Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Quick Hits: Volume CLXXVI

- Conservative commentator Jesse Kelly warned a few months ago that Twitter's banning of Alex Jones set a dangerous precedent. I wonder if he had any inkling at the time that his presence on that social media platform was in peril.

Twitter did not explain what rules Kelly violated, or if there was a specific tweet in question.

Kelly’s account was initially suspended from Twitter on Sunday with no notice or explanation from Twitter.

It's been pretty obvious that Twitter is selective in its enforcement over which accounts should be suspended on grounds of "content violation." And hey, that's not necessarily a bad thing. If a business venture is hostile towards conservatism and thus wants less of it in its platform, I prefer to be told right up front as opposed to all the obfuscation.

As such, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has some 'splainin to do regarding his vehement denials under oath that his company considers political affiliation when enforcing policy violations.


- As of today, President Trump is a vulnerable incumbent entering the 2020 election cycle. However, never underestimate the Dems to blow this by putting up as their nominee someone in the motif of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren or going all Weekend at Bernie's by trotting out Hillary Clinton again.

But if someone like, say, an Amy Klobuchar is the Dem nominee??? Let's just say the party could do orders of magnitude worse.


- The left and mainstream media (pardon the redundancy) continued their knee-jerk contrarian ways when President Trump, prior to the midterms, was sounding proverbial alarm bells over the migrant caravan making its way through Mexico. Not only do leftists oppose Trump on pretty much everything he says/does, they convey their opposition in a hyperbolic manner.

As we now know, Trump appears to be vindicated in echoing concerns that the caravan looked to storm the U.S.-Mexico border. And once again, the left's hyperbole resulted in all sorts of rhetorical self-inflicted wounds.

The latest once again puts the left’s radicalism on display. It’s not just that Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished, the liberal thinking goes; border agents shouldn’t be permitted to defend themselves from an aggressive rabble.

Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz wondered on Twitter if the use of tear gas violated the Chemical Weapons Conventions (the answer is an emphatic “no,” and he deleted the tweet). Rep. Barbara Lee of California described the gassing of “women and children” as an atrocity and called for United Nations inspectors. Progressive darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared the migrants to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.

All of this rending of garments came despite the fact that the tear gas was directed at the adult males who led the charge. Never mind, too, that similar crowd-control tactics were used at the border during the Obama administration, and cops use tear gas during disturbances involving US citizens all the time.

Trump has been wrong to portray the migrants as inherently threatening; the overwhelming majority just want a better life. But Americans have the sovereign right to decide who does and doesn’t come to this country, and it’s legitimate to demand an orderly, lawful process.

If any significant portion of the caravan gains entry, it will send a message that large-scale movements of people are better than small groups. This could lead to even more pressure at the border — no matter how much it will be dismissed by the same people who insisted the caravan would never arrive at the border.


So if indeed there are larger groups storming the border in the future, the leftist narrative will pivot seamlessly from "the caravan has no intention to cross into the U.S. illegally" to "ZOMG, WHY ARE YOU WING NUTS DENYING FAMILIES A BETTER LIFE?!?!?!"

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