Many People Felt Wrong

On ABC's The View on Monday, the women started talking about a school in Washington State cancelling To Kill a Mockingbird and one in Tennessee doing the same for Maus, the Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrative book about the Holocaust. 

A bizarre remark followed, made by, ironically, an individual who professionally took on the surname "Goldberg,"  Whoopi commented "The Holocaust isn't about race." Momentarily interrupted, she continued "No, it's not about race. Because- it's- it's not about race.... It's about man's inhumanity to man.... Let's talk about what it is. It's about how people treat each other."

 

The following morning, Whoopi issued a (sort of) apology, which was as unnecessary as it was predictable. An apology wasn't appropriate because the comments were far less anti-Semitic than they were stupid. And everyone is stupid at one time or another, some of us more often than others.

Whoopi Goldberg doesn't appear to be anti-Semitic nor especially hateful. She is no Linda Sarsour. Instead, Whoopi merely had to be corrected and her audience assured that Adolph Hitler and the Nazis, who argued that Aryans (whomever they are) were the superior race, were wrong in believing that Jews are inferior and that they constitute a race. The show's first guest, B'nai B'rith CEO Joseph Greenblatt, made that point when he explained

You see, Hitler's ideology, the Third Reich, was predicated on the idea that the Aryans, the Germans, were a "master race" and the Jews were a sub-human race. It was a raciailzed Anti-Semitism. Now that might not fit exactly or feel different than the way we think about race in 21st century America, where primarily it's about people of color but throughout the Jewish People's history they have been marginalized. They have been persecuted; they have been slaughtered in large part because many people felt they were not just a different religion but indeed a different race....

Slaughtered in large part because many people felt they were not just a different religion but indeed a different race.

If Whoopi on Monday had maintained that the Holocaust was about race only because the Nazis made it that way, that it was more generally an attack upon the people of a religion, her message would have been accurate.  An allegation that the Nazi movement was ultimately about how people treat each other, she would at least have been philosophically debatable. The Holocaust, though, was specifically the effort by Adolph Hitler and his henchmen to annihilate the people identifying with the religion of Judaism.

We know "Jewish" is not a race. And notwithstanding the phrase "Jewish-American" disturbingly gaining popularity recently, it is not a nationality.  

"Breaking news from Mt. Sinai: Judaism is a religion," we are reminded by God. Among the many points made by Jonathan Greenblatt on The View, that may be the one most ignored, but it would be our peril

.

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"Racist, Racist, Racist, Racist"

As Joe Biden prepares to fulfill his campaign promise to nominate a black woman for the US Supreme Court, blogger Steve M. makes a legitimate, probably valid, point when he argues

Chuck Schumer is informing the press that Senate Democrats intend to have a rapid confirmation process for Biden's appointee. That makes sense, but why say so? Why let the public know that you want to put this nomination on a glide path, so Mitch McConnell can very publicly score a victory when he throws up roadblocks, even if he can't prevent confirmation?

Similarly, he argues

What if Biden had kept this plan private and simply fulfilled it when the time came? He could have told historians for the record that he had a strong belief that the Court would benefit from the presence of a Black woman. He could have allowed his actions to speak, not his words. Now this is a subtext to the confirmation process. Is that a good thing?

But though it is tactically wise not to show your hand before it's necessary, Steve M lapses into an argument which has proven, and continues. to be a long-term strategic error. He states that the nomination process is

already being accompanied by grumbling that his pick will come with an "asterisk" and is an example of "affirmative action." This is racist talk, obviously, but it filters into the discussion. It influences the thinking of middle-of-the-road voters, in a country where many voters aren't solidly in either the racist or anti-racist camp.

Well, no, it is not obviously "racist" talk, inasmuch as even he acknowledges that it might influence the attitudes of moderate voters. And given that Joe Biden explicitly signaled that his choice would be limited to individuals only of a certain race (and gender), it's a little rich to label as racist the talk that the nomination is determined by race.

Moreover, the left has suffered by commonly charging, whatever the merits, that racism is determinative in statements or actions we on the left disprove of. This is in part why Donald Trump said what he did on Saturday:

Donald Trump delivered one of the most dangerous and incendiary speeches in American history last night -- certainly from an ex-president.

Am I writing about this?...you bet! Come back this afternoon! https://t.co/6bCO8jzm72

— Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) January 30, 2022

The prosecutors are not racist. Yet, the charge of "racist" did not come merely out of Donald Trump's fevered, demagogic imagination. Conservatives characteristically believe they are unfairly labelled as racists and don't like it. Being able to turn the accusation on its head, to accuse liberals, Democrats, or any of their other enemies of being "racist," is pure gold. What do you think of that, libs?!

