On Wednesday Steyn returned to the ratings phenomenon "Tucker Carlson Tonight" to discuss the "President-Elect"'s proposed head of the "US Agency for Global Media" - a man called Richard Stengel, who wants to amend the First Amendment because it "should not protect hateful speech that can cause violence by one group against another".
Mark was not impressed by this man.
Tucker rounded out the segment by bringing up the strange misshapen Christmas tree that now presides over the ruins of midtown Manhattan. Click below to watch:
You can see the full hour of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" here. We congratulate Tucker on his runaway ratings success and its resilience during Fox's post-election wobbles.
If you prefer Mark in non-visual formats, join him tomorrow for the weekend edition of The Mark Steyn Show - and on Saturday for his latest audio adventure in Tales for Our Time.
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How far do you think Mr. Stengel would get with 74+ million Trump supporters who will never give up on their search for the First Amendment they lost five years ago?
I wonder whether conservatives have the gas (endurance) to keep up a drumbeat delegitimizing Biden/Harris (because Biden is unlikely to live through his term) for 4 years the way the Left did to Trump. A major difference is that conservatives don't have to manufacture elaborate lies like Russian collusion to make Biden look bad but the need to dream up false narratives against Trump didn't seem to fatigue Dems. They were instead galvanized by each failed attempt to oust their nemesis though Covid calumny of Trump carried them over the finish line along with the usual judicious fraud. A second difference is that the Deep State permanent bureaucracy including FBI and CIA will not maneuver a 2 year $32 million dollar investigation into Biden using a team of lawyers who are Republican donors. And last but not least, the Left owns all the major soapboxes so unless conservatives fund an alternative with more integrity than Faux, they can't get their message out to a mass audience.
Much as conservatives like to pretend the enemedia is committing suicide, their daily smearing of Trump and tongue bathing of Biden still worked. Newsbusters has a story about a poll conducted of Dem voters who a) admitted they did not know some or all of 8 major points exposing Biden's negatives or Trump's positives and b) when informed of these, a significant percentage said they would have changed their vote from Biden, enough to have swung the swing states to Trump. Imagine.
Looks as though Tucker, like so many of the others on the « right », is tiptoeing away from the fight. Another « journalist » demanding that the evidence is presented to them rather than a court. How much longer before you call him out Mark?
John Kerry, Susan Rice, John Brennan, Obama, Power - they never left power.
Now they are unlawfully seizing office, and to oppose them is "hate".
The lockdowns are about keeping conservatives off the streets, so that we can't respond in strength.
Good call. To oppose them Is hate, add that people are truly engaged and enraged. I was told to quit Twitter and pick up Parler. I had to quit that already after two days. I can't immerse myself in the outrage already bubbling and the election hasn't even been decided yet. Giuliani said when asked if an overturned election won't create more violence, "of course there'll be violence, but we can't bend to the mob."
It's when their side is signaled to take to the streets they ignore the lockdown mandate. When our side needs to do likewise, we follow instructions. Not sure that will apply any longer. This is going to be a fight to the finish.
I don't know much about Sidney Powell, but it looks like she is about to get eaten by the kraken, brave heart and all. It is my fondest prayer that she has the evidence that will derail a Biden presidency, but press conferences are not evidence before a court, and Trump's chances are sinking with each court loss. I have an honest question for Mark and the MSC.
Our population is growing (maybe not in positive ways, either) , and our electorate is evolving. If we apply Occam's razor to the election results, which is more likely?
Our election officials and many of our judges and politicians have become so incompetent or corrupt, they allowed Democrats and a shadowy company's electronic ballots to overturn the results of a national election for pay. Can a republic this broken survive without a revolution?
OR
The American electorate has not just grown in numbers since the days of Clinton, but become increasingly unserious, fickle and decadent (much like the rest of the West, I might add) and have abandoned their faith, their institutions and even their children to socialist demons rather than rouse themselves to fight. How could fewer suburban males vote for Trump this time around? Have they all been emasculated by feminists, lost their minds, or is voter fraud the answer.
The election of a president seems to have become increasingly a popularity contest, but the economy and our security still ring a few bells in sensible people. Still, how do you explain close to 80 million people voting the Biden-Harris ticket because of Trump's personality?
For that last question I'll go with corrupted machines from Venezuela. Biden's remark just ten days prior to the election about the Democrats having the largest ground game for fraud ever in history, seems to me some kind of distraction to create distrust and chaos from the start but served as a way to force attention on small ball stuff so that attention be diverted from the corrupted computers. For the larger amount of votes required to flip a Trump landslide to Biden who rarely came out of the basement but for a little road trip to his neighboring state, yes, I stick with my opener. If it's all so incredible to be believed, it must surely be unbelievable.
