Patterico's Pontifications

7/11/2019

President Trump Talks Free Speech At Today’s Social Media Summit…Maybe??

Filed under: General — Dana @ 6:15 pm



[guest post by Dana]

After meandering through various subjects at today’s White House Social Media Summit, including The Apprentice being a big hit and doing Twitter better than anyone, President Trump moved on to the subject of free speech. Maybe. I’m not sure… This is from the 44:28 mark in the video linked above:

He talked about how Silicon Valley is admired for their technology and how smart they are, but that they don’t “using that brilliance” fairly. “They have to do that.”

“And we don’t want to stifle anything, we certainly don’t want to stifle free speech. But that’s no longer free speech,” said Trump. “See I don’t think that the mainstream media is free speech either, because it’s so crooked, it’s so dishonest.”

“So to me, free speech is not when you see something good and then you purposely write bad, to me that’s very dangerous speech, and you become angry at it,” said Trump. “But that’s not free speech.”

“We’re just not going to allow it to happen like this,” he said, returning to his commentary about what isn’t free speech. “We’re not going to be silenced.”

So, is he saying that if someone’s speech offends you, or the speaker is being dishonest or lies, then that is not protected speech? Maybe if I put myself in Trump’s shoes, with his view of the world, he might mean something like this: If someone (MSM reporter) sees something that’s actually good (Trump) and purposely writes something negative (FAKE NEWS) about the subject (Trump), then because they (MSM reporter) don’t like the subject (Trump), then what they say (MSM reporter) is not not protected speech and instead falls into another category altogether: “dangerous speech” (where all criticism of Trump belongs). Is that it?

Seriously, I don’t know what he’s trying to say. If you have your decoder ring handy, let me know what you think he’s saying. I’ve watched the video (in full) several times, and frankly, it didn’t help clarify things.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

Trump Surrenders on Census Change

Filed under: Law — DRJ @ 4:40 pm



[Headlines from DRJ]

It has been rumored all day but now two media are reporting that Trump caved:

AP News — Trump abandons bid to include citizenship question on census.

Daily Mail: — BREAKING NEWS: Trump SURRENDERS on asking citizenship question in 2020 Census and instead orders massive trawl of federal databases to find non-citizens claiming ‘We will leave no stone unturned’

— DRJ

Palate Cleanser: The Continuing Dust-up Between Pelosi and AOC (UPDATE ADDED)

Filed under: General — Dana @ 1:54 pm



[guest post by Dana]

I admit that I am having fun watching this train wreck in action. The writing was on the wall, now it’s happening, and I for one am not going to miss it!

After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a not-nice accusation about Nancy Pelosi yesterday, Rep. Dan Crenshaw tweeted out a timely and informative bit of insight for the House Speaker to consider:

crenshaw

Yep. It’s true: players of identity politics inevitably eat their own.

Today, Pelosi answered questions about taking members to the woodshed and the continuing kerfuffle with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She stood beside her comments:

Asked about her ongoing spat with the New York lawmaker, Pelosi acknowledged how she recently addressed — “at the request of my members” — an “offensive tweet that came out of one of the member’s offices” that compared centrist Democrats to segregationists. That tweet was authored and then deleted by Ocasio-Cortez’ chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti.

Ed. Here is the deleted tweet via Washington Examiner:

deleted tweet

“Our members took offense at that,” Pelosi said, claiming her comments received a positive response. “I addressed that.”

Ocasio-Cortez has since accused Pelosi of being “disrespectful” to several “newly elected women of color.” Pelosi repeatedly told reporters Thursday she wasn’t going to say anything else on the subject, but said she supports diversity in the caucus.

“I’ve said what I’m going to say…What I said in the caucus yesterday had an overwhelming response from my members. Because they know what the facts are and what we are responding to. We respect the value of every member of our caucus. The diversity of it all is a wonderful thing. Diversity is our strength. Unity is our power,” she said.

