History of Progressive (Being Retired a Second Time"

 THOSE WHO CANNOT REMEMBER THE PAST ARE CONDEMNED TO QUOTE SANTAYANA: 

Progressive Dem candidates: Please don’t call us “progressive.”

Left-wing candidates from Pennsylvania to North Carolina to Missouri are shying away from the P-word on the campaign trail, in messaging and online fundraising, and even in media blitzes, signaling an attempt to rebrand their wing of the party as Democrats debate how to win the midterm elections…

While some high-profile contenders still use the moniker, others want to be thought of in different terms. Pennsylvania’s Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who’s seeking the party’s nomination for a coveted Senate seat, prefers a different word: populist…

A source close to another self-styled Midwestern populist described “two lanes of populism” taking hold as contenders look for more accurate ways to portray what’s unfolding in their regions. Voters in these areas, this person said, aren’t consumed with the detailed policy proposals that excite many national progressives in Washington, D.C., and prefer an anti-establishment, against-the-system sentiment…

“It is a reaction to progressivism somehow being attached to socialism or communism,” said [Dwight] Bullard. “You have a lot of apprehension, regression, people who just are scared.”

As Fred Siegel wrote in his 2014 history of the American left, The Revolt Against the Masses:

Liberals were those Progressives who had renamed themselves so as to repudiate Wilson. “The word liberalism,” wrote Walter Lippmann in 1919, “was introduced into the jargon of American politics by that group who were Progressives in 1912 and Wilson Democrats from 1916 to 1918.” The new liberalism was a decisive cultural break with Wilson and Progressivism. While the Progressives had been inspired by a faith in democratic reforms as a salve for the wounds of both industrial civilization and power politics, liberals saw the American democratic ethos as a danger to freedom at home and abroad.

* * * * * * * *

The best short credo of liberalism came from the pen of the once canonical left-wing literary historian Vernon Parrington in the late 1920s. “Rid society of the dictatorship of the middle class,” Parrington insisted, referring to both democracy and capitalism, “and the artist and the scientist will erect in America a civilization that may become, what civilization was in earlier days, a thing to be respected.” Alienated from middle-class American life, liberalism drew on an idealized image of “organic” pre-modern folkways and rhapsodized about a future harmony that would reestablish the proper hierarchy of virtue in a post-bourgeois, post-democratic world.

Well, it is the twenties once again, so I’m not at all surprised to see the P-word retired being retired for a second time, to memory hole the excesses of the previous decade.

90Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll   

 

Canada - "This is What's Coming" Peterson

 Canada - "This is What's Coming" Peterson

History Should Be Our Guide (Ukraine) - VDH

 History Should Be Our Guide (Ukraine)

There are several historical referents we should keep in mind about the Ukraine war.

 

Senators Release Bank Records Showing Payments to Hunter Biden From China

By Zachary Stieber

 

March 30, 2022 Updated: March 30, 2022

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Newly released bank records show that payments were made to President Joe Biden’s son from a Chinese Communist Party-linked company.

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) presented the records on the Senate floor on March 28 and March 29.

One showed a wire payment of $100,000 to Owasco, one of Hunter Biden’s firms, from CEFC China Energy, a now-defunct company closely associated with the Chinese regime,

Another showed a wire transfer of $5 million to Hudson West, a company Hunter Biden invested in and managed, from Northern International Capital, a business that partnered with CEFC. A contract also made public by the senators showed $500,000 went to Hunter Biden as a “one-time retainer fee.”

Two others showed a $1 million payment made to Hudson West by CEFC and a transfer of $1 million from Hudson West to Owasco, with the money appearing to go to Hunter Biden for the purposes of representing Patrick Ho, a Chinese businessman who has helped CEFC gain advantages through bribery.

The receipts are just some of the records that “undeniably show strong links between the Biden family and communist China,” Grassley said.

The $100,000 transaction was dated Aug. 4, 2017; the $5 million transfer was dated Aug. 8, 2017; the two other payments were made on Nov. 30, 2017, and March 22, 2018, respectively.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer didn’t respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment; the White House also didn’t respond to an inquiry.