How credible is it that millions of voters who voted down-ticket Republican also voted against the President who led Republican rebirth and did conservative things, replacing him with a dim Dem half-century hack?
However, regarding your second alternative - it is truly discouraging that there were enough American voters from the Mushy Middle misnamed Independents scammed into voting for Biden that the Dems were put close enough to cheat the rest of the way. Dems should have been blown out of the water by a thinking electorate. Instead, too many deadened brains swallowed the late night anti-Trump propaganda posing as "entertainment". Send in the clowns. Don't bother...they're here.
Mark,
One reason we're here is due to the 55 GOP congressional retirements. After the Kavanaugh hearings there was an unusual cluster of GOP retirement announcements. I've suspected this is because, as Kavanaugh demonstrated, all social interactions going back to college/high school/grade school could now be exposed and compared to 2020 virtue expectations. I mean all it takes is for some congressmen to get a call from a high school friend letting him know the was a reporter around asking about teenage dating/parties/off color jokes, embarrassing activities, etc. and suddenly it seems like a good time to retire.
We'll also have to put a gag (or maybe duck tape) on Rachel Maddow, who incited James Hodgkinson to nearly kill Steve Scalise and a baseball field of Republicans. Also BLM with their aggressive racist divisiveness. Also MSNBC, CNN, and the entire propaganda wing of the Democrat party, collectively known as The Media. Can you find even one liberal out there who doesn't incite violence and hatred against conservatives? Let's ban them all from the airwaves! They make me feel 'unsafe!'
Actually no. Making the opposition SHUT UP certainly has its appeal, but it's radically unAmerican. People advocating such are trying to incite ME to violence -- in defense of my nation, of our children's future... where does it end? The guy couldn't think his way out of a paper bag.
My one observation is has anyone else stuck their head over the parapet in support of the President quite so much as Sidney Powell? Very few indeed.
Lately I've thought about Kellyanne Conway and what if. Kellyanne was possibly the only person serving the President, with the exception of Mike Pence, who fearlessly advocated for her boss. What if Kellyanne didn't jettison herself from the White House staff? How much did her absence contribute to the diminished potency of the President's campaign for reelection? I have to think her advice and counsel in the weeks leading up to election day would have put at least 3 if not all of those states being challenged in Trump's column. Trump's campaign got lazy down the homestretch. I don't think Kellyanne would have tolerated it or permitted that to happen if she had been there.
Robert:
I agree that Kellyanne was a fabulous and popular ally for P Trump but so are Kayleigh McEnany and Jenna Ellis for example. Both these women are tough and brilliant. I would hate to debate either of them in public.
I don't agree with the "diminished potency of the Trump campaign." He received 7-10 million more votes than in 2016. Maybe even more; if some of his votes were not electronically transferred to Biden. I contend that the alleged "diminished potency" was actually an Electoral College landslide and I hope the Trump team will be able to prove it.
The concept of hate speech has never meant anything other than speech of which the government officially disapproves. Often, it also meets the dictionary standard of "hate" speech. But it need not.
Once a concept is defined at hate speech, it can have any content and be prohibited.
Here is an example. Suppose I were to say "Prominent neuroscientists believe that the mind is an illusion, merely the workings of the brain. Yet it is routinely accepted that a biologically female candidate for transgender surgery believes, in her mind, that she is a male. And yet that raises no questions. Why not?"
Under an aggressive transgender rights regime, such a question borders on hate speech. Rampant progressive government will brook no question. Let alone interference with what progressives want to do.
That, by the way, is why the standards don't make any sense. Anti-Semitism is now officially okay among progressives but anti-Islam will get someone cast into outer darkness. Perhaps it's a coincidence that Muslims are a more desirable voting block to court.
Alternatively, the standards were never intended to make any sense. They were intended to consolidate progressive power. That's what they will achieve.
"Perhaps it's a coincidence that Muslims are a more desirable voting block to court."
To judge by British political parties, it's no coincidence. Not only do muslims often live in large urban concentrations, in London, Birmingham, Sheffield and all sorts of other towns and cities, but they seem to have a Bidenesque ability to pull in 120 per cent of the available votes. When Labour made it much easier to obtain (and to abuse) postal votes, there was no doubt that the changes were made to help to bring in votes from households where womenfolk hardly ever stepped outside and nobody would question the fact that one man filled in all the votes.
