Maybe we should be teaching kids to read

Happy Labor Day Weekend! Do you have a little time off? Maybe you could read a book or story to a kid, or more than one kid. Don't have them stuff money in your underwear like a drag queen might, though.

Or maybe you could write a letter to a kid. We need some help getting the youngsters up to speed in their reasoning capacities. And check out the Book Thread tomorrow, too. Maybe see if there is anything suitable for kids there.

Someone who may not have read much history:

When you are not with what majority of Americans are, then you know, that is extreme. That is an extreme way of thinking.

Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary

Literacy

The day before Biden's big speech, Ace wrote this:

When a reporter asked why Biden was refusing to comment on the slaughter of 13 American soldiers at that gate in Afghanistan -- victims of his catastrophic bug-out -- Karine Jean-Pierre said, "oh, he issued a statement... on twitter."

He didn't appear on video. Because he didn't want to remind anyone. . .

Surprise! His media allies took the hint and did not report on the Kabul bombing.

When you don't actually want a message to get out in the Age of Video, the Age of Illiteracy, you "issue a statement" which requires reading, thus guaranteeing that its reach is self-limited.

And they do the same with Biden's -- and their own -- violent street paramilitaries, refusing to condemn them on video.

Oh, they'll attack "Extreme MAGA" on video.

But never, ever the people firebombing pro-life pregnancy crisis centers.

Never the people threatening Supreme Court Justices.

Those, they encourage.

No one will condemn Biden for inciting his shock troops to action, nor for refusing to tell them to not commit acts of violence.

Because they're all on the same page.

They want this.

Emphasis mine. (Don't comment on old threads).

Some people are already on the edge. Imagine people who are shocked that older people support the police:

These people are like one pitch-fork away from a witch-burnin'.... https://t.co/w0pPUxYq2Z

— Wilfred Reilly (@wil_da_beast630) August 29, 2022

The decline in literacy affects us outside of politics, too. We are getting stupider.

Walter Kirn:

You want to know about a funny feeling? It's a very funny feeling when you're up at 3 am revising a book, giving it your all, finding the best words, while at the exact same time you know that the young public's ability to read the sentences you're writing is swiftly vanishing

This guy's recent Twitter posts are varied and interesting. He recommended our music for today, as a reflection of the mood created by Biden's big war speech.

Speaking of history, do you remember what Democrats were doing just before Biden called "MAGA Republicans" and their leadership threats to "our democracy"?

From a VOX(!) piece at the end of July:

National Democrats, party-aligned nonprofits, and some of their candidates have together spent millions to elevate the most extreme positions of far-right candidates in races in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Colorado, and Maryland, and it's a strategy that's divided party operatives. The total investment this cycle was over $44 million as of last quarter, according to an Open Secrets analysis.

Maybe the White House should have issued their Call to War a little sooner:

Eugene Robinson: Biden speech was an urgent, wartime address https://t.co/qrcrBb8j1N

— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) September 2, 2022

And maybe MSNBC needs to help America improve its reasoning skills:

Who is the Biden regime at war with and how will the regime win this war? Be specific.

Sean Davis

These are questions a real newspaper reporter would have been expected to ask in days of yore.

To be fair, Nancy Pelosi's office fleshed out the Democrat position a bit.

THEN, the next day, we find that Biden did not read his own speech, apparently.

Will we remember that he changed his rhetoric?

Walter Kirn and Washington Free Beacon:

Reality annihilation project

John Hayward:

We're like two hours away from lefty social media censors deleting clips of his Bidenstag Fire speech as "disinformation" and insisting the speech never happened

Did you see Pixy's top story this morning? Twitter had a new plan to fight "extremism" - then Elon Musk arrived.

Pixy:

If you're guessing that "extremism" means normal people opposing fascist lunatics and the "new plan" was more annoying popups and account bans, then you're absolutely correct.

The first cool part is that Elon's bid to buy Twitter caused so much chaos internally that the plan was still-born . . .

Fascism and "semi-fascism"

John Hayward:

This is how you know so much of the bleating about "fascism" or addle-pated mush about "semi-fascism" is utterly insincere: the people hurling the loudest allegations are also in favor of unlimited centralized power. They support all the things fascism cannot survive without.

A review of the past century suggests that Big Government inevitably trends toward fascism over time. Not only is centralized power an absolute pre-requisite for fascism to exist, but it's increasingly clear that centralized power inevitably metastasizes into fascism.

The very notion of fascism or authoritarianism becoming a serious threat in a land of Constitutional rights, individual liberty, small government, and true private ownership of capital is absurd. Fascists under such a system would be blowhards and thugs, not a powerful Party.

Fascism - the system in which capital is privately owned, but controlled by the State and ruling Party - is so dangerous because it removes all restraints on power. The Party's private-sector loyalists can do whatever the State is legally barred from doing. . .

This brings us to a timely post by Neo on the nature of fascism:

Among other things, "fascist" is not the same as "Nazi," although most people are more familiar with the latter group than the former, and most people probably equate the two. If you want to know more, here's an excellent article from 2020 by Angelo Codevilla on the subject of fascism. Fascinating and instructive.

How many people know a thing about this history? Few. How many care? These days, probably very few.

Here are some timely quotes (and remember, this was written back in 2020) . . .

Excellent.

Also, via J.J. Sefton's Morning Report on Aug 31, The Federalist:

The most vociferous defenders of "democracy" are also the ones who sound suspiciously like they want a one-party state. Modern Democrats have stopped debating policy or accepting the legitimacy of anyone who stands in their way. They will pass massive, generational reforms using parliamentary tricks, without any input from the minority. And they don't merely champion their work as beneficial, they claim these bills are needed for the survival of "democracy" and "civilization" - nay, the survival of the planet. Anyone who opposes saving Mother Earth is surely a fascist. There is nothing to debate. The villainization of political opponents isn't new, but we are breaking new ground. We live in an era where a failed former CIA director, Michael Hayden--the man who was on watch during 9/11--says that he has "never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today's Republicans. . . "

. . . It is curious, as well, that the same people who control basically all major institutions in American life--academia, media, unions, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, trade associations, public schools, publishing, the entire D.C. bureaucracy, Hollywood, Madison Avenue, not to mention the presidency and Congress--claim to be victims of budding authoritarianism. The only major institution free of progressives' grip right now is the Supreme Court. And the left is engaged in a systematic effort to delegitimize the court for doing its job and limiting the state's power

You knew a lot of this before you read it. And you are open to learning more. What about the kids?

Teach kids and national news commentators to read.

And Adam Schiff, too.

Hilarious summary of the Jussie Smollett affair by Victor Davis Hanson! pic.twitter.com/4kCFq161Ya

— Cara 1776 (@CaraM7777) September 1, 2022

Maybe more of us should have read some written news reports from local sources (even some which were part of national networks) before Dave Chappelle's reportage. Heh.

Teach kids to read. Even white kids

Music

(Don't Fear) The Reaper. That speech put out some definite vibes. Does this song fit?

Hope you have something nice planned for this holiday weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's Thread, August 27, What are you getting for your new student loan debt?

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 11:22 AM

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