Images | Commentary | Digital Scrapbook
ROBERT STACY MCCAIN:
“…For approximately 3 million people, nothing in the Mueller report could exonerate President Trump of “Russian collusion,” obstruction of justice, and various other high crimes and misdemeanors of which they are certain he is guilty. For those 3 million people (a number reflecting the combined average weekday primetime audience of CNN and MSNBC) Trump’s guilt is an indisputable fact, his presidency an ongoing crime against humanity, his 2016 election a fraud. In a nation of 325 million people, of course, 3 million is less than a single percentage point. However, that hard-core audience of obsessive Trump-haters includes every Democrat in Washington and the vast majority of our nation’s journalists, university faculty, and other such members of the intelligentsia. Therefore, their deranged idée fixehas enormous influence, calling into existence a sort of anti-Trump industry that manufactures a constant output of rage-inducing propaganda. The CNN/MSNBC bubble is the cable-TV equivalent of a cult compound, where dissent from their political religion is forbidden. For the past two years, the fanatics have been told every night by Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon, et al. that the final destruction of Trump was at hand — “the walls are closing in!” — and the left-wing faithful awaited their deliverance from the evil man in the White House…”
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON:
“…For history’s rare multiracial and multiethnic republics, an “e pluribus unum” cohesion is essential. Each particular tribe must owe greater allegiance to the commonwealth than to those who superficially look or worship alike.
Yet over the last 20 years we have deprecated “unity” and championed “diversity.” Americans are being urged by popular culture, universities, schools and government to emphasize their innate differences rather than their common similarities.
Sometimes the strained effort turns comical. Some hyphenate or add accents or foreign pronunciations to their names. Others fabricate phony ethnic pedigrees in hopes of gaining an edge in job-seeking or admissions.
The common theme is to be anything other than just normal Americans for whom race, gender and ethnicity are incidental rather than essential to their character.
But unchecked tribalism historically leads to nihilism…”
Bethany Mandel:
“…It’s not as outlandish as some may think. Just look to how British Jews have handled Jeremy Corbyn, who has brought a once-honorable and philo-Semitic Labour party into league with the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah.
This month, the Jewish Labour Movement passed a no-confidence motion against Corbyn’s leadership. As The Guardian newspaper reported, Labour and Corbyn both “were dealt a blow” when the acting general meeting of the JLM “voted to describe the party as ‘institutionally anti-Semitic.’ ”
Sad to say, but the US Democratic Party is sliding toward a similar fate. Soon, “institutionally anti-Semitic” could serve as an apt description for the Democrats, as well. Consider: Just this week, Pelosi, the most powerful Democrat in government, sat down with . . . none other than Corbyn…”
Bob McManus:
“…Is there a classier lady anywhere than Shannon Slutman, widow of FDNY firefighter Christopher Slutman — killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan while serving as a US Marine Corps reservist?
No, there is not.
Meanwhile, is there a bigger dope than Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, the pandering jerk from Greenwich Village who was hard-pressed to find a few bucks to help send Gold Star kids to college — while lavishing millions on scholarships for the offspring of New York’s legion of illegal, um, arrivers?
Alas, probably. . . .
New Yorkers who are old enough, and not named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, understand the exquisite pain that attends a death in service to America.
The FDNY’s 9/11 agony — 343 dead in a flash of rolling fireballs and collapsing skyscrapers — would have been unbearable save for a 136-year tradition of allegiance to duty in the face of lethal peril. All give some, some give all is a hoary catchphrase for most — but a sustaining ethic for others.
Shannon Slutman understands this. How could she not?
Her husband was a firefighter, and he was a Marine — another organization that stares down mortal danger every day, but at a price.
She, too, is a hero — suffering exquisitely in the moment but at the same time thinking of others.
“The girls and I thank you for the outpouring of love and support,” she wrote last week. “My husband was a humble man . . . passionate about his family as well as being a firefighter and a Marine. Above all, Chris was a man of integrity and a gentleman in all he did. In honor of Chris, please . . . do something kind for another.”
Do something kind for another. Wow.
Now the skirling pipes and the muffled drums will be for Chris Slutman, an echo from the weeks and months following 9/11 — and the universally recognizable sound of heroes being laid to rest.
Fast forward to Deborah Glick and her colleagues, caught last week short-changing Gold Star families while sprinkling $27 million in tuition aid on so-called dreamers…”