Racists and racism exist in this country, as it probably has in every society heterogenous society. exemplified most dramatically in our most recent ex-President.  But as a serious charge and one intended to be understood that way, it should not be bandied about and used indiscriminately.  Otherwise, real racists and racism are more likely to be written off as unserious. And as Donald Trump has demonstrated, it can be wielded as a weapon by not only the left but also the right.

 

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The Larger Picture

During his monologue on January 21 (beginning at 2:31 of the video below), Bill Maher (at 2:31 of the video below) had remarked

I don't want to live in your paranoid world anymore, your masked, paranoid world. You know, you go out, it's silly now, you have to have a card, you have to have a booster, they scan your head like you're a cashier and I'm a bunch of bananas. I'm not bananas, you are.

I’m watching @billmaher again and they’re complaining about restrictions. Last week I flew on an airplane took a train, stayed at a hotel and ate out at a few restaurants. All my children are at in person school, so where are these draconian restrictions?

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) January 29, 2022

These restrictions do exist but in very few jurisdictions outside of California and New York . Given Maher's persistent depiction of the Democratic left as elitist, it is an egregious oversight to regard as oppressive restrictions largely relegated to selected places on the coasts while the vast majority of the country is more relaxed or libertine.

Inasmuch as there now are well over 2,000 deaths a day in the USA from Covid-19- the most in eleven months- Maher's consistent, continuing condemnation of restrictions is at best ill-timed.

His obsession with precautions toward a coronavirus imposed or suggested by government(s) may bleed over into a more serious misunderstanding, dangerous at any juncture, about policy. At 27:41 of the video below from 1/28, Maher can be seen contending

It starts to.... it starts to look like every other government program. And what is the common thread of government programs?...

They never end, exactly.

Whatever Maher's opinion about restrictions to curtail Covid-19, he either does not understand the nature of government programs which "never end" or he is lapsing into dangerous libertarianism. (Forgive the redundancy.)

Those government programs which never end are entitlement programs. They are comprised of the non-contributory programs of "welfare programs such as SNAP (food stamps) or Pell Grants" and of the contributory programs of Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance. The former have been controversial for decades, but are necessary; the latter have not been controversial the past few decades, but are necessary.

Coronaviruses come and, hopefully, go. None of us alive today ever has been confronted with such a pandemic and our understanding, and opinions of, the crisis are evolving and continue to evolve.

However, government programs which "never end" are the backbone of our commitment to one another.  The complaints about them, in a society welcoming free expression, are acceptable, but they are an attack upon a cornerstone of the social contract we Americans have with ourselves.

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McEnany: "We Broke It, You Fix It"

Kayleigh McEnany, President Trump's last press secretary, has been spinning her disinformation as a commentator for Fox News for the last eleven months. In a recent segment, she and four other conservatives offered opinions in response to a report that Black Lives Matter had complained, in the wake of the shooting of a New York City police officer, that such individuals should not automatically be deemed "heroes."  Veering off topic to the increase in violent crime the past couple of years, McEnanay maintained (beginning at 3:20 of the video below)

When did crime start going up? It started going up in 2020. President Trump was president then. Yes, but why did crime start going up? Why are we seeing homicides at this rate?

It dovetailed exactly with the defund the police movement. It dovetailed with candidate Joe Biden being very wishy washy on defund the police at one point saying, yes, I support redirecting funds.

It did not dovetail with the "defund the police" movement nor with Joe Biden's remarks responding to the protests that summer.. Rather, as The New York Times reported, "murders were already elevated in the first few months of 2020, then increased significantly in June and stayed high through the remainder of the year." Moreover,

..... 2020 appeared to be a year of racial reckoning in the United States. The fight against systemic racism reverberated throughout the country with protests, boycotts and calls to “defund the police.” But, a year after slashing police budgets in response to the growing defund movement, many cities have restored the funding — seeming to confirm activists’ suspicions that city leaders weren’t serious about the change in the first place.

At least a dozen cities cut their police funding or decreased officer numbers during last summer’s protests against police violence following the killing of George Floyd in May 2020. But one by one, city governments began to bolster their police budgets in 2021, with an additional $200 million allocated to the New York City Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department seeing a 3 percent increase in the year after the city council approved a $150 million cut.

The "defund the police" movement is limping along, mostly with the urging of Black Lives Matter, the support of Representatives Cori Bush of Missouri and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and virtually no one else. It has been largely a dud, except in the imagination of Republicans using it as a cudgel to blast Democrats and Democrats (including kingmaker James Clyburn) insisting on saying Democrats should not be using the phrase.

