In 2018 I was at CPAC with my sons when the younger seeing that I was, as usual, driving myself to a ridiculous point suggested doing something different, so we went on a little trip to a pinball place in Bethesda where I found what I thought was the most significant interview of the trip.
and wrote why this interview was so significant
Now a person like my self who has covered angry mobs last year, and is constantly bathed in the political fight, not to mention the media narrative of absolute Trump / GOP hatred and constantly in the company of activists both at home and at CPAC, might expect a Democrat woman of color living in a blue state to give answers fitting the us vs them narrative, particularly if filmed and in the presence of her friends. She did not. She gave the President mixed marks, complemented him on keeping campaign promises that he made to his people, noted that as a Democrat she’d like to see some more moderate moves. Her answers had none of the rancor or the division that the media has pushed on us for the year or that I’ve seen from angry activists. They were completely reasonable answers that would not have been out of place several decades ago in a saner time when I remembered people could disagree and get along. In other words they reflected who she is, a normal American trying to get by whose primary focus is real life instead of manufactured outrage.
Remember this was 2018, Mueller was still out there, plenty of people thought there was lot of “there” there. Stormy Daniels was still out there as was the creepy porn lawyer. In fact we were still in the pre-Kavanaugh era. In other words the entire spectacle had not yet blown up on the left.
This interview, given in public on film in front of friends made me draw two conclusions, the second being the most significant
Despite what our media friends are trying to sell us, Regular Democrats, even democrats in a blue place like Maryland are not wedded to the Peloxi/CNN/MSNBC line and are seeing this president for what he is rather than what they are being told he is.
People like Lea are winnable and the media narrative is all about convincing us she is not.
When we got back to CPAC I couldn’t wait to upload the video and rushed to tell every person I ran into that this was incredibly important and tremendously significant. Nobody seemed to care, we were in the CPAC bubble which meant all eyes were on the pols and the activists there, not to mention the President’s upcoming speech. The idea that this might be a signal of an opening to the black community for the President and the opposition of blacks to the president might be softer than other think was something totally off everyone’s radar.
As I noted there are those like Joe Scarborough who are shocked, Shocked that the Democrats are arguing how bad the Obama years were on stage.
But consider, if the Obama years had been good, if they had been prosperous, if they had advanced the future of Americans everywhere, then Hillary Clinton would have won 35 to forty states without blinking an eye.
the truth is Barack Obama won re-election for two reasons.
1. The GOP ran the worst possible candidate against him in 2012 (Mitt Romney)
2. Black Americans turned out in droves because even they could not bear the thought of the 1st black president losing re-election because he sucked so bad.
Every single democrat on that stage knows this.
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I’m starting to figure out why Snoops is going after the Babylon Bee, I read my wife the two headlines from this post at Instapundit and asked her to guess which is the parody and which is the real one
She guessed wrong, and remember in my opinion she was, other than Donald Trump of course, the biggest winner in the Debates this week.
Yesterday was Baseball’s trading deadline and there were a bunch of blockbuster trades made, particularly by Houston that bolstered an already impressive pitching staff.
The Red Sox on the other hand took my advice and did nothing.
While sports radio was screaming bloody murder they also quoted a stat that to me explained why any such deadline deal was stupid. The Red Sox are 8-14 when their ace Chris Sale (5-10) starts, 9-11 when David Price (7-4) starts and 13-9 when Rick Porcello (9-8) starts this season.
With those numbers anyone who thinks for one minute a last minute one sided deal to add a bullpen arm is going to allow those three guys to lead them to another title this year is delusional. Much better to see if their incredible offense can carry them, put it down to a bad year for the pitchers (everyone has them occasionally) and shore up the bullpen in the off season where they can get much more bang for the buck without dismantling the team.
That’s what a GM who recognizes his job is to give his team their best shot to win each year does as opposed to keeping loud voices on the radio happy.
Finally here is an update on the blog situation.
You’ll notice that there IS some new posts going up on the old site, a few were scheduled posts but some are new. I’ve found a work around that allows me to post there but I can’t put in any links, add images or even embed tweets, it’s plain text only.