At many levels, muslims are keen on the concept of hate speech. They see it as a way to place islam above criticism, to give it the same legal protection as it would have in Pakistan, or Bangladesh. At the UN, islamic states have been trying for years to get a worldwide ban on blasphemy. Anyone who thinks that would apply equally to all religions is overlooking the fact that islam does not recognise other religions and consequently denies the possibility of committing blasphemy against any other religion.
Currently, in Scotland, the SNP is bringing forward "hate crimes" legislation, which would police even what was said in the privacy of one's home. As usual, the proposed "crime" places the burden of proof on the defendant and would make an acquittal more or less unachievable. The supposed aggrieved party would have merely to take offence, or even to suggest that a hypothetical other party might take offence. The "Justice" secretary behind this is - surprise! - muslim (he even wears a preposterous muslim tartan tie) and it's transparently obvious that his principal motive is to provide islam with a status of special privilege.
Tucker's toast. "This show is not going anywhere. It's getting bigger"
Operative word being "show". The News is a business. TV News is Show Business first, News second.
He is open about what he does - it is polemic, and it works because he's seized the high ground whilst most others are huddled with MSNBC. But Murdoch pays the piper, and the Tucker audience is not in the mood the new music.
We are not willing to accept that suddenly, "Eastasia and not Eurasia" is the enemy. You're with us, or you're agin us, Tucker.
BTW Tucker - Wikileaks has the 2006 State Dept memo on the Venezuelan connection and the software. The rigged source code, the halted counts, the virgin ballots, the intimidation, the corruption - all are out in the open,. You just have to look and get permission to speak.
Although I've never seen TC, I read about the show. And I must agree 100 percent and most emphatically with Perry Pattetic. Just moments ago, I cancelled my subscription to the WSJ, as two op ed writers who could be respected for their independent voices have completely capitulated. In reality, there is no difference now between WSJ and WP or NYT. Even the level of writing in the WSJ has deteriorated. Ten months a year I anticipate eagerly the arrival of two intellectually honest and thought provoking publications, New Criterion and First Things, but please MS Club members, give me some suggestions regarding which other publications in the same liberal thought mode I can add to the list.
I don't know what everyone's talking about, but it seems Tucker Carlson launched an on-air attack on Sidney Powell's credibility? If true, I'm astounded he would do such a thing. Well, maybe not so much, as this is happening with regularity now. The number of people in search of the truth about the election results seems to be shrinking rapidly.
I know Tucker's show is popular and this is his livelihood and I'm he gets paid very well by Fox for what he does. He also must know that most of his viewers want Powell to succeed in uncovering election fraud, and it's been difficult for all involved mounting a legal challenge when the rug keeps getting pulled out from under them.
Then again, maybe it's a ploy to get her on his show and boost his ratings even further? And it's Fox who's applying the pressure on him to do so? You have to think like the media, which I don't, with their convoluted strategies driven by greed and a thirst for ratings.
I am getting all tuckered out.
I'm done with new media in general. I get my info from those I know haven't sold out. Seek out posts from Trump, Rush, Bongino, Gorka, and others who are on board. We don't need the networks anymore.
I'm sticking with the club from now on and Rush for as long as he's going to be able to do what he loves and must do on the radio. Here, we get people like me say what they feel like saying without filters of a hovering board and management with the likes of a Paul Ryan. Also, I can keep my ears open for some rock solid law and order types I admire.
We need to be honest about all of this. This legal battle will go to the eleventh hour because it's Trump. It doesn't matter who's on his team because the game is to stall for as long as they can and to upset the base. Had this happened to Hilary, she'd have Don Lemon represent her and win that same week. The courts never believe in speedy trials, just speedy cash grabs for the lawyers who represent in them. Did the radicals rely on courts to get their anger heard? They got out and let it be known they were angry in the streets. We need to do that each day, every day, every hour, even if we lose. They resisted for four years, we need to do the same.
Aren't the people beheading people and carrying signs threatening to behead people engaging in 'hate speech?' Where are all the leftist's cries to control such 'hate speech?'
Let's not attempt to categorize anything as "hate speech" because it's a subjective exercise. The individuals in that photo are engaging in incitement to violence which is NOT subjective, IS illegal and those convicted of it go to jail for it. In civilized societies it is called accountability. Accountability works EVERY time it's applied. Uncivilized societies have a different recipe for accountability. It depends upon individual taste. Me? I prefer civilized society. Unfortunately, if all this keeps up, it may take some incivility to restore and preserve it. Like Mark sometimes says, and I'm paraphrasing, if respectable leaders won't do the job demanded of them by their citizens then their citizens will turn to unrespectable leaders.
I was being facetious.
Tucker's premature and unwarranted attacks on Sidney Powell's credibility has at least temporarily taken a huge chunk out of Carlson's ratings phenomenon I suspect. Impugning her integrity and exceptional ability to present evidence at the right time was scurrilous.
