Showing posts with label national review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label national review. Show all posts

Monday, January 25, 2016

Exclusive – Davi: When Johnny Friendly and His Goons Took Over National Review

by ROBERT DAVI24 Jan 20161,030

For years in the arts, critics have been known to blabber on, many times missing the very importance of what they are witnessing – especially if the work of art is groundbreaking and defies “conventional” thinking.

In music, literature, or art there are legions of stories where something new comes along, but some critics who are so stuck in a conceptual time warp are sadly unable to analyze and see it as something innovative. This happens even in film. Critics have written analysis for films, giving their stamp of approval or disapproval, while never really being held accountable for anything. They have no risk; they do not create! They sit back, pontificate an opinion, which is temporal and of the moment, and then drink another dry martini. A work of art has a unique way of lasting beyond its époque.

There are many of these “establishment types” who year after year spew their volcano of ash into the world attempting to choke those who can create. Then there are the effete intellectuals who decide who or what or how something will be defined and supported. They create nothing, but try to influence – even sometimes campaigning amongst themselves to help shape the groupthink.

The recent issue of National Review is dedicated to the proposition that Donald Trump, the GOP’s presidential frontrunner, is not a true conservative. The 22 contributors in this special issue write their barrage of articles like a Super PAC mounting another attack against The Donald. They all broke the “Conservative Commandment.” While it is perfectly okay for candidates to slug it out – after all, they are vying for the biggest title in the world – I think these conservative pundits should be held to a different rule.

The “Eleventh Commandment” was a phrase used by Ronald Reagan during his 1966 campaign for governor of California. The Commandment reads: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”

For years I have heard all of them quote this 11th commandment, feigning shock like Claude Rains in Casablanca when he falsely protested that which he knew was taking place all along. So now, in the back rooms they all band together and perform blasphemy. Ye hypocrites!

Like figures in Madame Tussauds wax museum, they stand together bloodless and stiff – the dead elitists who dare go among us, the Great Unwashed. I have met some of them. Some are nice, but the majority are so elitist that they are like a synod of intellectual snobbery – out of touch with the world and stuck in the dusty rooms they write in, while becoming intoxicated by breathing in the stale air of their own gas.

This current display of solidarity is as smug as the smirk on Glenn Beck’s face, one of the 22 contributors of National Review’s “Against Trump” issue who should know better. Beck had an addiction problem. He went through a “change.” Does this make him any less authentic or sincere in his recovery? By trying to “undefined” Trump, they are saying they can see into his heart and soul. Well, you morons, if you want to see Trump’s heart and soul, look to his children. That more than anything is the measure of a man. And it is not an easy thing to bring up children. What’s more, we know that Trump’s admonishment to his children to not “smoke, drink, or do drugs” can be looked on as the words of someone who respects discipline. Also, Trump to my knowledge is the only candidate in recent memory to mention President Eisenhower! Are you saying that Ike wasn’t considered “conservative”?

Isn’t it in our nature to develop, change, and evolve? The GOP has been on life support. We have heard how it will be harder and harder for them to grow; but now that they have a frontrunner who can infuse new blood into the whole party, they stab him in the back on the steps of the Roman Senate. The attacks they lay on Trump seem to me to be motivated by insider trading gone awry. There seems to be a panicked reaction from the status quo. Elitists hate when an upstart is successful. Over the years alliances have been formed, potential deals made, and expectations shared. They are considered opinion makers, and we are told how we think.

So, to me, they are like those film critics who have never made a film or created anything except give opinions hoping for relevancy. In reality they have contributed to the decline of the GOP. Like the stale politicians who have let the American people down, the establishment types at National Reviewbehind the “Against Trump” issue cling to their own John Friendly political mafia. Johnny Friendly and his goons in the filmOn the Waterfront throw anyone who exposes their irrelevancy off the roof. So, along comes Trump who, like Terry Malloy, can no longer sit by and watch; so he exposes them for what they are.

Trump wants America to get back to work. He has become the hope and voice of the blue-collar men and women who have watched America’s decline and feel ignored. Like the cement blocks that form the foundation of the impressive buildings Trump constructs all across America, we have a growing populace who knows he can do the same for America. This alone should have given pause to National Review, but narcissism is blind, and these 22, like some in the Congress and Senate, forget what they are supposed to stand for.

Let me tell you this: Trump has “conservative” principles, and they are more vibrant and resonating than any we have seen since Ronald Reagan. Those 22 who contributed to National Review’s“Against Trump” issue all have a differing agenda. They are for Cruz or Bush or Rubio or Kasich or any establishment politician — for anyone who has served in politics in my estimation is establishment, and they have alliances with the folks that wrote “Against Trump.”

