Friday Afternoon Roundup - Obamatanic

FRAZIER GLENN MILLER AND MAX BLUMENTHAL

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which spent a great deal of time monitoring Miller, would never have thought to watch an institute whose board of trustees include a former New York Times editor, a music industry executive and a president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

When Miller ranted about “Bush and his Zionist bosses” or “The Zionist Jews and their gentile prostitute government managers”; his hate meshed with the hateful material that Blumenthal was putting out.

Blumenthal is mentioned over 300 times at VNN; mostly for his attacks on Jews and Israel. VNN members eagerly ate up Blumenthal’s conspiracy theories about Israel and every bit of negative reporting about Jews. One Blumenthal video even suggested that Rabbis were plotting to kill non-Jewish children.

The Nation Institute’s book arm, in partnership with the Perseus Book Group, published Goliath; Blumenthal’s furious attack on the Jewish State. The book, with chapters such as “How To Kill Goyim And Influence People” and “The Concentration Camp” was described by The Nation’s own reviewer as “The ‘I Hate Israel’ Handbook” and a potential selection of the “Hamas Book-of-the-Month Club.”

Anti-Semitic Violence, Neo-Nazis and the Anti-Israel Left




A POST-AMERICAN MEDIS

CBS does not want Middle America to watch. Chasing away older and conservative viewers by picking Colbert is not a bug, it’s a feature. CBS would like Colbert to ‘upscale’ its brand by turning its dying late night show into a low rated program watched by wealthy liberal urbanites whom advertisers will pay much more, per person, to reach.

Television networks aren’t being foolish by driving away older viewers. They’re working closely with ad agencies that want the same thing.

The Olympics multicultural Coca Cola ad and the gay rights cereal ads have courted controversy as an advertising strategy. That used to be something that marginal dot com brands did by firing a gerbil out of a cannon during the Super Bowl.

Now deliberately setting out to offend mainstream audiences is something that established brands do in a desperate race to show how youthful, how postmodern and how liberal they are.

Like CBS, they are increasing their brand value by demonstrating their contempt for Middle America.

CBS, Colbert and Contempt for America

The article speaks only partially to the larger problem that while conservatives are increasingly able to compete on content, the left, even in its more deranged and poisonous outlets, can pick up mainstream advertising that the right can't get. It's a structural problem and it really is time that someone in the conservative media world wrote about what has happened to the ad world.

...from the comments...

truebearing •

Advertising has been weaponized.

Having been around ad agency types during a period in my life, I can say without hesitation that they are some of the most arrogant, narcissistic, and unethical people I have ever met. They are more interested in winning awards than serving the needs of clients, and the clients are stupid enough to keep hiring them. What an independent writer or artist charges $2000.00 for, the agency that hired them charges their client one hundred times that amount. There is very little real accountablity when it comes to measurable results from most ad campaigns. Big budgets, nebulous results. Sounds like the guy living in that big white house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

These are children who never grew up, and never will.

 pennant8 •

I am in the geezer demographic. I remember how happy I was when I got my flat screen TV and Verizon FIOS. I was looking forward to watching all those great informative shows on A&E and the Science Channel in HD. I'm thinking, this is going to be great. Then I discovered that the only thing these so-called education channels carry nowadays is is a steady stream of Duck Dynasty and Duck Dynasty wannabe shows. As for regular network TV, fuggetaboudit. I can't even stand to watch my local news program. I usually put it on MUTE until the weather comes on.

In response I have collected a sizable library of DVD movies. It has become somewhat of a hobby searching flea markets and discount stores for some of the great old films. These TV marketing geniuses don't need me, I don't need them either.

Jonathan Cohen •

On some issues all elements of the economically powerful agree. In those cases it is very difficult to get change. Affirmative action is extremely unpopular, not because people are bigots but because it is unfair and counter-productive to all concerned, minorities included. Yet virtually every main stream media outlet, university faculty, main stream religious leaders and most political figures including Republicans support it. To put it in crude Marxist terms, "affirmative action is the policy of the ruling class."