His demands for clear cut evidence at this time and his insistence that she appear on his show were unreasonable and suspect. Jenna made it clear early that they were only presenting a "preview" of evidence during the press conference. Sidney did provide many alarming and undeniable "facts" about Dominion including the company's rerouting of voting info to Barcelona and/or Hamburg and then sending it back to the American media as vote counts and their Toronto HQ sharing office space with a Soros sponsored activist group. (from The Rebel on site reporter)
Tucker's aggravating attack on heroic Sidney when she's working so hard and under threat of violence is disgusting. He could have waited a few weeks before denigrating her if no evidence appears during the court actions but he seems to have an extreme sense of entitlement that she must appear on his show if he demands it or she's being unfair to his eminence. I think being king of the ratings is adversely affecting his mind.
As far as I know, the only FNC show Sidney has appeared on for sometime is Lou Dobbs on Fox Business. Hannity's domination of her time with 4-minute questions to her 1-minute replies and other issues seems to have discouraged her from reappearing on the main network. Maybe she'll prove me wrong and appear on Hannity etc. I doubt she will buckle under Tucker's snarly pressure tactics.
Mark replies:
For the record, on Monday Sidney appeared with me for twenty minutes.
But Mark, you are such a genial host, you had a much bigger audience, and no makeup was required.
Mark:
I heard your excellent interview with Sidney and applauded it as the "best ever interview of Sidney" so far. You both respected each others time to talk and it focused on the most important points and especially some new ones. I listened to a repeat of it as well. Two brilliant minds discussing potentially the greatest scandal in U.S. history was well worth hearing again.
IMO, your record is impeccable and unmatched by anyone in the political commentary business etc. including standing up to the most dangerous people on the planet and telling it like it is. It sure looked to me like you both have great respect and admiration for each other. Now that makes sense.
It was a very enjoyable and positive interview which made Tucker's attack on her so called lack of evidence and refusal to appear on his show a mind boggling downer. I haven't seen if Tucker has attacked Sidney again on his show today or questioned her lack of evidence. I'm not watch him again. It's not worth the aggravation and the election will not be decided on his show.
In my view, Sidney did not deserve the Tucker rant. He couldn't have chosen a more beloved and respected person than Lady Justice to unwisely attack.
Yeah.,
But how's the President's challenges going ?
So the argument is that four years ago, the election was fraudulent because the "wrong" candidate won but because the "right" candidate won this time, we're to believe that there was no fraud at all. Elections are about voting in a candidate that we believe in whoever it may be, it's not about voting who the establishment, media, or big tech believes to be the "right" candidate. The experts are now telling us there is only one correct way to vote and if we don't vote that way, they will cancel you. Right now its figuratively in terms of ruining your carrier or kicking you off social media platforms. Soon, it will be literal. The day you know your no longer a free society is when you're told that unless the establishment endorsed candidate wins, the election is corrupt.
That's been the left's position for a long, long time: The correct vote is the way we tell you to vote. I once had my newspaper taken away from me while in line at a polling place in Montgomery County MD. At the same time, others (presumably mostly teachers) were holding and reviewing their 'Apple Ballots' -- actually shaped like an apple -- which outlined the voting choices they should make for them.
Two points via Stephen McIntyre's Twitter thread:
- "If Barr doesn't do something fast, Biden is going to re-appoint Comey and McCabe and they're going to come after Trump's head with a vengeance. Total injustice." (See full thread.)
- "[Powell] is not a specialist on topic. Nor is Rudy. These are technical issues which require technical specialists. Trump reliance on Rudy is crazy." Reply from Hans Mahncke: "This is serious stuff and, as Wayne County just showed, Trump has a very strong fraud case... Right now he needs top notch lawyers, not people who used to be good 40 years ago."
Keen to hear Mark's thoughts...
This is my on-going fear. I know Trump must feel like a cornered man who can only trust a handful of people, like Guiliani, but that kind of thinking is dangerous because it makes you paranoid and prone to bad decisions.
I fail to believe that with the many capable conservatives out there, including lawyers from organizations like the Pacific Legal Foundation and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) both of whom have plenty of experience before the courts, that there's no one willing to step forward at this critical moment for our country.
Yes, and presumably the uphill battle is even steeper if Supreme Court justices are "only human" - with respect to the "Office of the President-Elect" - per recent analysis by VDH.
Christmas Tree improv was hilarious!
Thank God we peasants are so well armed in the US. Out in the rural areas, just waiting for AOC to say "just kidding!" and hunker down for four more years of the Obama era.
