Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Horist: Why is Left Wing Violence Acceptable?

By Larry Horist 

Left wing violence does not seem to be as serious to mainstream media

In response to the tragedy in Charlottesville, Virginia, President Trump condemned the acts of violence in the “strongest terms.”  He expanded his condemnation to include ALL who promote or carry out violence.  Seems like a reasonable comment.
For the next several days, and counting, the left wing news media spun a narrative that by not mentioning the perpetrators and provocateurs by name, the President was actually endorsing the white supremacy organizations.  To reinforce this claim, they dredged up previous times where they, themselves, interpreted Trump’s words to mean something other than their defined meaning.  Sure, he condemned David Duke, but not quickly enough.  He repeatedly preached against violence, but not in the right words. It was what Trump did not say that became the point of criticism.  Consider this point again.  The President strong words of condemnation against those who perpetrated violence in Charlottesville and any others who have similar motives had no meaning, but what he did not say did.
His words were described as a “dog whistle,” meaning that his actual words of condemnation were to be interpreted as a subtle show of support for the hate mongers.  Dog whistle is a nonsense term that self-justifies interpreting a person’s words to any meaning a critic might prefer.  A dog whistle is for dogs.
The Presidents condemnation was reiterated by virtually every person in his administration, many naming the offensive organizations.  This included Vice President Pence, National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster and others.  Among those strongly condemning the action AND the organizations was Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who immediately launched a federal investigation.
In the perverse world inside the New York City/D.C. press bubble, these condemnations by Trump administration officials, including his most senior staff, were interpreted as repudiations of the President’s statements.  Even after the White House issued a statement on behalf of the President – his official statement – repudiating the white supremacist groups by name, the major media continued to malign the President by ignoring his more specific statements.
The hyperbole of the media, especially CNN and MSNBC, was boundless.  The mainstream media, with their panels of parroting pundits, began to characterize the President with offensive appellations that are usually the rhetoric of the absurdly ignorant.  Claiming that Trump’s failure to read the script they offered up in hindsight, major news personalities called him a racist, a Nazi, a white supremacist, a provocateur of violence.  They lashed out at anyone who would not take up their intellectually corrupt cause in demonizing Trump to the point of impeachment or worse.  They descended on the President with all the table etiquette of a pack of jackals.
They assassinated his character over condemning violent groups “on many sides.”  The fact that they found those words so offensive is due to their acquiescence, if not endorsement, of the preponderance of political violence emanating from the radical left.  For proof, one only need review the NY/DC media’s coverage of the attack on Republican congressman or their limited, if any, coverage on the calls for the random killing of police officers by left wing hate groups.  For years, the mainstream media has minimized the meaning of the ubiquitous left wing violence.  Campus riots and the trail of crime and violence in the wake of Occupy Wall Street were largely brushed off.  The left and its media spokespeople have no moral pedestal from which to pass judgment.  For these reasons, the left wing press could not address the other side of the confrontation and took umbrage when Trump did.
One thing I learned on the streets of Chicago is that when you have two gangs egging for a fight, you will get a fight.  The reason for the conflict and who threw the first punch – or nowadays – fired the first shot is generally unknown and pretty much unimportant.  Most times people wound up with bloody noses or black eyes, but sometimes people died.
In many ways, the tragedy that occurred in Charlottesville was similar to those urban gang wars.  By both their nature and its intent the hateful white supremacist organizations are provocative and prone to violent confrontation.  This is common knowledge and has been as long as I can remember.
I recall the ragtag remnants of the staunchly anti-Semitic KKK marching in Skokie, Illinois – arguably one of the most Jewish communities in America. It was not their intention to protest, but to provoke.  The arrival in Charlottesville was no different.
What gets lost in the news – intentionally, I believe – is the motivation and intention of some of those who came to Charlottesville to protest.  Most came to peacefully demonstrate and show the world that the hate mongers do not represent American values.  Some, however, were there to provoke physical confrontation as they have done in other areas of the country.  And they did.  To doubt the culpability of the rally protesters, one only need recall the violent confrontation that commenced long before the fatal act of terrorism.  This was a fight that could not have been more predictable if it had been advertised as a boxing card event.
Two hateful elements met on the streets of Charlottesville egging for a fight, much like those urban gangs of my youth. Unfortunately, the police were not adequately prepared to impose order.  Like any such confrontation, shouts led to shoves and the cycle of violence was begun.  When Trump condemned ALL those who promote and provoke violence, he is not wrong.