So here is the plan. While I price my alternatives (likely between $500-$1000 up front at least) to preserve the old blog at an alternate location without taking a week off from work to do it I’ll be posting at both sites. Anything that needs linkage I’ll put here. If I can get away with just text then it will go there, and perhaps I’ll kill a photo or two from my gallery to free up some space for an image or two.
As I recently did a direct non-public fundraiser (that fell far short of my goal but did pay for pintastic coverage and provide a cushion thanks all) I’m not really in a position to do it again just a few months later, but if anyone wants to kick in to help pay for this stuff. Datipjar on both sites DOES work.
As for my writers they can either post there sans links and graphics or post here during the transition or if they want they can take a few days off and wait for everything to work again. I’ll leave it entirely up to them..
Saturday Morning ,much to the concern of DaWife and some of my friends I got in the car and headed to Boston to cover the protests/counter protests going on in Boston post Charlottesville.
I left early enough that the traffic was fairly light and getting to Alewife station went directly to the 4th level to park. It was fairly empty at the time I got there before 10 AM.
When I got on the Subway train I found my surrounded by large groups of people carrying signs, some homemade some not. They varied from hit Nazis to attacking the “alt right” to the standard “love Trumps Hate” and “Black Lives Matter” I quietly sat and listened. It was my impression that the folks who had come to Boston from out of town were mostly people who wanted to “make a difference”. Their grandparents had fought in World War 2 and they saw themselves as doing what they did. This was a theme I got a lot from a certain segment of the crowd once I got to Boston, a feeling that they were emulating the “greatest generation” by going to Boston to stand up to the Nazis, Fascists and Klansmen That meme was common among the people I ran into on the train and in the crowd once I got there and my primary goal in going to the event was to not only report on what I saw, but to find out if their assessment was true.
There were a fair amount of masked folks in the crowd, some wearing green who were organizing things (they seemed distinct from the ANTIFA folk who I saw later) I asked one young lady why she was wearing a mask and she replied that it was to keep her from being doxxed which seemed to be the standard line, which frankly didn’t seem all that credible to me.
At the time I got there the crowd was comparatively large but not massive as it would later become there was a large crowd by the Statehouse, that was the Marty Walsh event and various groups to the far side where the free speech rally was supposed to be. It was at this time I saw a familiar group go by.
As I continued to head deeper into the common I saw a group of folks sitting down on a bench who consented to an interview
I found the remarks about people losing their jobs ironic after the doxxing stuff the masked lady had said, but from there continued on. At this point I spotted a group of State Police and spoke to one about them.
He said they would do their best to protect everyone’s first amendment rights (and from what I saw there was a large enough police presence to do so. I asked him about the masked ANTIFA folks, he mentioned that they were a worry but as there was no law against wearing a mask on the common all they could do is keep an eye on them.
I walked all the way to the far end where the pond was and then doubled back to get to the gazebo. All this time the crowd continues to grow as more and more folks showed up as the weather continue to get better but hotter. When I got to the Gazebo area I found the entire section was cordoned off. Only people specifically on a list were invited in and that included the press.
This was a large blow to my plans as the primary thing I wanted to do is record the speeches and see what they were saying to answer the question: Were these guys actual Nazis, White supremacists et/al or were they just conservatives that because they supported Trump were considered all of these things?
Of course to the crowd none of this mattered. It was a matter of faith that these guys were Nazis but it seemed to me also a matter of faith that President Trump was also a Nazi/White Supremacist as was anyone who supported him and this was evident by some of the chants.
The attendees were very good at the whole repetitive chanting thing which requires very little thought.
I tried to find some other angles to get a better view of the bandstand but there was no place where I could get close enough and the fence lining it was filling up.
All of it seemed like overkill to me but the crowd seemed rather enjoying themselves as I walked through them.
