Who’s Attacking Our Democracy?

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  • The breach of the Capitol on January 6 by pro-Trump demonstrators took Americans by surprise. There have been many reactions in the aftermath, but responses by the mainstream media completely miss -- or intentionally misrepresent -- the underlying issues.

  • The Capitol breach felt like a turning point, but not because Trump supporters are particularly dangerous or violent as the media would like us to believe. If their demonstration attacked our democracy, it’s because we are living in a democracy so divided we no longer share any goals in common.

  • As long as the party in power seizes opportunities to silence or oppress its opposition, that divide can only widen.

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The Obama-Era War Against The Economy Is About To Resume

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  • Incoming President Joe Biden ran on gauzy campaign themes of return to calm and normalcy, or something like that. Certainly, he was never challenged by the media in any meaningful way to commit to specifics. But as Inauguration Day approaches, the details are now coming fully into view.

  • In simple terms, Biden plans to resume the Obama-era War Against The Economy.

  • “War Against The Economy” is the phrase I often used to characterize the Obama administration’s economic policy. Make that the Obama/Biden administration’s economic policy.

  • In a post in December 2013 titled “Update On The War Against The Economy,” I had a thorough review of the Obama/Biden policies that attacked productive economic activity, and that I thought deserved the lion’s share of the blame for the economic doldrums.

  • Here’s the short version of subsequent events: Starting in 2017, Trump undid most of the counterproductive Obama/Biden policies. Economic performance returned to normal healthy growth, at least until the pandemic hit. Biden now proposes to re-instate essentially all of the most economically destructive policies. . . .

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The Big Tech Suppression: Is There A Potential Legal Remedy?

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  • As all readers undoubtedly know, the breech of the Capitol building by pro-Trump demonstrators on January 6 set off a co-ordinated effort by the Big Tech oligarchs to purge important conservative voices from the internet.

  • First, President Trump himself was banished from Twitter and Facebook. Next came the banishment of notable Trump supporters like Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell by some combination of Twitter, Facebook and/or Google. Then, as alternative conservative-friendly social media site Parler understandably began to surge, Google, Apple and Amazon co-ordinated to shut it down by simultaneously removing it from app stores and closing down its servers. Other notable targets of the suppression so far have included the #WalkAway website, and former Congressman Ron Paul. There are likely to be many more — I don’t know any way to get a comprehensive list.

  • A very reasonable reaction is, this can’t possibly be legal. We’re talking here about hugely powerful private companies co-ordinating to suppress political speech with which they disagree.

  • And it’s not just any political speech, or some fringe movement, but rather some of the most important, if not the most important, voices of the main political opposition coalition, a coalition that just came within a hairsbreadth of winning the national election. And add to that that the suppressed entities just happen to include significant economic competitors of the suppressors.

  • Surely, the law must offer a remedy.

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It's Time To Get To Know Joe Manchin

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  • For the past four years, the Republicans have held voting control of the U.S. Senate, but by very narrow margins.

  • Since 2017, the Republicans have had either 51, 52 or 53 seats, out of 100, at various times. That has meant that on any given vote, a handful of Republican defectors would be sufficient to sink whatever initiative was on the table. And thus a very small group of independent-minded Republican Senators — most prominently, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, and (until his death in 2018) John McCain of Arizona — held the keys to any Republican plans to get legislation enacted or government officers confirmed.

  • Unlike the Republicans, the Democrats have recently had a remarkably cohesive caucus. Perhaps that is because the Democrats all really believe in the program of the progressive left (possible), or perhaps it is because the potential waverers are cowed by the threat of the cancel mob.

  • However, there is at least one guy in a very unique position. That is Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Suddenly, he looks to be the most important guy in the Senate.

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Incitement To Mob Violence, Acceptable Versus Unacceptable Forms

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Incitement To Mob Violence, Acceptable Versus Unacceptable Forms

  • In case you were wondering, the Manhattan Contrarian hereby condemns mob violence without qualification, and whether coming from the left or right side of the political spectrum.

  • By Friday January 8, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had had her team draw up a new draft article of impeachment against the President. The draft accuses the President of “incitement of insurrection” and “willfully inciting violence against the Government of the United States.”

  • In the list below, I have included what I think are the six most concerning statements from Trump’s speech. And then I have mixed in various statements from prominent Democrats and progressives with regard to leftist mob violence. See if you can tell which are which:

  1. “Make the phone calls, send the emails, show up. You know, there needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there’s unrest in our lives.”

  2. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

  3. “I believe injustice is a threat to the safety of all people. Because once you have a group that is marginalized . . . they have no choice but to riot.”

  4. “We will not let them silence your voices.”

  5. “[W]e’re going to have somebody in there that should not be in there and our country will be destroyed, and we’re not going to stand for that.”

  6. “And everyone beware, because they’re [violent protests] not gonna stop….They’re not gonna let up. And they should not. And we should not.”

  7. “We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”

  8. “I just don’t even know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country, and maybe there will be. . . .”

  9. “We’re not going to let it happen.”

  10. “The cries for peace will rain down, and when they do, they will land on deaf ears, because your violence has brought this resistance. We have the right to fight back!”

  11. “Together we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Answers below the fold.

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China Starts Collecting On Its Investment In The Bidens

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  • You have to hand it to China for one thing — they play a long game.

  • Remember back a few months to October. That’s when the infamous Hunter Biden laptop became public information through the diligent reporting of the New York Post.

  • The biggest revelation on the laptop was the formation in 2017 of a joint venture between Biden family members and a Chinese-government-affiliated energy company called CEFC (10% for “the big guy”). According to emails on the laptop, sums changing hands included at least a $5 million “forgivable non-interest-bearing” loan. There was discussion in the laptop emails about much larger sums also moving from China to the Bidens, but since nobody has ever been able to get a Biden to answer any questions about the subject, the full extent of the payments remains a state secret.

  • But why, you ask, was China paying that kind of money to the Biden family in 2017 — a time when Joe had left office as Vice President, and was just one of many potential candidates for President in 2020?

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