The last twenty years has given rise to a new powerful class of entrepreneurs in the entertainment, computer and media world. Whereas in the past, the left critiques of the culture were that the creators of information were owned by the rich through interlocking Boards of Directors, social institutions such as country clubs and as dominating the Boards of Trustees of universities. The economic titans of the past made their money from manufacturing, producing products that were used by all. Today's new rich make their money directly through the production and control of information and entertainment. They make decisions as this article points out, by what builds the bottom line. And you can be sure that their trendy politics is supporting the bottom line.

Steeloak •

The networks may "Win" the "Demo" but lose the war. Viewership is rapidly dwindling on all TV networks. The three major networks have lost over half their viewership since 1980 and are still declining. The internet has made them redundant.

People today are watching only the content they want on the device of their choice. Entertainment markets are micro-segmenting and delivering specific content to specific market slices. It is now easy to find the content you want and to ignore what you don't want - this is the future of entertainment. The number of content providers is expanding exponentially to serve the segmenting markets.

 laura r •

i was an advertising/ communication major close to 50yrs ago. studied storyboards (commericials), copywriting, concepts for selling, some graphic design, sociologoly, etc. studied w/the top people in NYC who were head hochos @ ad agencies. they would come in one 1/2 day a week to give assignments, critique our work. things how changed drasically! ben shapiro spoke about this in relation to hollywood movies. advertising is the same. in the old days, the client was boss. he would meet w/the acct executive, talk about the demographic for the product. based upon that, the creative team would comeup w/a campaign. the bottom line was always the $$$ always the sales. social engineering was only used to enhance the bottom line: sales. for example if they were selling a bra or cigarettes, they may have used a womens "lib" slogan. things have reversed, now the creative team has the power. so tell us, what happened to the bottom line?

THE DEFINITION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Sheikh Omar Subedar of the Imam, Islamic Society of Peel in Canada, signed the White Ribbon pledge to: “never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls.”

But the White Ribbon folks should have explored his definition of “violence” a bit more closely.

At the Canadian Council of Muslim Theologians, the Imam writes, “Strike them: If the problem still does not get resolved then as a final resort Allah has permitted the husband to discipline his wife by striking her, however this does not imply that Allah is promoting domestic violence. The Prophet (P.B.U.H.) has made it very clear that the beating should not be agonizing in any shape or form.”

Muslim Imam Claims Beating Women Isn’t Domestic Violence if it’s Not Agonizing




Muslim Refugee Raped 4’11 Woman Behind “I Love NY” Pizzeria




BUT THEY HAVE A CLUB!

Sexism in Britain is more widespread than in any other country due to a “boys’ club culture”, a United Nations official has concluded.

Ms Manjoo shared her preliminary findings on the UK and said: “Have I seen this level of sexist culture in other countries? It hasn’t been so in your face in other countries. I haven’t seen that so pervasively in other countries. I’m sure it exists but it wasn’t so much and so pervasive.”

It is estimated that over 50% of South African women will be raped in their lifetime and that only 1 in 9 rapes are reported.

But… but there’s an old boys' club in the UK. And they meet and have drinks and play polo while wearing plaid.

Muslim UN Expert from World Rape Capital Claims UK Most Sexist Country in the World




Bill de Blasio Shuts Down Muslim Terrorism Monitoring on Anniversary of Boston Bombing

THE CHOIR INVISIBLE OF INSPECTORS

Pointing to his work on gun safety, obesity and smoking cessation, he said with a grin: “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”

“I don’t know what your perception is of our reputation, and mine, the name Bloomberg around the country,” he said. But every place he goes, he added, “You’re a rock star. People yelling out of cabs, ‘Hey, way to go!’ ”

Bloomberg: “I Have Earned My Place in Heaven”




Racial Income Inequality Worse in Liberal Cities - Don’t let the sun set on you in Madison, Wisconsin.