Should it really come to self-defense out in the hinterlands, I have a visceral action to the photo above, mobs threatening homeowners in gated communities in St. Louis, arson and looting in the inner cities, NC's first lady flipping the bird at Christian children protesting, Antifa harassing minors and throwing fireworks at diners. On some level, Kurtz saw the light in his fictitious treatise on the Irnational Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs, "Exterminate all the brutes!" . . . so we can all have a little peace and quiet.
There will be no mobs, there will be no threats. You will be defunded and allowed to quietly starve in your respective houses and the banks and foreclosure experts will deliver the coup de grace. The whole guns and ammo thing is for the last war, not this one. I really feel that there exists a massive business opportunity for a finance/credit company for those who want to be left alone and get on with life. One that doesn't give too stuffs about being woke and going broke.
Look at those Antifa mobs, do you really think that any of those buggers own a car and could walk more than a few kilometres in that getup? They are not coming anywhere near a rural area, I can guarantee that. Too out of shape, cowardly and lazy.
And if the police get defunded, who will come knocking to collect your guns? The Beto Squad? Have they though this one out.completely?
BLM have already been collecting other people's guns for years, F.
The horrible thing is, that might be true.
Greetings, S.! So, what you're saying is, "Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!"?
You're in fine fettle, F.!
Concur with your second paragraph wholeheartedly, maybe just wishful thinking on my part. Paid the house, almost 10 acres, SUV and Masters' Degree off 10 years ago. They can't foreclose but they can tax and confiscate me into starvation. May need to work on my farming skills before I retire early next year.
Someone here commented yesterday on how stellar the Trump women are.
If you saw the press event to day, that was so clear.
Rudi took it to them but the Trump ladies (and unlike most American press women, the Trump women are comfortable in their femininity) really hit the ball out of the park.
Trump empowers women. Dems abuse them.
I think there's truth to that statement. Yes. I can see this myself. They are strong and full of confidence.
It was a super-impressive trio!
Loved Rudy's reference to Biden's "Fraudian slip".
It was excellent, Kate!
Like Mark, Brendan O'Neill has noted the continuum of Cancel Culture: The left demanding you lose your livelihood is part of the same phenomenon as the lads (picture above) calling for your head. "You can't say that!!"
(In Samuel Paty's case, the "moderate Muslim" parents using social media to insist the teacher be sacked were - knowingly - inciting radical Muslims to take things a step further.)
But the headless Samuel Paty only has himself to blame, as the execrable Pope Francis told us after Charlie Hebdo. Turn the other cheek is for wussy Christians: The take-away lesson about cartoons and killing is "Curse my mother... expect a punch."
Blisteringly put, K. Just so on all scores.
On one in particular, execrable pope indeed. He has been from Day One.
We've moved to the "punch because you were thinking of cursing the mother" stage, Kate.
Pre-Thought Crime.
As with so many things, S, his statement - in this instance, justifying jihad - was followed by a chorus of fans claiming he was "misunderstood".
Nah.
I gotta ask: Would the good Mr. Stengel be subject to his own petard if someone or a group of someones found that his proposal caused a group of people who did not want their freedom of speech infringed upon by his group of someones and that his group's speech incited violence against those very people? This is purely a hypothetical.
Yes, see my comment above.
Sorry for the run-on sentence, but I have an English Lit degree and anything I write is grammatically correct. :)
Thanks for a particularly excellent contribution to the Carlson show: certainly a persuasive argument which I think I am capable of repeating without fudging anything, as is my wont. The comic relief was great, too.
Tucker was on fire also with his critique of Gavin Newsome's non-socially distanced birthday dinner.
Yes indeed, A. Since we're chatting, I must say that I'm inclined to think of instances of 'flu hypocrisy and lèse majesté as a bit of diversion myself, and to regard the freedom of speech as a more fundamental matter, but I do enjoy it to an unwholesome degree when hypocrites and those who exempt themselves from their own rules get a sound caning, as evidently you do. I suppose that I should acknowledge an underlying pathology: my whole life has been beset by Stengels trying to shut me up on every conceivable matter. My education, such as it was, began in a parochial school, for starters. Need I say more? At five years of age, I graduated to the cane by way of the ping-pong paddle from a mere ruler across the knuckles and a brisk ear-pulling at record speed. And I never even mastered the liturgical responses.
Happily we have the MSC. Nobody can accuse us of being a priggish bunch who can't have fun even locked down on rainy days.
Or for less valid reasons.
On eroding freedom of speech and the Big Tech cartel:
Yesterday I received an email (at an address never used by me for YouTube) advising me that their new Ts and Cs come into effect Dec 20th.
Today I received an email from Instagram (I have never had an Instagram account) telling me that their new Ts and Cs come into effect on Dec 20th.
I suspect that the Ts and Cs will further restrict the rights and freedoms of anyone using their service.
As Mark said, things are going to go downhill very quickly.
PS. Is it just me, or has Tucker Carlson moved on? It seems like the Swamp has prevailed.
It seems as if everyone is frustrated, Kate. I try to look optimistically at it, that Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani are keeping their cards close to the vest. Giuliani did say they're filing a suit every day. They're running out of time but they seem to have witnesses and perhaps they're protecting them until they have to testify. I don't know what else to think. Everything going on seems quite surreal to me now. Everything since Trump came on the scene seems unbelievable, like it couldn't possibly be happening, but it is.
I'm sad to say that I suspect that you're right about Tucker. We'll need stat spine transplants sent to various state capitals at this point.
Merry Christmas!
He has moved on, Kate. I noticed it too.
"That's ShowNewsBusiness!"
I assume you're talking about tonight's Tucker show (11/19/20)? This is where he said that he's given Sidney Powell every opportunity up to having the whole show to present her case and she won't do it. I hate to say it but it may be time for all of us to move on. It seems to be like that old saying -- big hat, big boots... no cattle.
SP and RG - along with Jenna Ellis - were really impressive with their "Opening Statement", Fran: President Trump is fortunate to have such committed and courageous people in his corner. I'm so glad they clobbered the Fake News Media, and focussed on the bigger picture of upholding democracy (vs contesting 2020).
Unfortunately, TC didn't do himself any favours with his follow-up monologue.
3D organ bioprinting!
No, it's true and I was feeling so optimistic about Tucker running for President one day. I guess there's a downside to being in public view every day for years. Which makes Rush Limbaugh even more extraordinary to me. I can't remember Rush making any boo boos in thirty some years. But Tucker is still my number one cable guy. I think everyone is just at the end of their rope and that includes the best of the best. We need to stay buckled up for a little bit longer.
Actually, Steven, I made that comment *before* seeing Tucker's Ministry of Truth segment, but already had the impression that he'd moved on.
PS. "I hate to say it but it may be time for all of us to move on." I'm no expert, but shouldn't that conclusion be reached via a court of law, rather than a cable news show?
Yes Kate, it should be. But, for that matter, shouldn't the "Opening Statement" be made in a court of law and not at a press conference? You ever hear that saying, "put up or shut up"?
Look all you Charlie Browns on here, you go right on thinking that Lucy's really going to hold that football this time. Believe me, I'm with you in wanting it to be true, but with the fabled Durham Report still close in the rearview mirror, I'm going to need to see proof, not just talk.
"But, for that matter, shouldn't the "Opening Statement" be made in a court of law and not at a press conference?"
That's why it was an "Opening Statement" rather than an Opening Statement, and Jenna Ellis did a good job of explaining this to the press (not least of all because their goal is to bury the news).
"Less speech = more violence."
Exactly. Mark, that's a keeper.
Sadly. I have heard Mark say many times over the years (in one way or another) that the things you can't talk about you end up fighting over. I've no doubt that Biden's sea urchin of a staff takes comfort in the fact that Big Tech and Big Media will fully support his position on "hateful" speech.
So would a wife be found guilty of hate speech if she said something to set off her abusive husband, causing him to break her face? I guess in some religions that would be a yes.
That sad looking Christmas tree is an example of the incompetence of the left. Save us from COVID? They couldn't even keep one Christmas tree healthy.
More proof that there's nothing the Left can't and won't ruin.
That Stengel can air his shallow views on "guardrails" and speech that "incites" (e.g. in a WP op ed last year) and be hailed as someone who should have authority over others regarding free speech is emblematic of the lack of rigorous thought that pervades just about every sphere of life. When our own Lt. Gov. Rutherford (a great man we hear from much too infrequently) tried to point out that removing a plaque in Annapolis, MD that was a remembrance of those conscripts (and they were almost all conscripts) who died in the Civil War irrespective of side was erasing history, he was ignored (or worse). The plaque was considered offensive not only because of a Confederate flag crossed with a US flag, but because the dead soldiers who did not fight on behalf of the Union were named. R suggested removing the flag. He was ignored and the plaque is gone. Take any instance from 2020 -- a horrid year for free speech, but any acute observer knows it is likely to be better than the next, such as statues simply toppled and figures such as Columbus recast in caricatured manners that present them as evil personified. Historical context is such an antiquated thought, even less viable a notion than context. And yet, it took nearly 15 years of protest for NYC 'leaders' to hear some of the concerns about an Islamic cultural center near the Twin Towers site. We need more free speech, debate, deliberate and considered thought -- and argument -- not less.
