Christopher Bedford: The Pathetic, Cruel Reality of the Media's NeverTrump Gimps

From The Federalist.

Every bit of this -- the grinding and gurgling economy of the legacy media and its temporary darlings -- relies on this support structure of peer approval. Doubtful? You can most clearly see it play out live on Twitter, like a Discovery Channel exploration of an ecosystem made up entirely of mosquitoes. And the cool kids' waterboys are the anti-Trump Republicans.

The Never Trumpers are a joke kept alive by this structure of self-support. They haven't been correct on a thing in years, yet continue to earn their supper and an invitation to the party by wholeheartedly agreeing with their new patrons. They predicted ruin when the president was nominated and doom when he was elected, all while his poll numbers have continued to tick upward. They prophesied the shattering of the Republican Party all while it has maintained near-historic discipline in the face of a unified Democrat-media assault. They assumed the end of the economy because America reacted to unfair international trade practices, and terrible global disasters because Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords and killed Iran's terrorist general.

All of their predictions are based on the conventional wisdom and assumptions of an insulted and excluded D.C. intelligentsia, and all are wrong. Indeed, Trump's above decisions have resulted in the very things the Never-Trump Republicans once called for, including closing America's sizable income gap and maintaining a strength and deterrence that are independent of entangling foreign powers.

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In what industry would this hubris survive except for media? Even in politics, a business filled with corrupt liars not even trying to deliver, its practitioners are held to task by elections. Not here. Unaccountable and self-satisfied, the club marches on, complete with back-handed back-slaps to the boys who carry its water.

Meanwhile, David Marcus (also of the Federalist) retracts his 2017 defense of the Clown Prince of Grift, Bill Kristol.

Okay. Trump's violation of arbitrary norms has left Kristol cold. I get it. Now he is launching some bizarre and hopeless effort to reclaim his mantle as someone conservatives should remotely care about. First he founded The Bulwark, a website wholly devoted to taking down Trump that in so doing regularly runs writers like Molly Jong Fast, who wouldn’t let a conservative serve hors d'oeuvres at her fancy Upper East Side dinner parties.

Now Kristol is hosting an event for "principled conservatives" As far as I can tell, his vision of principled conservatism is electing Democrats who support abortion up to and maybe even after birth. No, thanks. If that’s principled conservatism, then throw a MAGA hat on my head, knock some of my teeth out, and buy me a pickup truck and a loyal dog. If Bernie Sanders brings socialism to the White House? Well, at least it's not Trump.
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Bill Kristol is no longer a conservative.

He never was. "Neocons" were disillusioned Democrats who objected to their party's excesses.

But never the basic philosophy or priorities. Just the excesses.

The neocons remade the Republican Party into something that Democrats could join -- and control.

Now that we've taken their control away from them, and begun turning our backs on their preferred Democrat priorities for the GOP, they abandon it.

It was never anything more than a refuge of convenience for them.

Speaking of that, The Federalist drops another MOAB on NeverTrump today.

Based On Tax Filings, Bill Kristol's Been A Democrat For Years

Bill Kristol, currently editor-at-large of The Bulwark, has been funded from the start of his rebellion by big left-of-center donors like Pierre Omidyar and the Hewlett Foundation.

By Hayden Ludwig

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Kristol, currently editor-at-large of the decidedly anti-Trump media outlet The Bulwark, has been funded from the start of his rebellion by big left-of-center donors like Pierre Omidyar and the Hewlett Foundation.

As of 2018, he’s also been backed by a nonprofit connected to a massive network of left-wing groups funding the anti-Trump "Resistance." That network of "dark money" is run by a powerful for-profit company called Arabella Advisors--and its influence is far-reaching and virtually unreported by the mainstream media.

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Sarah Longwell, executive director of DDT and publisher of The Bulwark, says Kristol’s groups receive funds "from all sorts of people who care about democracy and the rule of law," but she declines to name any individual donors or any conservative foundations (which must disclose their grants).

The foundations that send monies through the Hopewell Fund’s hands read like a Who's Who of left-wing money: The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which heavily funds Planned Parenthood and groups that push for population control; the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a massive pass-through that sends tech titans' cash to activists at places like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Tides Foundation; and the Democracy Fund, the philanthropy of eBay founder Omidyar, which has given to Common Cause Education Fund and the Campaign Legal Center, both liberal stalwarts. In fact, Democracy Fund shows up again in this story: they gave DDT $1.6 million in 2018.

Ramesh Ponuru -- a guy who's literally being paid by Michael Bloomberg -- chafes at being called a waterboy for the liberal media.

I mean, he's quite literally being paid by Michael Bloomberg. The guy who laid down a company-wide ban on any of his employees speaking negatively about any Democratic candidate, including himself.

Oh, and he's also on the AEI payroll, of course.

And AEI "fellows" are actually funded by corporate interests who tend to be passionately open borders.

They also dislike social conservatism of any kind, which is why you see other AEI welfare queens like Jonah Goldberg always touting that they were in favor of gay marriage before Barack Obama or Joe Biden was.

Meanwhile, Julie Kelly has some fun with the #WhoFundstheFederalist meme -- which is suspected of being a paid op run by, oh, let's say some people The Federalist has been sharp critics of.

Below: Trump rally in Phoenix.

posted by Ace at 07:10 PM

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