Hillary Clinton on Civility

President Trump on the Kavanaugh Circus

Liberals Lament Excessive Celebration of the Kavanaugh SCOTUS Confirmation

Daniel Patrick Moynihan on Left Wing Snubs

Jason Chaffetz on Democrats' Scorched Earth Policy

On Samantha Bee's Feckless Apology

As TBS Full Frontal comedienne Samantha Bee returned to television after attacking President Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump with obscene epithets and inappropriate innuendo, she offered an apology of sorts.

What a feckless Bee! Well, it was not much of an apology.  It was one of the "To those who might be offended" kind of regret.  Moreover, in this feckless mea culpa, Bee sought to justify using "the C-word" as a feminist way to reclaim the Anglo Saxon four letter word.  

The problem with Bee's BS expression of regret is that it ignores the context.  Many focus on the crudity of the "C word".  But Bee suggested that President Trump's daughter put on something tight and talk some sense into him because he listens to her.  This was uttered with a lurid archival photo in the background.  Incest innuendo- check.  Woman manipulating horny man insinuation -check mate?

Bee's insistence that she was trying to reclaim the "C word" is undermined by implying that Ivanka should use her feminine wiles to bend the will of her creepy father.  This may be pushing the bounds for an edgy comedienne and comedy isn't pretty.  But Bee still wants to be taken seriously on public policy, as her regret was taking attention away from the plight of illegal immigrant infants being separated from their mothers.  Sure.

I find it dubious that Samantha Bee and staff was truly sorry about insulting Ivanka Trump or crossing a line as it gave them so much publicity.  Full Frontal is a little watched late night comedy show which may be pulled off the air if it loses any more sponsors.  

What is culturally concerning is the progressive lack of civility combined with collective Trump Derangement Syndrome.  Politically correct panjandrums pontificate that it was acceptable for Bee to use the "C word" because she is of that class and is reclaiming a now pejorative phrase, while being blind to how much of America is revolted.

We live in a culture of outrage. Democrats have sought to maximize outrage to create a blue wave for the midterm elections.  One of the ways to do that is to use cultural levers to stoke up the bile. 

Alas, this is wasteful (sic) because it only appeals to true believers while alienating independents and traditional blue collar Democrats.  It is dubious that outrageous obscene attacks and feckless apologies will turn the tide and the blue wave might be down the drain like the  tidy bowl man. 

Reconsidering the White House Correspondents' Dinner

On Ivy League Ideological Intolerance

D-List Celebutard Tries to Get Ahead By Overstepping Comedic Line Towards Trump

Many progressives have shown difficulty in accepting Donald J. Trump as President of the United States.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 8th) can not bring herself to say "President Trump".  When former First Lady/Senator/Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is not engaged in chardonnay therapy, she was attempting to front "the Resistance" as part of a inchoate attempt at remaining politically viable.

Celebrities certainly have had a tough time coping with not having their candidate win the White House in 2016.   Of late, there was Robert De Niro's rousing graduation analogy at Brown University that the newly minted Ivy League alums are now entering a world that is a "tragic dumb assed comedy."

Hyperbolic histrionics does not sate some from Hollyweird. Some celebutards feel compelled to push their consternation to the brink.  At the enormous Women who Hate Trump march the day after inauguration, Madonna intimated that she had dreams of bombing the White House after hearing of Trump's victory.  Not to be outdone, D-List comedienne Kathy Griffin posed for publicity shoots holding a bloody facsimile of America's 45th President of the United States, which she then posted on social media. Smooth move Ex-Lax.

No doubt, Griffin thought that she would be playing to her progressively oriented base and perhaps even make it off the D-List through political notoriety. After all, her bloody head pose echoed the antipathy of "The Resistance". She had the reputation of being a crass, shock type comedienne. Moreover, she could claim artistic freedom and the need to challenge boundaries in the name of comedy.  Not so much.

Consider the comedic rodeo rider who dared wear an Obama mask while maintaining the ring which caused a week's controversy and caused him to be put into diversity training. It did not help that Griffin's  graphic art echoed actual executions as infamously performed by ISIS. The country still seems to have some respect for the office of President.  One should not discount the reputation of the messenger.  Griffith is not known for taking overt political stances, and this stunt may have been seen as distasteful grandstanding by an opportunist.

Social media turned against Kathy Griffin for her ghoulish pose.  Sponsors and venues quickly started to cancel on her. Even Senator Al Franken (D-MN) was said to be backing away from a associations with with Griffin.  The Secret Service may now be quite investigating Griffin's graphic wise crack. 

What's more, is that Griffin's grotesquerie made Mr. Trump somewhat sympathetic, even to ardent opponents of the Trump Administration.   Former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) could point to the gross graphic and condemn the repugnant and vile message in his quixotic hope for civic civility.  Mr. Trump tweeted in response to the controversy that his eleven year old son was having a hard time with this sick humor.

When it was clear that the public tide had turned against Griffin, she quickly posted on Instagram an apology.

Liberal leaning news organizations barely covered the controversy because one of the news most important powers is the power to ignore the inconvenient or incongruent.

It is difficult to discern the best course of action.  On the one hand, while I strive to be forgiving and let bygones to be bygones, it seems inappropriate to think "Aw shucks, it was nothing."   This is not a typo tweet like "covfefe"  or a knee jerk post which one regrets immediately after hitting the send button.  TMZ showed Griffin in a full blown photo shoot, with lighting, make-up and props. This was pre-meditated so to magnanimously dismiss it invites future pot shots from an opposition which seems intent to throw anything up on the wall to see if it sticks.

On the other hand, Mr. Trump has displayed a churlish reputation in the past and has used antagonisms with others (Rosie O'Donnell, Megyn Kelly, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, et ali.) as a means to brandish himself while sullying others.  The Trump Administration needs to put some wins on the board in Washington aside from a SCOTUS pick and reversing 18 prior Administrative Actions.

May Kathy Griffin be benched on the D-List without needlessly encouraging others to go down that same repugnant road. 

Tim Scott on Segregated Civics and Civility

The so called Reverend William Barber II, a member of the NAACP Board of Directors, recently ignited a firestorm when Barber recognized Martin Luther King Day by pronouncing Senator Tim Scott as a puppet of the Republican Party.  Barber's exact barb was:   “A ventriloquist can always find a good dummy."

The right Reverend feels wronged that the first black Senator since Reconstruction articulates a Tea Party agenda.    Perhaps Barber forgot about Senator Edward Brooke (R-MA), Senator Carol Mosely Braun (D-IL), Senator Roland Burris (D-IL), now Senator Mo Cowan (D-MA) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).  And of course there was Senator Barack Obama (D-IL).  But to be charitable, perhaps Rev. Barber was referring to the South.

None the less, it is fascinating that Barber has the expectation both of group think for Blacks.  Moreover, it shows the hypocrisy of the NAACP as a civil rights organization which it disses an African American who has achieved high office because he does not articulate liberal Democrat policy positions.

Furthermore, Barber uses insulting imagery to demean his bete noir.  No wonder Thomas Sowell quipped that he was so old that he remembers when most of the people promoting racial hatred were white.  When Barber rhetorically excoriated Senator Scott, Barber intimates that only Whites are part of the Tea Party and clearly he thinks ill of them.

When Rev. Barber was given a chance to walk back his tough talk on Senator Scott, he chose to play the prophet, for which he may profit in progressive political circles.  Wonder what happened to all of the Democrat's push for civility in public discourse.  That's right, it was a one way street.

While Barber may be a pastor at the Geenboro Christian Church Disciples of Christ Church, his uncharitable rhetoric and routed political thinking lends credence to having him lead the Church of the Poisoned Mind.  Of course, he would have to compete against the Jeremiah Wright, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

Cultivating Agi-Prop on the Obama Campaign Hustings

In 2008, candidate Obama claimed that he would change the divisive ways of politics.  Witness how the Obama campaign has proceeded Forward (sic.).

Well, it was more than POTUS who was cultivating defamatory and undefensible campaign rhetoric.  Consider Vice President Joe Biden speaking before a largely black audience in Danville, Virginia (the last capital of the Confederacy).