Respect is a Declining Value

For John, BLUF:  The US Congress used to be known for courtesy, even if it was only faux courtsey.  The Lady from Baltimore, the current Speaker, seems to have beaten that down.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Pelosi Banned Congresswoman’s Military Officer Son From Attending Her Swearing-In

From The Daily Caller, by Senior Congressional Correspondent Henry Rodgers, 11 February 2021, 1:08 PM ET.

Here is the lede plus two:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would not allow Republican New York Rep. Claudia Tenney to have her son present in the gallery for her swearing-in Thursday, Tenney told the Daily Caller.

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer sent out a tweet Thursday morning with the news that Pelosi denied Tenney’s request to let her son, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, watch her get sworn in from above the floor in the gallery.  The Daily Caller contacted Tenney about the news, to which she confirmed it was true.

“I guess he’s considered a risk,” Tenney told the Caller.  Tenney said that Pelosi told her the news about her son not being allowed to watch from the gallery in a “text from staff and in person,” adding that there were “several exchanges.”

Yes, this is an egregious expression of lack of respect, an expression of discourtiousness.  Sort of like ripping up the State of the Union speech, in public.

Yes, I gave Congresswoman Tenney money last weekend, to help defray her legal expenses.

Yes, Speaker Pelosi fell right into lockstep with President Trump regarding being courteous, and then outpaced him.

Yes, Rep Tenney's son is a US Marine.

Regards  —  Cliff

Wokeness Across the World

For John, BLUF:  The problem with immigrants is they bring the horrors from their home nations with them and react to them when they see the early indicators of same here in the US.  This is bad for Democrats.  Democrats should oppose immigration, except from Commonwealth Nations.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Wokeism Is Not Cool, Chinese People Know Too Well

From The Epoch Times, from Writer Jean Chen, 26 January 2021.

Here is the lede plus five:

Let’s begin with a true story that happened in China.

Mr. Zhang (an alias) was my father’s high school English teacher in the 1960s.  Twenty years before that, he worked as an interpreter for American liaison officers in China during WWII.  He and his wife were from rich families.  After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power, they lived a low-profile life in order to avoid troubles that might arise because of their family backgrounds and his experience working with Americans.

In 1966, the Cultural Revolution began.  Young people were encouraged to accuse, turn in, or even beat up their parents to prove their revolutionary devotion, or to break away from their unfavorable family backgrounds.  Those who dared to do that were considered heroes.

Mr. Zhang’s teenage daughter, Ling (an alias), a classmate of my father, put up a poster accusing her parents of dancing the waltz and having capitalist thoughts.  This ignited a ferocious campaign against her father.  Posters attacking him were everywhere, calling him a “monster.”  In front of mass rallies, half of his hair was shaved.  With a big and heavy board hanging on his neck with his name crossed out with red ink, he was beaten, spat on, and cursed at.

As a result, Mr. Zhang’s son went insane and the whole family suffered tremendously.  Ling lived her life with immense guilt.  Two years ago, before her death from cancer, her parents came to visit her.  However, she kept her eyes closed, pretending to be asleep because she didn’t dare look at them.

This is just one of millions of sad stories that happened in China.  Families torn apart, friends betraying friends, teachers beaten to death by students….

Respect for the opinions of others is part of what free speech is about.

On the other hand, attacking people for their opinions, as opposed to reasoning with them, respectfully presenting your own opinion, is tyranny.

Regards  —  Cliff

Titles of Office Are / Should Be Temporary

For John, BLUF:  They are not our betters.  They are our equals, elected to serve us.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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America has a nobility problem, and it means our leaders don't pay for their failures

Here is the sub-headline:

Politicians and bureaucrats are America's ruling class and they should start paying a price for failure. Accountability isn't just for little guys.

From USA Today, by Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds, 16 July 2018.

Here is the lede plus †hree:

Our Constitution forbids the creation of “titles of nobility.”  The Framers thought it was important enough that the prohibition appears twice, once forbidding the federal government from doing it, and elsewhere extending the ban to the states.

And Americans, to the extent that they give the question any thought at all, probably think that the ban works:  After all, nobody’s squiring about the United States, sporting titles like Duke of Pennsylvania or Earl of Internal Revenue.

But now I’m wondering if we don’t have a problem.  First, Charles C.W. Cooke, a Brit who just recently became an American citizen, noted the practice of calling former government officials by their former titles and called it "grotesque.”  It’s something he discussed in a recent book.

