1
The March for Life/Lincoln Memorial/Native American/Black Hebrew kerfuffle continues unabated. Here are the facts, or at least what some are reporting:
- Fact from “reputable” media: Tuesday or Wednesday or both, Covington Catholic High School was closed because of death threats. (Death threats. Let that sink in. In what alternate universe could that be an appropriate response even to the worst of which the Catholic lads have been accused?)
- Fact from “reputable” media: Native Americans showed up in Covington Kentucky to protest at Catholic Diocesan headquarters. (I can’t help but see this as a provocation and as pretty damned self-righteous. But see below.)
- Concurring reports: Nathan Phillips and others tried to enter the National Basilica to beat their drums (literally) Saturday night as Mass was under way. The reports seem true, though I’ve seen no evidence that they knew Mass was under way.
- Rumors stated confidently: Nathan Phillips never went to Vietnam, was a lousy Marine, and eventually got drummed out under less than honorable circumstances.
- Fact from “reputable” media: Nathan Phillips has taken newsworthy offense at “appropriation” of native American culture by white people on prior occasions.
I confess to feeling much hostility toward Nathan Phillips. I confess to an inability to think that the Catholic lads bear any substantial blame for what went down, and that Nathan Phillips picked the soft target — white, Catholic, male Trump supporters — rather than the black religious cultist-provocateurs, because he knew the soft targets were no real threat to him (and might make a good incident with him in the spotlight).
But those are feelings For now, just about the only proposition I’m willing to affirm is that “Viral videos should be reserved for cats and Jordan Peterson.” (Mercatornet.com)
2
Liberals Outpaced Conservatives in ‘Dark Money’ Midterm Spending. Elections of 2018 bucked yearslong trend of right-leaning nonprofits dominating in ad cash, report says.
3
The “nonpartisan” media took what felt like years to discover that some of the Women’s March organizers had an anti-Semitism problem, but some teenagers get rowdy at the March for Life — while they’re being yelled at by black nationalists, for God’s sake — and it gets covered like Kristallnacht. Pro-life activists get video of Planned Parenthood suits talking about chopping up unborn babies for their parts, and we have to hear claims about how they’re “selectively edited” repeated in the press forever — but a clip of an anonymous teenager smiling while someone drums in his face is a five-alarm “fascism in America” fire!
… So fine — keep being NeverTrump, be anti-Hannity, be a scold against your own side sometimes, whatever. Just don’t give me the both-sides piety when something like this happens — and what, just a week after the freakout over Karen Pence teaching art at an evangelical school with a traditional-Christian code of sexual behavior? Can’t you see that our opponents won’t be happy till every conservative religious school gets shamed or shuttered? Can’t you see that the supposed gatekeepers at “mainstream” institutions are happy to play along?
… [T]hey always get things wrong the same way. They’re always looking for some white preppy scapegoat. The Rolling Stone article about frat-boy rapists that turned out to be a hoax …
Ross Douthat‘s conscience arguing with him as he defends mainstream media in his column today.
I’m with Douthat—and his conscience—on this. Except my Twitter account is gone, and when I occasionally click on a Tweet embedded in someone’s blog, it generally confirms the wisdom of that decision.
4
Why, while we’re at it, is it important to get a definitive account of what happened among the Hebrew Israelites, Native American activists and Catholic preppy boys? It is, at best, a microcosm of some larger point. By itself, it is insignificant: People from different backgrounds interact during their respective public demonstrations; some tension ensues. Big freakin’ deal.
5
How a NeoCon-Backed “Fact Checker” Plans to Wage War on Independent Media is the take of one independent medium on NewsGuard. And now it’s reportedly baked into the new Microsoft Edge browser?!
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I’m going to install the plug-in and see what happens.
6
The tech website Gizmodo reported this week that it found at least three retouched photographs on Trump’s social media pages since October, including two in the past few days, in which his body and face have been slimmed, his face and neck wrinkles tightened, his hair cleaned up — “and in one of the strangest alterations, Trump’s fingers have been made slightly longer.”
This falsification of digits is bigger than the boys from Covington, Kentucky. Can we talk about it instead?
* * * * *
Follow me on Micro.blog, too, where I blog tweet-like shorter items and … well, it’s evolving. Or, if you prefer, those micro.blog items also appear now at microblog.intellectualoid.com.
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 