrat presidential field babbling for 7 hours about how humanity is a virus that must be culled to save the Earth.
Remember, the Left controls education with an iron grip. Today’s young people are subjected to years of indoctrination in the insane anti-human ideology you heard the Democrats vomit at the CNN town hall. They are constantly told the Earth is suffering from human overpopulation.
It’s a perspective hammered into the heads of young people by the Left with many tools, from worshiping abortion as a pseudo-religious sacrament to radical environmentalism. Every aspect of the Left’s ideology views humans as a problem to be controlled and reduced.
The most baffling thing is that so many people are baffled that young people are depressed, fearful of the future, and reluctant to marry or have children. This garbage is pumped into their skulls as soon as Democrats get hold of them in schools.
Anti-humanism is deeply entwined with anti-capitalism. A core belief of the Left is that human freedom is dangerous and only the elites can be trusted to make important decisions. You can’t believe the junk pushed by a Warren or Sanders without a very dim view of the common man. . . .

You can read the rest of that on Twitter.



 

Category: Abortion, CNN, Democrats, Global Warming
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