For years, Grassley and Johnson have been probing Hunter Biden, who is under federal investigation, producing a report in 2020 that exposed connections between the younger Biden and Chinese nationals connected to the Chinese regime and military.

Among them is Ye Jianming, a Chinese oil tycoon who founded CEFC. Ye was put under investigation by Chinese authorities in 2018 and hasn’t been seen since then.

President Joe Biden walks with his son Hunter Biden, second from left, as Hunter carries his son Beau and walks next to his wife Melissa Cohen, center, before boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., on March 26, 2021. (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo)

The senators discovered that Hunter Biden made millions from Ye and his company and millions more from Dong Gongwen, a financier and business associate of Ye. Messages later obtained by The Epoch Times showed Hunter Biden had a close relationship with Ye, including being the first guest at the Chinese businessman’s new apartment, while other messages listed Joe Biden and Dong as “office mates.”

Andrew Bates, who at the time was representing Joe Biden’s campaign, claimed the Senate report was using taxpayer dollars to launch “an attack founded on a long-disproven, hardcore right-wing conspiracy theory.” Bates is now a White House spokesman.

Acknowledging their efforts have drawn criticism, Grassley told colleagues on March 28 that the report was largely based on records from the Obama administration and almost a dozen interviews with government officials.

Grassley said he and Johnson “did what any good investigator would do: we gathered even more records to prove all these people wrong.”

The senators said they plan on releasing the financial records they’ve obtained in full. Their offices didn’t respond by press time to requests for more information.

“Bank records like this piece of evidence are pretty hard to deny and sweep under the rug,” Johnson told senators, asserting that the documents show corruption and conflicts of interest that could compromise Biden.

“The evidence is stunning, and it is growing.”

Frank Fang contributed to this report.

 Mississippi Beats Biden

How Mississippi Flipped the Script on the Labor Shortage

This shows how a CONSERVATIVE GOP can save his state TRUE Hardship caused by Liberal INSANITY.....

Others should follow his example!

By Jonathan Bain
March 29, 2022

 Joe Did That

Blistering New Report Takes Down Media's Gas Price Narrative,

 Reveals 81 Ways Biden Has Sent Prices Sky High

New report: 255,000 ‘excess votes’ for Biden in six key 2020 states.

 NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: 

New report: 255,000 ‘excess votes’ for Biden in six key 2020 states. 

“A new deep dive into discrepancies in the ballot counts of six key battleground states in the 2020 election has turned up more than 250,000 ‘excess votes’ for President Joe Biden, and maybe far more.”

I’m told that one reason Youngkin won in Virginia was that Republicans there maintained a full-court press on polling places and counting centers to deter fraud. That needs to happen everywhere.

89Posted at 8:30 am by Glenn Reynolds   

This is a sad moment — for Canada

 REX MURPHY: 

Justin Trudeau has become a punchline on the world stage — for good reason: This is a sad moment — for Canada and its standing within the free world.

It is a brazen thing to go to other countries like some John the Baptist for the democracies, shortly after having trampled all over the rights of those involved in a largely peaceful democratic protest.

Let me make a plain, direct statement: The trucker protest was not an attempted coup. It was not a rebellion. It was not an assault on Canada’s democracy. It was none of those things.

The convoy protest was strong and present, but it was unthreatening and largely non-violent. It was superbly Canadian. It should not be slandered.

And it surely should not be used as some sort of example of anti-democratic forces by the leader of the country in which it took place. Most especially when he goes about the world delivering passionate defences of the idea of democracy itself.

To defend democracy, you should adhere to its principles. Don’t go to Brussels to preach what you skip over in Ottawa. Some examples:

For a start, don’t sic the banks on peaceful protesters. . . .

And yet, three weeks later, after all that, Trudeau went over to Brussels and presumed to tell European parliamentarians that, “The leaders of those convoys were effective in turning citizens with real anxieties against the system best suited to allay those concerns.”

He presumed to lecture them on “leadership” and confronting the threat posed by Russia. Yet, given his record, who is listening? Given his government’s treatment of veterans, who can believe his fealty to the Canadian military? Given his lack of interest in civil liberties, who would not question his commitment to democratic principles? This is indeed a sad moment — for Canada and its standing within the free world.