"By custom, we allow our politicians to retain their titles for life. Throughout the 2012 election, Mitt Romney was referred to as 'Governor Romney,' though he had not been in public office for six years," Cooke wrote.  "One can only ask, 'Why?'  America being a nation of laws and not men, political power is not held in perpetuity, and there is supposed to be no permanent political class.

I think the Law Professor has a point.  We need to respect our elected officials, but we need to remember that they are citizens, just like us.

But, undue respect will be a hard habit to break.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit, who resurrected this item for Sunday.

Regards  —  Cliff

Tribalism in American Politics

For John, BLUF:  If one side or the other will not grant their opponents the right to be wrong then we will be in political trouble.  Trouble if those seen wrong are shunned.  Deep trouble if they are rooted out and punished.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Progressive Tribalism Beats The War Drums

From The American Conservative, by Mr Rod Dreher, 7 October 2018.

Here is the lede:

I would like fair-minded liberal readers to take a look at this op-ed from The New York Times, and consider that this is exactly the kind of left-wing racist rant that drives many of us white people into the arms of the Republican Party — not out of any particular love for the GOP, but out of fear of what this progressive racism would do in power.  Alexis Grenell, the author, is a white woman and a Democratic strategist.  Here’s the headline on her article.  Note well that authors do not choose their headlines.  This was written by someone at the Times:

White Women, Come Get Your People

.

They will defend their privilege to the death.

As an aside the headline is a bit awkward.

Here is the conclusion of the article, and it points to a bad future if we don't mend our ways:

Alexis Grenell — who earned her master’s degree in 2015 from an Ivy League school (Columbia) — is the face and the voice of elite liberalism.  The Times editors read her savage essay and considered it within the mainstream of commentary, whereas no responsible editor of any serious publication would have published the same kind of rhetoric wielded against people of color.

Rivers of blood … blood pact … gender traitors … defend their privilege to the death.

This is the language of tribalism.  This is blessed by elite liberal gatekeepers, as long as it is wielded by the Righteous Tribe, against the Deplorable Tribe.

Members of the Deplorable Tribe are fools if they fail to notice this, and to respond to it.  And you’re a fool if you don’t recognize that you are part of the Deplorable Tribe whether you want to be or not.

I prefer not to be.  I prefer to be part of the American tribe, judging people not on the basis of their reproductive organs or the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.  That’s the America I want to live in.  It’s the America that people like Alexis Grenell and the editors of The New York Times want to end.

Useful to get that learned.  These people are Jacobins.

So the accusation of being a Jacobin may not mean much to you, but if that is so, it is because you don't know your history.  Let us cheat and check the dictionary:

jacobin | noun

historical  a member of a democratic club
established in Paris in 1789,  The Jacobins were the
most radical and ruthless of the political groups
formed in the wake of the French Revolution, and in
association with Robespierre they instituted the
Terror of 1793-4.

The Terror?  Here is a statistic:

Between June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France, of which 2,639 were in Paris.

In the Comments of Mr Rod Dreher's article:

I’m just waiting for the day when the NYT changes it’s tagline to “White People are our Misfortune”.

A classic reference.

Like Mr Dreher, "I prefer to be part of the American tribe".  And I prefer that we give others the space to be wrong, and they us.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Situational Awareness, or SA

For John, BLUF:  Driving south on Nesmith Sunday, I saw an ambulance coming my way, lights flashing.  Lots of lights.  I pulled over and a white Honda flashed by me on my left, then apparently seeing the ambulance, slowed and moved right.  This is an example of lacking Situational Awareness, of not having SA.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Zero Situational Awareness:  Chelsea Clinton Attacks Trump for Being Anti-American

From the Victory Girls Blog, by Lisa Carr, 27 May 2018.

I think Sarah Hoyt was a little tough on Miss Chelsea:

SURE THING.  I’M ALWAYS SHOCKED THAT GIRL REMEMBERS TO EXHALE.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Progressives Against Women

For John, BLUF:  Feminism is for Progressives.  Conservative women are just male enablers and thus are non-persons.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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What Conservative Women Can Learn About Liberals From the Way They Treat Dana Loesch

From Town Hall, by Mr John Hawkins, 10 March 2018.

A bit harsh toward Progressives, but on the other hand, they are being a little harsh themselves.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff