Dishonesty of the Press

The White House Press Corps has its collective panties bunched up again; this time the cause of their angst is White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany refusal to kowtow to them and her open disdain for their contemptible behavior.

Poor ABC News correspondent Jon Karl, who’s the current head of the WHPC wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post, complaining that she doesn’t run the daily press briefings in accordance with his preferences in the right way.

The job is to inform the public: to be an intermediary between the president and a press corps the public relies on for information….

Of course, the press isn’t the least bit arrogant or self-important. They’re the gateway to what we know; we rely on them. No, we don’t. Usually, we bypass the press and go straight to the sources—real sources, not those the press masquerades as “officials” or “anonymous sources.”

Denying reality….

Of course, there can’t possibly be differing interpretations of events. McEnany must be denying reality.

Karl specifically pointed to derisive statements McEnany made about Seattle’s so-called autonomous zone, arguing she wrongly implied that President Trump liberated the city from its occupation.

Except that McEnany did no such thing, neither did Trump. She merely reported what he said—that he’d act if they didn’t, followed by their acting, followed by Trump’s bragging about having successfully prodded them. Look who’s really denying reality.

And

he [Karl] accused her of implying in a July 6 briefing that reporters didn’t care about shootings in New York….

An accurate implication, since the press corps, in that briefing, displayed exactly zero interest in the New York shootings. Here’s how McEnany closed that briefing:

I was asked probably 12 questions about the Confederate flag. This president is focused on action, and I’m a little dismayed that I didn’t receive one question on the deaths that we got in this country this weekend. I didn’t receive one question about New York City shootings doubling for the third straight week.

The lack of questions regarding that surge—still surging—of murders and what might the President think or do or plan to do about them—in favor or the press’ manufactured spat over the NASCAR and Confederate Flag beef—is a pretty strong indication of the press’ lack of interest in those murders.

How dare this person object to press misbehaviors? Doesn’t she know the press is above reproach?

A Thought on Kipp

Since I’m thinking about things today.

KIPP Public Schools is a nation-wide charter school organization that has had outsized success in teaching its students, as has virtually all charter and voucher schools and school organizations in the US.  It had a motto, Work Hard. Be Nice., which it scrapped in an attempt to pander to the woke gangs.

In defense of that move, Kipp Co-Founder Dave Levin wrote a Letter to The Wall Street Journal. Toward the end of that letter, Levin made the remarkable claim that

Hard work is essential. Character matters.

Which is true for most of us, but it seems petty rationalization from Levin. If he really believed in the importance of hard work and character, he and his organization would not have struck their Work Hard. Be Nice. motto altogether.

Work Hard. Be Nice. Create our Future.—adapted from Kipp’s claimed Vision statement—would have been a fine update.

But no.

Identity Politics

Candace Owens had a thought on the Left’s (because I’m going to generalize her thought) contemptuous dismissal of black conservatives.

White liberals hate black conservatives because we don’t see ourselves as oppressed.
Fundamentally, because we view ourselves as their equals.
That’s the issue.

That’s the point, though, of the Left’s identity politics—to segregate people into artificially defined groups in order to keep those grouped people apart, the better to emphasize their need for the Left’s…guidance.

It’s Been Going On for a Year

This is what Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, in a series of tweets, said so weakly about antifa on 2 July 2019 after that gang assaulted journalist Andy Ngo and others, putting them in the hospital:

Portland has always been a beacon of free speech. We are proud of that history.
— Mayor Ted Wheeler (@tedwheeler) July 1, 2019

But in the last couple of years, some have increasingly used their opportunity to exercise their 1st amendment rights, as an opportunity to incite violence.
— Mayor Ted Wheeler (@tedwheeler) July 1, 2019

Over the weekend some chose to engage in violence in Portland, which is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
— Mayor Ted Wheeler (@tedwheeler) July 1, 2019

Wheeler then said ‘twarn’t him:

I wasn’t even here. I wasn’t even in the United States. I was with my family in Ecuador on a wildlife tour.

Because he was out of all contact with the world.

No, wait–his Number Two wasn’t following the command set and instructions he’d left behind when he went on his trip.

No, wait–no one was following the corporate culture he’d so carefully set up when he took office.

Now we have this:

Police in Portland, OR, declared a riot around 11 pm local time Saturday as Independence Day marked the 38th consecutive day of civil unrest in the city.

Not peaceful protesting for 38 days, civil unrest—and Saturday was the second consecutive day the police have had to declare a riot and move to disperse the gathered thugs and rioters.

Riot? The “gathering” was shooting fireworks, not into the air in celebration, but directly at the Multnomah County Justice Center. Yes, riot.

This is another example of Progressive-Democrat governance.

Revolution

On the eve of the 2008 Presidential election, then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama (D) bragged

We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.

In 2015, then-Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (D) insisted

[D]eep seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.

Current Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden is declaring via tweet

Joe Biden @JoeBiden · 14h
We’re going to beat Donald Trump. And when we do, we won’t just rebuild this nation — we’ll transform it.

Progressive-Democrats like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), Rashida Tlaib (MI) all are calling for the elimination of police departments. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY) are demanding nakedly wealth redistributive tax codes.

Progressive-Democrat supporters are busily assaulting, attempting to tear down (and too often succeeding) statues to our Founders and to heroes who supported and fought for equality under law for all Americans—statues to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln (including a statue celebrating the emancipation and Lincoln’s welcome of a rising, newly freed black to his new life), Ulysses Grant, Frederick Douglass, Mathias Baldwin, the Shaw Memorial.

Now we have this, from Jamal Chapel:

We need a revolution in order to overthrow this system, bring a whole new communist world into being that can actually ensure the rights of black and brown people.

This is the fundamental change we’re in for if we elect a Progressive-Democrat government. And not just this fall. Ever.