Indeed. Related: Canadian Media Ignores Scolding of Trudeau as Rest of World Media Reports It:

Despite Canadian legacy media outlets burying the story, the reprimand of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by European parliamentarians in Brussels has made headlines around the world.

Trudeau was treated to scathing condemnation by several Members of European Parliament (MEP) after giving a speech to the European Union on Wednesday.

Croatian MEP Mislav Kolakusic called out the Canadian prime minister for engaging in a “dictatorship of the worst kind” over his treatment of peaceful Freedom Convoy protestors in February.

At least three other MEPs echoed Kolakusic’s remarks, with Romanian MEP Cristian Terheș entirely boycotting Trudeau’s speech.

Just think of the Canadian media as Liberal Party operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.

66Posted at 8:24 am by Glenn Reynolds   

D

Florida Education Bill Looks Different Depending on Where You Stand. - Zito

 SALENA ZITO: 

Florida Education Bill Looks Different Depending on Where You Stand.

When you come to “the happiest place on earth,” your main focuses usually are: minimizing wait times for your favorite ride; not breaking the bank on food and tchotchkes, and — if your children can stand yet another wait in line — to get as close as possible to their favorite Disney character.

Most folks will tell you that politics, thank goodness, is the furthest thing from anyone’s mind.

In fact, on a recent sunny March day, the only thing close to political at Disney was the fact that masks were no longer required, and most of the parkgoers were happily embracing that freedom.

Two weeks later, Disney is now the center of a political fight largely pushed by social justice activists and the national press: They’ve dubbed a Florida education bill restricting sexualized discussions until after third grade as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. In response, Disney employees have staged walk-outs and protests at the parks, forcing the CEO to criticize the governor and to use Disney social media as a platform for LGBTQ rights.

First, the facts: Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act for kindergarten through third grade students does not have the word “gay” in it, nor does it prohibit students of LGBTQ families from discussing them. It does bar the “instruction” of sexual orientation or gender identity for that 4- through 8-year-old age group.

A Politico/​Morning Consult poll showed a wide margin of American voters support banning the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity to students that young, 51% to 36%.

There are two different things here worth addressing.

First, when many in the media repeatedly used the “Don’t Say Gay” characterization of the bill, the phrase inevitably got passed around and repeated by cultural elites, and soon leaders of global corporations felt compelled to express their concerns. The entertainment industry took a run at it in a “Saturday Night Live” skit; President Joe Biden chimed in by calling the bill “hateful”; and ESPN interrupted the NCAA women’s tournament for a moment of silence.

Second, it is clear that corporate America is willing to be bullied into political culture wars by the press and by activists, something their consumers wish they would stay out of — even when they agree. A survey last year showed that 59% of Americans think companies’ political positions add to our divisiveness. Over half of self-identified Democrats agreed. Another related poll found 66% of Americans thought corporations should not be taking political positions. Again, that includes over half of Democrats.

“I think people hate the politicization of everything,” said Youngstown State political science professor Paul Sracic.

And yet.

Flashback: Hollywood Is a Sex-Grooming Gang.

54Posted at 8:29 am by Glenn Reynolds   

R

Putin's History is Pretty Consistent

 Putin's History is Pretty Consistent

NYT "It's True - Hunter's Laptop Exists"

NYT "It's True - Hunter's Laptop Exists" 

Georgia ballot harvesting probe - Still Happen'n

 I HAD BEEN RELIABLY ASSURED IN THE MSM THAT THIS WAS THE CLEANEST ELECTION EVAH! 

 Georgia ballot harvesting probe advances as state elections board approves subpoena.

It’s almost like the MSM is non objective and partisan.

From the article:

The Georgia Elections Board has approved a subpoena to secure evidence and testimony in an ongoing investigation into whether third-party liberal activists illegally gathered thousands of absentee ballots in the 2020 general election and a subsequent runoff that determined Democrat control of the U.S. Senate.

And:

Officials said the new subpoena powers will be used by Raffensperger’s office to secure evidence from the election integrity group True the Vote, which filed a complaint in November saying it had acquired videotapes, a whistleblower’s admission and cell phone location records showing what appeared to be a widespread ballot harvesting operation in the November 2020 general election and January 2021 election runoff.