The crowd itself consisted of the following groups:
Group one: The well meaning folks standing up as I mentioned at the start (worth interviewing) Group two: The college kids finding something cool to do while establishing their liberal credentials (worth interviewing)
I’d say those two groups at least at the time I was there was a solid 1/3 or more of the crowd
Group three: The mayors folks also establishing both their anti-trump and liberal cred (spinning pols no interest to me) Group four: The various activist groups there to push their specific causes (again professional protesters spinners mostly not worth my time) This was I’d guess about half the crowd or slightly less. When you report they are very noticeable and you could see the polish in how they carried themselves and their organization.
Group five: The freaky guys like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (drag queens dressed as nuns) and Vermin Supreme (folks looking for attention but not getting it from me) And Group six: ANTIFA violent thugs who I had no intention of associating with.
Despite how different they were all of them were all united in two propositions:
Donald Trump is a bad evil racist.
If you voted for Trump you are as are as bad or worse than he is.
The effects of that unifying idea was interesting, particularly interesting how well the Masked Antifa crowd was being received by said crowd.
That really shocked me I figured either they had no idea the type of people ANTIFA was (groups 1 & 2) , pretended they didn’t (group 3) or didn’t care (groups 4 & 5).
It was around this time that everyone got an education concerning them from an event that was to me, the defining event of the time I was there.
I noticed people swarming and went to check it out and was disgusted by what I saw.
Two men one wearing a Trump, Make America Great Again and another wearing an Israeli flag being greeted by cries of “fascist go home” and quickly surrounded. At least of the organizers recognizing that the potential of something that would shatter the image they wanted portrayed to the press and to some of the more innocent people there who had no idea what company they were keeping so one of the folks who had been coaching some of the masked folks on one side and two members of the highly radical “veterans for peace” did their best to make sure nobody threw a punch but it didn’t stop people from getting in their faces and surrounding them.
I was completely beside myself over this first of all Donald Trump won the majority of voters in 29 states. If a man can’t safely walk through Boston Common with that banner no matter who is there that’s an incredible escalation as it the dubbing of any person supporting Trump a fascist or a Nazi.
But what set me off even more was the vitriol against they guy wearing the Israeli flag and the crowd joining in on the chants against him. The irony of people carrying anti-nazi signs and lowly proclaiming their opposition to hate driving out a person wearing the Star of David flag seems to have been completely lost on the people there and frankly I was outraged.
What was even more amazing were those calling em cowards those two guys were the bravest people there and I found myself wishing that I had a Trump banner or an Israeli flag and was standing with them.
To me this was a turning point, it is a moment that in my opinion will get replayed over and over in states that Trump carried and I can’t think of anything else that would infuriate and energize Trump supporters more.
On the bright side there were some signs of sanity and plurality in the crowd this one stood out.
But then again one would expect Quakers to be expressing this kind of thing.
By this time it was getting clear that unless I was willing and able to stay very late there wasn’t going to be much big news and I noticed people starting to leave so I started to leave but found some interesting sights like the Panda crowd that I saw earlier.
That the people signing were basically saying “take away my freedom” never seemed to occur to them.
There was Gary who had an interesting quest.
Four nice folks from Plymouth who seemed to have experience in this sort of thing without being professional activists.
A catholic poet and musician who bought my book.
and my favorite person Gary who while not liking the right had my favorite sign of the day as embraced his opinions while defending the 1st Amendment.
Finally a large crowd came by marching and I filmed them for five minutes.
then a few minutes more.
which couldn’t help but make me think of the famous scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian where the crowd chants in unison “yes we’re all individuals, we’ve all got to work it out for ourselves”
Finally it was time to leave and I headed for a T station as Park Station was closed. Because of this I missed some violence that took place later (conveniently after the regular people who might have objected had already left) but ran into the nice young ladies that I’ve already mentioned.
As for the object of these protests they became an afterthought but the real irony is, if there had been no protest they would have gotten even less attention but most of the people there seemed happy at what they felt they achieved and proud of their actions. What did they achieve? Well that’s an analysis post for later this week.
We’ll finish with a few assorted images and clips.
And My photo gallery follows my tipjar pitch
This report is an example of what independent journalism outside of the MSM produces. Less fancy, less polished but very trustworthy.
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