Taxpayer Funded College to Pay Paul Krugman $225K to Promote Income Inequality




REALITY IS POLITICALLY CORRECT

Speaking at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network convention on Friday in New York City, President Barack Obama revealed that he believes voter fraud does not exist, everyone who wants to should be able to vote, even if they cannot provide identifying documentation, and Republicans are plotting to take the franchise away from minorities.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, keynote speaker at Thursday’s rally to kick-off the campaign for an Ohio Voters’ Bill of Rights Ohio Constitutional amendment, hugged Melowese Richardson.

Melowese voted twice for herself in 2012 and three times for her comatose sister. She admitted to sending an absentee ballot in for her granddaughter, who subsequently voted in person on election day. Three additional absentee ballots were also generated from Richardson’s home address, and all bore similar handwriting.

Obama says Voter Fraud Doesn’t Exist at Event Run by Man Who Embraced Fraudster Who Voted for Him Nine Times




BUNDY AND BOSTON

Washington’s virtue may have been straightforward enough, but could the same have been said of the stories of the civilian participants in the Boston Massacre? The punditry could easily have dissected the stories of Henry Knox or Edward Garrick just as unfavorably as those of Cliven Bundy.

Did it in the long run matter? Not really.

The power of the Boston Massacre was in the way that it framed the larger story of British oppression. The story that was told fit into a larger theme even if the individual facts did not quite hold up.

And while that’s not ideal, it is entirely real.

Bundy’s Bona Fides and the Boston Massacre




Women Like Wendy Davis Even Less Than Men



WOOF

“Furthermore, it’s simplistic to reduce the career of a capable public servant and longtime senator to being a ‘lapdog for the Arabs’ when the Secretary has also been a lapdog for the Viet Cong, the Sandinistas, the Iranians and really anyone who would have him.”

“John Kerry is just naturally attracted to lying down in the laps of terrorists, Communists and any totalitarian movement while making a low purring sound.”

“If you’re a tyrant, John Kerry will come down and lie in your lap if you want him to. And if you don’t, he’ll wait outside your country, occasionally scratching at the door while making a high whining noise.”

Kerry Spokeswoman Protests Israeli Claim that he is a “Lapdog of the Arabs”




US Gave $232,000 to Group Providing “Non-Violence” Training to Hamas




HARA KIRI

Japan’s finance ministry seems to take a perverse delight in pointing out the world’s worst debt optics: gross central government borrowings equivalent to 24 years of tax receipts, or about $80,000 for every man, woman and child.

Government ministers and the ruling coalition adopted the 95.88 trillion yen ($921 billion) budget proposal for the fiscal year starting April 1 at a meeting yesterday in Tokyo, Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters.

Japan went big on foreign aid in the 80s, ranking behind the United States. It’s still handing out billions of dollars a year that it can’t afford. It claims to be the third biggest donor to the Palestinian Authority after the US and EU dispensing $1.35 billion.

That’s not a title worth contending for considering that Japan has a higher percentage of population below poverty level than many Muslim countries, including Morocco, Jordan and Indonesia.

Country with World’s Biggest Debt Burden Pledges $200 Million to Palestinian Authority

...from the comments

truebearing •

All good debt counselors will tell you that if you're hopelessly in debt, give huge sums of money to Muslim terrorists. It's fool proof...

It works for Obama.




CULTURE OF LAWLESSNESS

Senate Democrats are rallying to Attorney General Eric Holder’s defense.

“I guess they don’t like anybody who disagrees with them,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “He’s a strong and smart advocate for a different point of view.”

Should the Attorney General be an “Advocate for a Different Point of View.”




THE OLD IS STILL NEW

2. The Jewish community in Russia and Russian controlled territories, like every major religious community, is under the control of the government. Its leaders will make those statements approved of by the security services. This is nearly as true now as it was under the USSR. Its lay leaders tend to have government connections and its religious leaders depend on the government to be able to work.