Right now, it doesn’t seem like a very unified group. Every day seems to bring yet another tear in the unity fabric. Consider that, just one day prior to Pelosi’s admonishment to members that they are to take their complaints directly to her, AOC did an interview with New York Radio Hour, wherein she asserted that Congress uses women of color as bargaining chips:

“When it comes to women of color in Congress, particularly the freshman, it’s that we both have encountered and represent communities that have been auctioned off and negotiated off for the last 20 years. And we’re over it,” Ocasio-Cortez said Tuesday.

“We see in these negotiations all the time— it’s like fighting for black communities or policies that help women. They’re bargaining chips. And they’re the first chips that are reached for in any legislative negotiations.”

Anyway, as I said the other day, this dust-up will play out publicly in the most passive-aggressive way imaginable. Pelosi knows this isn’t just about a mouthy freshman representative and her g-friends. It’s a struggle to regain control over her caucus in order to effectively set the course for her party in any number of upcoming elections and policy making.

Today, AOC stood by her comments regarding Pelosi but fell short of calling her a racist, saying she was only “pointing out a pattern”.

P.S. And if you think the centrist Blue Dogs took the hit with their tail between their legs, think again. Per NYT’s Jonathan Martin, this was from a mass mailing the group sent out:

blue dog

UPDATE: It looks like some of AOC’s fellow members are none too happy with how she has been behaving. Congressional Black Caucus member Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay blasted AOC, her chief of staff and Justice Democrats in the Speaker’s Lobby:

“What a weak argument, because you can’t get your way and because you’re getting pushback you resort to using the race card? Unbelievable. That’s unbelievable to me,” Clay said. “I could care less. I could really care less. I agree with the Speaker. Four people, four votes out of 240 people, who cares.”

“They’re missing the fact that we have a very thin margin of a majority that we’re operating under and apparently it doesn’t matter to Justice Democrats, they just want to get skins. They want to score points for whatever reason. But I find it juvenile, their tactics, I find their ignorance to be beyond belief about American history and about who are really segregationists. And so how dare they try to play the race card at this point, it shows you the weakness of their arguments.”

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

Nationwide Immigration Raids To Commence This Sunday

Filed under: General — Dana @ 9:22 am



[guest post by Dana]

A few days ago we learned that the head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Ken Cuccinelli followed up on President Trump’s warning and announced that ICE was ready to begin the postponed deportation process involving a vast number of individuals with pending removal orders.

Today, from the New York Times:

Nationwide raids to arrest thousands of members of undocumented families have been scheduled to begin Sunday, according to two current and one former homeland security officials, moving forward with a rapidly changing operation, the final details of which remain in flux. The operation, backed by President Trump, had been postponed, partly because of resistance among officials at his own immigration agency.

The raids, which will be conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over multiple days, will include “collateral” deportations, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the preliminary stage of the operation. In those deportations, the authorities might detain immigrants who happened to be on the scene, even though they were not targets of the raids.

When possible, family members who are arrested together will be held in family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania. But because of space limitations, some might end up staying in hotel rooms until their travel documents can be prepared. ICE’s goal is to deport the families as quickly as possible.

The officials said ICE agents were targeting at least 2,000 immigrants who have been ordered deported — some as a result of their failure to appear in court — but who remain in the country illegally. The operation is expected to take place in at least 10 major cities.

[Ed. This administration continues to leak like a sieve.]

And in a surprise move, desperate candidate Beto O’Rourke presented his own unique brand of border control as he actively discouraged migrants from crossing the border into the U.S.:

The former Texas congressman was asked this week at roundtable event featuring immigrant and refugee participants to explain how President O’Rourke would fight white supremacy in the United States.

“I know this from my home state, Texas, places that formed the Confederacy, that this country was founded on white supremacy,” the poorly polling 2020 Democratic primary candidate responded.