Unfortunately, McEnany continued, claiming

So to get elected he flirted with the defund the police movement. Now it's his responsibility to call out defund the police movement. Give national addresses on crime. Do listening sessions with these families. You are part of the reason we are here. Now, go fix it.

The vast majority of policing in this country is done on the local (municipal or county) or state level, and a President has little direct authority over federal law enforcement. (If McEnany would enjoy a more active Department of Justice currently, she's welcome to say so.) There are approximately 15,400 local police departments and approximately 89,000 local governments in the USA.  In none of the police departments is Joe Biden called "chief" and in none of the municipalities is he called "mayor."

If speeches or "listening sessions" were effective, those local officials would be busy giving or doing them. However, they are often merely performative and would do little to nothing to stem violent crime, with the odds heavily against "little."

Joe Biden is not the reason we are here. The pandemic President Trump encouraged is very likely far more instrumental in promoting violent crime than anything President Biden has said or done or not said or done. Joe Biden is President Biden because of the mounting death toll President Trump was pleased with and because Trump mishandled other problems, and because many Americans (especially black voters) were fed up with the hatred and violence he spewed, encouraged, and has come to represent.

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Suck it Up

An adjunct fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, Eric Kaufmann, has written an article lamenting support for cancel culture among young people. Kauffamn, blasting "cultural conservatism (existence of which is highly debatable), notes (emphasis mine)

Another front in the culture war is censorship of speech, usually justified on grounds that such speech would inflict psychological harm on minorities and that power should be redistributed to “marginalized groups.” Activists pushing for such censorship organize online flash mobs and pressure campaigns, wielding accusations of racism, homophobia, or transphobia to ruin a person’s reputation and have them fired from their position. The problem is especially acute in higher education: the number of academics targeted for cancellation has exploded in recent years.

Would it that support for censorship of speech now was limited to the left.  President Biden is filmed and recorded as referring to a Trump TV reporter as "a dumb son of a bitch," and the right is throwing a bit of a tantrum.  

This is embarrassing for The View & exposes its absurdly partisan liberal bias. Good for @lisaling in refusing to bow to the whataboutery pile-on. 👇👇 https://t.co/oBSo8rn9ye

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 25, 2022

 

Goldberg et al. are right about this, but no matter. The View is not The New York Times, and requiring- or expecting- it to adhere to a strict code of political neutrality is absurd.

We learned last week from CNN that

A bill backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that would prohibit Florida's public schools and private businesses from making people feel "discomfort" or "guilt" based on their race, sex or national origin received first approval Tuesday by the state's Senate Education Committee.

The Republican-controlled committee approved the bill with six Republican senators in favor of the bill and three Democratic senators opposed to it.

Although the bill, named "Individual Freedom," does not mention Critical Race Theory, the term is used in the attached bill analysis that was given to senators.

DeSantis also referred to CRT when he announced the proposed legislation at a media event in December, saying the proposed law would help keep CRT out of the schools and out of the workplace, calling it "state-sanctioned racism" that creates a "hostile work environment."

Even for one opposes the teaching of Critical Race Theory in primary and secondary schools, the bill is seemingly unnecessary because "under Florida Department of Education rules that took effect last June, CRT cannot be taught in schools."

The bill goes way beyond teaching race-centric history in public schools.  CNN continues

The legislation would prohibit individuals from making people "feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin."

Though distorting the topic, DeSantis recognizes that one objective of Critical Race Theory- or CRT-adjacent instruction- is to foist guilt upon the sons (and daughters) for sins of the fathers. However, he does not wish that history be taught objectively, but instead in a manner not to make students feel bad, "discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress." (He, like many of his critics, believe American history should be taught from the perspective they favor.)

Schools should not be used to implant what educators believe to be a proper sense of social justice, nor to shield them from developing the "anguish" they might develop were they to be exposed to any hard truth. A black state legislator in Florida understands "This isn't even a ban on Critical Race Theory, this is a ban on Black history. They are talking about not wanting White people to feel uncomfortable? Let's talk about being uncomfortable. My ancestors were uncomfortable when they were stripped away from their children."

Once upon a time- maybe four, five years ago- liberals understandably were slammed by conservatives as being "snowflakes," unable or unwilling to face harsh realities and melting in the face of criticism. This tendency now has spread to the right. DeSantis and his allies don't want to hurt people's feelings.   Lisa Ling is upset that a conservative reporter has had his feelings hurt by the President of the USA.

Oh, boo hoo. Conservatives, as with many hyper-sensitive liberals, need to grow up.

 

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"Biden The Nazi"

You may recall that

President Joe Biden called Fox News White House reporter Peter Doocy “a stupid son of a bitch” Monday on a live microphone, after Doocy asked Biden whether inflation was a political liability for him.