Especially if they come from outside the country.

Jews who intend to live in Place X are largely concerned about not offending whoever remains in charge of that place when the dust settles. Their statements will reflect that.

Jews and the Ukraine




Kerry: Our Goal is Not Eliminating Iranian Nuclear Capability



HE'S FOR SOMETHING ALRIGHT

“I am not for containment in Iran. Let me repeat that, since no one seems to be listening closely: I am unequivocally not for containing Iran.

“I am also not for announcing that the United States should never contain Iran.”

These are his actual opening words.

,,,

Paul has probably studied Obama, but he’s beginning to sound like him.

He has written an entire op-ed in which he argues that he’s tough, but nuanced and ambiguous. And in which you’re left with no actual content after having read through the whole thing except the author’s perception of his own intelligence.

Rand Paul Wants to Clarify That His Position on Containing Iran is a Secret




SWEETENING THE POT

Aside from the usual union donors, SEIU, teachers’ unions and the Association of Postal Workers, there’s American Crystal Sugar.

American Crystal Sugar, a beet sugar agricultural cooperative, ranks as his fourth top donor. And what does the sugar beet group want?

Sugar subsidies.

Socialist Bernie Sanders’ Beet Sugar Money

...from the comments

"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his beets?"

THE ROUNDUP

Mark Steyn makes a very important point in his article on the culture of speech suppression.

Nick Lowles defined the ‘No Platform’ philosophy as ‘the position where we refuse to allow fascists an opportunity to act like normal political parties’. But free speech is essential to a free society because, when you deny people ‘an opportunity to act like normal political parties’, there’s nothing left for them to do but punch your lights out. Free speech, wrote the Washington Post’s Robert Samuelson last week, ‘buttresses the political system’s legitimacy. It helps losers, in the struggle for public opinion and electoral success, to accept their fates. It helps keep them loyal to the system, even though it has disappointed them. They will accept the outcomes, because they believe they’ve had a fair opportunity to express and advance their views. There’s always the next election. Free speech underpins our larger concept of freedom.’

Just so. A fortnight ago I was in Quebec for a provincial election in which the ruling separatist party went down to its worst defeat in almost half a century. This was a democratic contest fought between parties that don’t even agree on what country they’re in. In Ottawa for most of the 1990s the leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition was a chap who barely acknowledged either the head of state or the state she’s head of. Which is as it should be. Because, if a Quebec separatist or an Australian republican can’t challenge the constitutional order through public advocacy, the only alternative is to put on a black ski-mask and skulk around after dark blowing stuff up.

The tricky part of this is that while you shouldn't recognize the political rights of those who want to kill you, refusing to recognize the political rights of anyone who disagrees with you leads them to want to kill you.

The left is building totalitarian states without remembering how they turn out. Totalitarianism leads to an opposite reaction. More force is needed to suppress it which spills over into internecine warfare and the usual round of domestic purges. We're already seeing that in miniature in the various social justice wars being leftist factions on Twitter and Tumblr.



from Gerard at American Digest

Flare-ups of the virus have been common across Europe throughout the last 2 millennia, but an overwhelming series of eruptions in Europe from England through the lands controlled by the USSR, required a global intervention before the conflagration was deemed to be put out. This, of course was an illusion, since like the root burns engendered by forest fires, it only smoldered underground in the human and social hosts for decades before erupting once again in the vast Petri dish of the Middle East.

With the advent of the "Palestinian cause" becoming chic in Western, European, and Liberal circles -- driven at first by Socialist Progressive romanticism in the late 1960s and early 1970s -- being infected by virus has once more become acceptable to exhibit socially in certain ways. Indeed, in many circles and societies, having the virus has lately become a highly prized fashion accessory to popular academic, media, and state ideologies. It is now actually a badge of pride in many Western circles to appear at various events wearing gold-plated buboes inset with multi-faceted Kaposi's sarcoma that contain the virus at their core. Many now believe this intellectual adornment to actually be beautiful.