He added, “And every single institution and structure that we have in this country still reflects the legacy of slavery and segregation and Jim Crow and suppression, even in our democracy.”

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

Trump Deplatforms Cartoonist on “Whine About Deplatforming” Day

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:58 am



Today is the big social media summit that DRJ mentioned below. Otherwise known (by me) as Whinefest, the summit provides an opportunity for Trump lovers of every stripe to come together and whinge about Twitter and Facebook using their own private property to exclude people whose views they find reprehensible.

One of the people originally invited was anti-Semitic cartoonist Ben Garrison, but after Jewish groups contacted Trump to say what the hell, Garrison was disinvited. Here’s the New York Times.

Ben Garrison, a pro-Trump cartoonist, was originally scheduled to attend, but the White House rescinded his invitation this week, according to Politico, after critics accused him of drawing an anti-Semitic cartoon.

(Well, more than one, actually, but I can see why the New York Times would be sensitive about such a topic.)

ZOMG!!!1! Deplatformed!

Apparently Trump excluded Garrison because he, OK I mean his Jewish supporters, found Garrison’s views reprehensible. I think we can all understand that and approve it, even as we wail to high heaven about Twitter and Facebook doing the exact same thing, only with private property as opposed to the public property of the White House.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

A Question

Filed under: Politics — DRJ @ 7:25 am



[Headline from DRJ]

A question about Epstein and American politics:

Among other things, the Epstein case forces us to ask ourselves some uncomfortable questions about the real meaning of “fake” news. There is, or should be, more to being informed than fact-checking formalism. If you have spent the last few years earnestly consuming mainstream left-of-center media in this country you will be under the impression that the United States has fallen under the control of a spray-tanned Mussolini clone who is never more than five minutes away from making birth control illegal. If you watch Fox News and read conservative publications, you no doubt bemoan the fact that Ronald Reagan’s heir is being hamstrung by a bunch of avocado toast-eating feminist witches.

Meanwhile, Alex Jones’s audience will tell you that America, like the rest of the world, is ruled by a depraved internationalist elite whose ultimate allegiance is not to countries or political parties or ideologies but to one another. These people believe in nothing. They will safeguard their wealth and privilege at any cost. They will never break rank. And they will commit unspeakable crimes with impunity, while anyone who dares to speculate openly is sued or hounded out of public life as a kook.

Is this where we are as a political nation?

— DRJ

Today with Trump

Filed under: Politics — DRJ @ 6:58 am



[Headlines/Tweets from DRJ]

RealDonaldTrump tweet — Social Media Summit today, plus Census news conference:

The White House will be hosting a very big and very important Social Media Summit today. Would I have become President without Social Media? Yes (probably)! At its conclusion, we will all go to the beautiful Rose Garden for a News Conference on the Census and Citizenship.

5:39 AM · Jul 11, 2019

Followed by this Trump Twitter thread from our “so great looking and smart, a true Stable Genius!” President:

A big subject today at the White House Social Media Summit will be the tremendous dishonesty, bias, discrimination and suppression practiced by certain companies. We will not let them get away with it much longer. The Fake News Media will also be there, but for a limited period..

….The Fake News is not as important, or as powerful, as Social Media. They have lost tremendous credibility since that day in November, 2016, that I came down the escalator with the person who was to become your future First Lady. When I ultimately leave office in six……

….years, or maybe 10 or 14 (just kidding), they will quickly go out of business for lack of credibility, or approval, from the public. That’s why they will all be Endorsing me at some point, one way or the other. Could you imagine having Sleepy Joe Biden, or @AlfredENeuman99,..

…or a very nervous and skinny version of Pocahontas (1000/24th), as your President, rather than what you have now, so great looking and smart, a true Stable Genius! Sorry to say that even Social Media would be driven out of business along with, and finally, the Fake News Media!

Up early today in the White House for Fox & Friends. I doubt he’s reading the excerpt of the Tim Alberta book at Politico.

— DRJ


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