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Trump Tells the Truth, and the Press Goes Crazy
 
By John Hinderaker


This afternoon President Trump conducted an impromptu press conference at Trump Tower. Asked about Charlottesville, Trump said there was blame on both sides. The press went ballistic:

A combative President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday “there is blame on both sides” for the deadly violence last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, appearing to once again equate the actions of white supremacist groups and those protesting them.
In the AP’s telling, the antifas were just “protesting” the white supremacists. No mention of fighting, no reference to baseball bats.
The president’s comments effectively wiped away the more conventional statement he delivered at the White House one day earlier when he branded members of the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists who take part in violence as “criminals and thugs.”
Why? There is no inconsistency between neo-Nazis being criminals and thugs and antifas sharing the blame for the violence in Charlottesville. They are criminals and thugs, too.
The president’s retorts Tuesday suggested he had been a reluctant participant in that cleanup effort. During an impromptu press conference in the lobby of his Manhattan skyscraper, he praised his original response to Charlottesville and angrily blamed liberal groups in addition to white supremacists for the violence. Some of those protesting the rally to save a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee were “also very violent,” he said.
“There are two sides to a story,” he said. He added that some facts about the violence still aren’t known.
The AP wants us to believe that Trump’s statements were a disaster. His aides “stood in silence,” John Kelly “crossed his arms and stared down at his shoes,” Sarah Sanders “looked around the room trying to make eye contact with other senior aides.” And “[o]ne young staffer stood with her mouth agape.
The AP never questions, however, that what Trump said was true. In fact, it was indisputable. The antifas, a fascist group that has also rioted at Washington, Berkeley, Seattle and other places, typically wears black clothes and masks, arms its members with baseball bats, ax handles and 2x4s, and often attacks random people on the street. Its behavior in Charlottesville was not much better than usual. New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg tweeted, “The hard left seemed as hate-filled as alt-right. I saw club-wielding ‘antifa’ beating white nationalists being led out of the park.”
 
The press calls the fascists “counter-demonstrators”

Anyone who has watched videos of the Charlottesville riot knows that Trump’s description is accurate. In this video, you can see antifa fascists initiating violence against both white supremacists and the police:
 

Who, exactly, brings bats and clubs to a demonstration?
 
Here again, you see the so-called counter-demonstrators initiate the violence:
The video is at: https://youtu.be/aOT3wDR7WZU 

This longer video shows a confrontation that seems to have been initiated by the white supremacists. Toward the end, multiple black-clad and helmeted antifas assault an old man:
Why does the press go crazy over a statement by President Trump that is patently true? “[T]here is blame on both sides.” Because left-wing violence is becoming a prominent feature of our political scene, and the Democratic Party press wants to cover it up. Murderers inspired by Black Lives Matter have attempted to kill, and in several instances have actually killed, policemen. Antifa fascists, doing their best Nazi brownshirt imitation, have rioted in cities around the country, smashing windows and attacking passers-by. And, of course, Democratic Party activist and Bernie Sanders campaign worker James Hodgkinson attempted to assassinate Congressional Republicans, grievously wounding the House Majority Whip, Steve Scalise.
This violence is unhelpful to the left-wing cause, so reporters and editors suppress references to it. They were delighted to have an opportunity to report, for a change, on right-wing violence perpetrated by James Fields. And they don’t want truth, or any sort of nuance, to get in the way.
This is, I think, a winning issue for President Trump and his allies. Any time the Democrats scream, “You can’t say that!” the best policy is to go on saying it.
UPDATE: Additional quotes from yesterday’s mini-presser, not referenced by the AP:
“Let me ask you this. What about the fact they came charging — that they came charging, with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do. So, you know, as far as I’m concerned, that was a horrible, horrible day. Wait a minute. I’m not finished. I’m not finished, fake news. That was a horrible day.
“Is it the same level as neo-Nazis?” a reporter asked.
“I will tell you something,” Trump said.
“I watched those very closely, much more closely than you people watched it, and you have – You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now. You had a group, you had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit and they were very, very violent.”
Trump is right on the money. Liberals hate it when he tells the truth!

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/08/a-monument-falls-in-durham.php