The group’s complaint said surveillance camera footage showed ballot traffickers delivering stacks of ballots to drop boxes between midnight and 5 a.m. and cell phone records showed as many as 240 activists made such deliveries.

And:

“John Doe described a network of non-governmental organizations that worked together to facilitate a ballot trafficking scheme in Georgia,” True the Vote wrote in its complaint. “John Doe claimed to have been one of many individuals paid to collect and deliver absentee ballots during the early voting periods of the November 2020 General Election and the January 2021 Runoff Election.”

I’m gonna need my shocked face!

 

 

30Posted at 6:59 am by Sarah Hoyt   

N

News for Mar 21, 2022 INSTAPUNDIT

 PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.

Kevin Downey Jr: The F*****g B***s of the Left Makes Me Mr. Crankypants. “A ‘professor of economics’ has graciously come up with ways for us vegetable-dodging hillbillies to survive. How cute.”

Victoria Taft: Imagine a World Without Media and Big Tech Lying About Hunter Biden’s Laptop. “Let’s go over a few items that would not have happened under Trump but did happen under the disastrous presidency of Joe Biden.”

Yours Truly: OUCH! ‘Hold It’ Says Dem Maura Healey to Girls Who Don’t Want to Share the Ladies Room with Men. “Just hold it until the nice young woman puts her girl-penis away, dear.”

Bonus: Florida Man Friday: You Won’t Believe What He Did at Starbucks (Or How Many Times He Got Tazed).

7Posted at 10:08 am by Stephen Green   

MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE Mar 20, 2022

 

MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE

Nasdaq 13,893.84 -11.19%

S&P 4,463.12 -6.36%

Dow 34,754.93 -4.36%

10-Year 2.153% +63.9 bps

Bitcoin $41,337.83 -10.73%

Oil $104.86 +39.42%

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: Last Monday, the chart above showed the S&P’s year-to-date performance at -11.8%. That drop has been cut nearly in half following the stock market’s best week in more than a year. In fact, the index is up 5.6% since Russia invaded Ukraine, highlighting investors’ confidence in the US economy. Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky likened Russia’s invasion of his country to the Holocaust in an appeal to Israeli lawmakers for military aid yesterday. So far in the conflict, Israel has tried to play the role of mediator—it has not sanctioned Russia or its oligarchs, but has been active in helping Ukrainian humanitarian efforts.

ESG Goes to War

 https://amgreatness.com/2022/03/14/esg-goes-to-war/

Morals or WOKE?

ESG Goes to War

Support for the modish “environmental, social, and governance” movement is mainly empty sloganeering—as multinational corporations have shown with their response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

By Richard J. Shinder

March 14, 2022

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has given rise to an exodus of Western-based multinational firms from the Russian market. Emblematic of this was BP (formerly British Petroleum), the British energy firm, deciding in the days after Vladimir Putin’s forces entered Ukraine to sell its 20 percent stake in Rosneft, Russia’s state-controlled energy company. Since then, a number of other large companies have elected to suspend or exit their operations in Russia, and the Wall Street Journal and other publications have tracked the growing number of Western businesses pulling out from the Russian market, a list spanning myriad industries and headquarters countries that includes Apple, Boeing, Ford, Volkswagen, American Express, H&M, FedEx, and Google.

It may be that these companies are leaving theRussian market entirely for morally commendable reasons in the face of Putin’s naked aggression and violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty. But it raises another question: why now? 

MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE Mar 14, 2022

 

MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE

Nasdaq 12,843.81 -17.90%

S&P 4,204.31 -11.79%

Dow 32,944.19 -9.34%

10-Year 2.044% +53.0 bps

Bitcoin $37,752.16 -18.47%

Oil $107.65 +43.14%

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 8:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: Investors see danger everywhere they look, from surging commodity prices to an upcoming interest rate hike by the Fed. One piece of good news is that gas prices declined over the weekend after hitting record highs last week. Ukraine: Russia struck a military base in western Ukraine, killing 35 people. It amps up concerns because the base is located less than 10 miles from the border of Poland—a NATO member. Following the attack, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US will “defend every inch of NATO territory.”