The verbal slip took place during a White House event on Biden administration efforts to combat inflation. After the president complained that all the press questions were about the military buildup around Ukraine, Doocy shouted: “Will you take questions about inflation? Do you think inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms?”

Thinking his microphone was turned off, Biden responded sarcastically: “No, that’s a great asset. More inflation.”

He added, “What a stupid son of a bitch"....

Doocy said later Monday evening that Biden called him later in the afternoon to apologize for the remark. The White House did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Doocy regularly baits Biden during press events, shouting over other reporters and trying to catch the president off guard.

Biden has a long record of swearing on hot microphones, so the comments were not entirely out of character.

You can be forgiven if you've written off this event as relatively trivial, especially because Doocy "regularly baits" Biden, whose apology appears to have been accepted. However, this incident will not be as easily forgotten by the American-born and accomplished journalist Glenn Greenwald, a Russiagate denier living with his husband in Rio de Janeiro.

“This is what the Nazis did.” pic.twitter.com/DeeYT5qkqE

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 25, 2022

What the Nazis did, to members of the press and to Gypsies, Slavs, gay people, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews (most notoriously), and others is a little worse than calling someone a stupid son of a bitch.  It shouldn't be necessary to explain that to anyone, and Greenwald is no exception.  He is a very knowledgeable individual and never has shown, as far as is known, any signs of psychosis.

However, his Wikipedia page suggests that, though now partial to New Age philosophy, Greenwald was raised as a young child as a Jew. His outburst should warn us that, no matter a person's background, he is not immune to the trivialization of Nazism strain of anti-Semitism.

 

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Journalistic Diversion

Democrats made a good start on Sunday- and it wasn't by a Democrat. On CNN's State of the Union, Dana Bash seemingly asked (at 2:08 of the video below) Senator Bernard Sanders (I-VT)

Here we are, one year into the Biden presidency- those two key priorities are stalled in the Senate, the social spending bill and climate bill, the election reform legislation. It's because of senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema won't get on board. How frustrated are you?

This was less a question than a statement. Bash's point was that progress is being blocked by two Democrats, from West Virginia and Arizona.

Sanders got off on the right track by responding

Well, it's not only those two. It's fifty Republicans who have been adamant in not only pushing an anti-democratic agenda. but also by opposing our efforts to try to lower the cost of prescription drugs, try to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and eyeglasses, to improve the disastrous situation in home health care, child health care, to address the existential threat of climate change.

You've got fifty Republicans who don't want to do anything except criticize the President and then you have, sadly enough, two Democrats who chose to work with the Republicans rather than the President and who have sabotaged the President's effort to address the needs of working families in this country. 

"It's fifty Republicans" and "you've got fifty Republicans," states the Independent who is typically more a Democrat than are most Democrats. Subtly bashing Democrats as well as Republicans- CNN's twist on "fair and balanced"- Bash claims the two Democratic priorities are being stalled because of two Democrats. The fifty Republicans- 50 out of 50- who oppose both pieces of legislation are neatly disappeared by the news host.  Instead, she targets the 4% (two out of 50) of members of the Senate Democratic caucus who are standing in the way.

The Vermont senator continued

Is it frustrating? It sure is but my view, Dana, is we need a new direction, a new approach, in the Senate. I think after six months of negotiating, so-called negotiating, we need closed doors with Manchin and Sinema. We need to start voting. We need to bring important pieces of legislation that impact the lives of working families, right on to the floor of the Senate and if Republicans want to vote against lowering the cost of prescription drugs, climate change, whatever it may be and if the Democrats (or two Democrats) want to join them, let the American people see what's happening, then we can pick up the pieces and pass legislation. But the current course of action..... 

Even after recommending a "new approach" to persuading Manchin and Sinema, Sanders still knows to lay primary responsibility upon Senate Republicans: "if Republicans want to vote against...."

  "

The question posed by Bash represents terrible journalism, and media personalities need to recognize they are being used. If Senate Republicans stand united- as they do on almost all pieces of significant legislation- they need only one Democrat to break ranks with his/her own party.  That results in either the bill getting watered down into virtual nothingness or being killed outright. If the latter, Republicans and the media are enabled to complain that Joe Biden specifically or "the Democrats" generically are ineffective and incapable of governing.

Much of the media, in this case a CNN host, then blames Democrats generally or certain Democrats by name. That plays out as a distinction without a difference because voters conclude that the Democratic Party cannot get out of its own way and is useless at best.

One of the members of the Democratic caucus was having none of it on Sunday.  Others should do the same. The irony, of course, is that the individual standing up for our one pro-democracy party actually is not a registered Democrat.

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