In a recent mutation, the virus has shown that it can leap the blood/brain barrier and actually infect Jews -- if they feel safe within their "advanced" society. The current term for this mutation is "Juicebox Mafia" in which self-styled "intellectuals" of Jewish lineage actually feel it is "intelligent" to call for a world in which it is easier for Arabs and other Islamic groups to kill Jews wholesale. This sort of strange host to the virus is replacing the previous host termed "the self-hating Jew."

The virus, because it is an ancient and clever virus, can lie dormant for years, and like HIV, can mutate around a lot of therapies designed to destroy it.

On the Most Ancient Virus to Infect the Soul

I think the term self-hating Jew is one of the bigger misnomers. There are indeed self-hating Jews around, but the latest wave most prominent in the media are narcissists.

Lefty narcissism leads to contempt for one's nation and culture... and even obsessive attempts to destroy it. That's true of Jews and non-Jews.




ON BRANDEIS AND ALI

What the Left’s intolerance reflects is that despite its moral relativism — a world without objective truths in which there is no such thing as good and evil — the Left believes there are judgments to be made, that certain values and ideas are superior: its own.

What separates the devils from the angels is simply whether or not you agree with them.

Hirsi Ali embodies everything the Left claims to champion: she’s an immigrant, minority, atheist, female, who was subjected to physical abuse, and speaks out for women’s rights. Yet she is silenced by the Left for the unspeakable offense of criticizing Islam.

To truly challenge the status quo, to truly fight for the underdog, to truly stand for something, would be for the Left to amplify the voices of those who oppose the prevailing ideological dogmas from campuses to coffeehouses across the country — to apply the standards of tolerance and diversity the Left purports to uphold equally, and indiscriminately.

That comes from Benjamin Weingarten at The Blaze. Meanwhile Robert Avrech clarifies the "Jewish" part.

No better example of this PC insanity can be found but at Brandeis University, an allegedly Jewish school—Yeshiva University is Jewish, Ner Yisroel is Jewish, Brandeis is a Democrat plantation

I've never considered Brandeis anything other than a legacy Jewish institution. It's as Jewish as a Jewish hospital, which is to say, funded by Jewish donors and meant as a contribution to the country.

It's not a Jewish institution. No more than a park bench paid for by a Jewish donor.



A SOVIET DIET

Oleg Atbashian of The People's Cube comments on Carney's Soviet propaganda posters.

If that were so, the meals in Carney’s kitchen would also probably match the menu of the place and time of the posters. His family would be living on a diet of beets, gruel, occasional rat, and thinly sliced boiled jackboots, which is what many Soviets ate at the time these posters were produced.

One poster was made in 1918, calling men to join the Red Army in the civil war against the anti-communist opposition, while the country lay in ruins due to the economic mismanagement as much as due to  intense fighting. The other poster was made during WWII, calling women to replace men at the factories, as the country lay in ruins, once again, due to intense fighting as much as due to the economic mismanagement.

The diet of the Carney family, however, does not include any of the food that the impoverished and starving Soviet people ate during the above wars. They eat more like the members of the Soviet Politburo and even better than that. They feast on fresh organic produce, succulent meat, delicious seafood, and tropical fruit delivered to the United States from all over the world. And as they enjoy the abundance of the American way of life in their kitchen, the Carneys like to stare at the two propaganda posters made for starving people. It never fails to improve their feeling of self-worth and digestion.

Of course in the USSR, the Carneys would have found themselves deep in the Party at the time. But Stalin would have sent one or both of them to the Gulags and they would have returned years later, paler and sicker, but still worshiping him and believing in the Communist future.

While the masses ate horse and even human meat in Stalingrad, Party members enjoyed a much finer standard of cuisine including rum pastries made right in the besieged city.