Ms. Calabrese,
I generally agree with your comments, but most definitely it isn't a "lack of rigorous thought" that the left lacks. They know exactly what they mean by "guardrails and speech that incites. They mean to be control of the speech, behavior, freedom, property, and ultimately life of anyone with whom they don't agree. Pro-Trump? Hater. Concerned about muslim terrorism? Islamophobe hater. Anti-abortion? Off to prison you anti-woman and ultra vicious hater.
But not to worry at all. Mr. Stengel, Uncle Joe Biden, Ms. Kamala, Barry, Michele, Bill, and Hill, they are the "best and the brightest" and only have everyone's best interest at heart, right? They just love to tell us worst and dimmest "basket of [irredeemable] deplorables" this so very often.
One would have thought so, D. Sadly, what once seemed obvious no longer is. Nothing is but what is not.
Spare a thought for nice sad old putative President-elect Biden, destined to be the errand boy of the witches. All he ever wanted was to be left alone in his bathchair, trying to lure little children to him with boiled sweets in a crumpled paper bag. I know, because I've been told.
Still, the need to assert a right to free speech, dire as it is, is not a new thing.
Thank goodness that sad tree wasn't from Canada! But no wonder it isn't much of a Christmas tree as Rockefeller Centre greeted it with "let the holiday season begin!".
So has Trump and his supporters (those who voted for him only to have their votes abused and denigrated) conceded the election? I haven't heard any recent updates about how the lawsuits are faring, or if there are even any lawsuits. I guess I don't like all the talk about "Pres-elect" Biden's future appointments just yet. Maybe I'm just a fool still hoping for a miracle, but it IS the holiday season (according to retailers) after all.
Rush is covering some hearings now in PA I think. Sidney is speaking now. Not sure what's going on elsewhere.
Sidney Powell said: "we're cleaning this mess up now; we will not be intimidated; Americans are fed up..." there was more. It'll be aired tonight on Tucker, I'm sure. What a tough-as-nails woman!
Thanks for update, Fran. Sorry I flared, but I'm frustrated just hearing negative, biased news all the time (not on this site obviously, but pretty much everywhere else) that gives no hope to over 70 million voters who have no say in the matter and are relying on others to restore truth and integrity to this nation's electoral system.
I did like Mark's advice to the voters in MI to file class action lawsuits. I said similar in a comment a few days ago. The voters are really the aggrieved party, not Trump. We've had our right to cast our vote in a fair election egregiously compromised in the most brazen and injurious manner. It's a direct attack on democracy and the repercussions will be felt around the world.
Seems most of the "conservative" websites are being pressured to conform to the left or be de-platformed. The Conservative Treehouse and BonginoReport didn't bend and they've gotten the boot. AceOfSpades is running out of Vanuatu so he's apparently unaffected. Redstate, PJMedia, DailyCaller - they've all knelt to the Google Gods. When Trump wins the election, those who bent risk losing their viewership.
I watched the Trump campaign press conference today where Rudy detailed the complaints and actions going on in various states. There definitely is plenty going on. As Mark knows all too well the wheels of justice in the U.S. turn slowly. Unfortunately that's something that in itself hurts President Trump's chances. There appear to be some clear situations where 'something' will need to be decided by a judge. Such as precincts in MI, WI and PA where not only more votes than registered voters were recorded, but more votes than the population were recorded! They have affidavits, including from employees of Dominion Voting Systems, that detail the after midnight shenanigans in Michigan where truckloads full of ballots showed up loaded in garbage cans, cardboard boxes and bags. Many ballots were not complete and yet were counted as votes. And in some cases loaded into machines for recording of the vote multiple times! So, as they say on the TV networks...stay tuned!
Frustrating describes the situation. Excruciating frustration! We just can't take it anymore, Aly. That's what comes through when Sidney Powell speaks. Not the rigged voting machines, not the rigged mail-in ballots, not the unchecked ballots, the tossing of ballots, ballot harvesting, not the changing of election laws, not the codes adjusted the night before the election. None of that pertaining to our elections can be anything less than perfection. Both sides should want that but since the Dems can't come up with policies the people like they are going to be out of power or continue to cheat and steal. Everything that raised suspicion was jaw-dropping in how obvious it was. Counting stopping while Trump's ahead. Trump losing tens of thousands of votes on the networks covering the election night returns as Biden's jump up. We're going to be nothing but a national internment camp if we continue to accept anything like what the Democrat machine did to us just now. We're taking our country back. People are either on board or they need to step out of the way.
What a great post! Thanks so much, Fran, I really needed to hear that, and appreciate your passion and optimism. I hope there are more voices like yours out there so people won't give up hope and keep fighting.
I tune into Rush everyday, Aly. He has been part of our life since '90, probably earlier. I guess I channel him without realizing, yet, this is why so many people follow him. He says out loud what all America lovers are thinking.
"As Mark knows all too well the wheels of justice in the U.S. turn slowly."
Let's hope it's all sorted by 2024...
That's funny, Kate. Sad funny, because it's pathetically sad with horrifying implications.
Another perfect segment with Mark and Tucker (please oh please, can you two co-author a book about the freak show that has been the 2020 election cycle). Stengel doesn't seem qualified to "mengel" er, ah...mingle...with the First Amendment, or any sane human who understands its meaning. People like Stengel give Conservatives an allergic reaction. Where's my Benadryl ointment. As predicted, Biden is not impressing many, with the majority of his so-called transition team or potential rumored admin picks. Susan Rice?! Please don't go there Joe. Is it too early to make predictions of a Red Tsunami in the 2022 mid-terms? Come *on* man! (belly laughs as I type this)
The word you were searching for was either mangle or Mengele (Josef).
Well, if, as Leftists used to say, you're not angry you're not paying attention, then it stands to reason - although reason is not really what you'd call Leftists' forte - that whoever is angriest is the one who is paying the most attention. Which, come to think of it, is probably the linguistic root of the current use of the word "woke." The more woke a person is, the more (insert preferred third person singular pronoun here) is paying attention and therefore the angriest. But no matter how woke a Leftist is, he, she or ze can never be as woke as your run-of-the-mill Muslim radical.
"The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam." B. H. Obama
He called it. But I prefer the wit and wisdom of this Stengel fellow's great uncle Casey, longtime baseball manager, who once said: "The secret of successful managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the four guys who haven't made up their minds."
Actually, they can't be related. How could someone so imbecilic as to say "Yes, the First Amendment protects the 'thought that we hate,' but it should not protect hateful speech that can cause violence by one group against another. In an age when everyone has a megaphone, that seems like a design flaw" be in anyway related to someone so wise as to say "There comes a time in every man's life and I've had many of them"? Richard Stengel is either an imposter or a blot on the Stengel family honor. Possibly both.
"Europe you will pay. Fantastic 4 are on their way!"
Islam has really gone too far when they start enlisting Marvel superheroes in their nefarious schemes...
(I don't really want to know who the real Fantastic Islamic Four are...but I imagine the Armenians fighting off incursions of their peaceful Azerbaijan Muslim neighbors, Syrian mercenaries and Turkish "advisors" have an idea)
Maybe they ride on flying horses?
Weaponized magic carpets?
Mark once talked about Muslim superheroes and suggested Burka Girl (who flies into tall buildings).
PS. Notice the Behead/ Massacre/ Annihilate placards have the same hand-made "Those Who Insult Islam" font?
Start a movement to get New Yorkers to come to the Tree on Christmas Eve. Have several of those big trucks with LED screens on their sides playing Charlie Brown's Christmas.
Then a million New Yorkers go quiet, hear "Its not such a bad tree after all Charlie Brown", then sing " Hark the Herald Angels". Now THAT is a protest.
One of several possible explanations for the afflicted Christmas tree.
1) the climate change fanatics have successfully reduced the CO2 levels which plants and trees require for optimum health.
2) this was selected to give a middle finger to a) all groups that celebrate Christmas and
b) to Capitalism
3) it wasn't complying with Public Health restrictions
4) there will be a remaking of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" set in NYC starring Mayor DeBlasio as The Grinch.
This is brilliant and hilarious.
or 5) despondency has so overwhelmed our psyches that we leap to the worst conclusion, instead of he most parsimonious one that the tree branches will relax (after being tightly bound for travel)
The definitive science is revealed in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". The branches do not 'relax' :)
It figures that history flunk-out leftists think they can modify the 1st Amendment to take away protection for speech their Thought Police find repugnant—criticisms of Big Brother and our garbage elitists, for example. The Bill of Rights grants no rights. It lists selected unalienable rights that the people possess and that government is not to infringe. To be a leftist is to reject American political thought, so they should have the courage of their vile ideology and stop pretending they are acting constitutionally.
David, your comment deserves a response and I agree- the Bill of Rights is a statement of (proclamation of) citizens rights, not a suggestion or "grant" of same. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, bring home a huge turkey and make soup and sandwiches just in case a patrol finds you entertaining a crowd. "We're making soup, ociferr"