Like Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, Trump has seen the hypocrisy from the inside and can no longer stand by and watch. Trump is going up against the political mafia chieftains of the seemingly “conservative old guard.” They are like theMustached Petes who were stuck in the mud of their own self-importance. This is what has happened with Trump. He has seen the decline of the American worker. He has seen the corruption and lies and manipulation, and now he confronts the Johnny Friendlys who want to hold onto political control. Have a look at Brando as he fights for those who have been held hostage:

Lastly, there is no absolute pure strain of “conservatism,” my dear fellow Americans. There are many differing opinions depending on circumstances. William F. Buckley, Jr., who I greatly respected, had once said that if the United States had a parliamentary system, President Bush would be subject to a “no confidence” vote. He was highly critical of the war in Iraq. In the past, Buckley’s nephew Brent Bozell has weighed in on National Review’s relevance. Back in 2012, he posted this to Facebook and Twitter: “National Review’s endorsement of Romney & Huntsman proves only that this is no longer the magazine of William F. Buckley Jr. My uncle would be appalled.”

So, you see, opinions are all over the place, and there are no absolutes – no pure strain of conservatism. The survival of America is at stake, and the 22 writers of National Review are goons trying to muscle and goose-step the America people against the GOP frontrunner, Donald Trump. Now thatis not conservative.

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Big HollywoodDonald TrumpGlenn Beck,National ReviewRobert DaviMarlon BrandoWilliam F. BuckleyOn the Waterfront

Friday, January 22, 2016

Trump Fires Back at ‘Dying Paper’ National Review: ‘I Guess They Want to Get a Little Publicity’



Thursday at a press conference in Las Vegas, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump reacted to a compilation from National Review that opposed his bid for the GOP president nod.
“The National Review is a dying dying paper,” Trump said. “It’s circulation is way down. Not very many people read him anymore. People don’t even think about The National Review. I guess they want to get a little publicity. But that’s a dying paper. I got to tell you, it’s pretty much a dead paper.”
(h/t RCP Video)
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

Blue State Blues: Donald Trump and the New Conservative Opposition

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by JOEL B. POLLAK21 Jan 201650
Now that Donald Trump has created the legendary “big tent” of strategists’ dreams, a sudden panic has set in among some conservative pundits.
The New York Times reported Thursday: “Conservative intellectuals have become convinced that Mr. Trump, with his message of nationalist-infused populism, poses a dire threat to conservatism, and plan to issue a manifesto on Friday to try to stop him.”
Herewith, the aforementioned–which, understandably, cost National Review the right to co-host the next Republican debate.
Why would a manifesto work, when nothing else has? And what is the point?
In his lifetime, Andrew Breitbart made two observations about Trump. The first was that he is “not a conservative.”
Trump has become more conservative in recent years, particularly on immigration, but those who distrust him have good reason to do so. As his recent, ill-informed criticism of Justice Antonin Scalia showed, when faced with tough or unfamiliar questions, Trump’s instinct is to revert to liberal mainstream media orthodoxy, then backtrack later.
The other observation Andrew Breitbart made was that Trump could, admirably, unravel the mainstream media’s defenses of Barack Obama.
And that is the true reason for his success in the 2016 campaign.
Many conservative writers and talk radio hosts initially applauded Trump as he waged a one-man war against political correctness, breaking taboos about everything from Mexicans to McCain, from immigration to Islam, and from Clintons to Christmas.
At the start of the 2016 GOP presidential primary, the exceptionally strong field of candidates boasted a throng of solid conservatives, many with long governing experience.
But Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker bogged himself down with consultants, and both former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal alienated voters by attacking Trump from the left.
That left long-shot Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in a position to win–and many conservatives began to dream big.
They apparently expected Trump to dent the opposition while allowing Cruz to draft behind him, and eventually overtake him. But it was always possible that Trump and Cruz would clash–and even foreseeable that Trump might play the “Canada card” if necessary.
Still, the end of the “bromance” took many by surprise. And it suddenly became clear Trump could win the nomination himself, and intended to do so, by any means necessary.
That has left many leading conservative pundits disoriented. Just as the GOP establishment has struggled to accept the demise of its preferred candidates, its intellectual wing is struggling to accept the reality of Trump.
Cruz promises supporters he can run to the right, and stay there. Rejecting the Barry Goldwater warning as a one-time anomaly–the result, it is argued, of public sentiment after the Kennedy assassination–the Cruz campaign hopes to mobilize the electorate behind a clear alternative to liberalism and Washington in general. Its chief selling point is Cruz’s record of delivering on promises of opposition, no matter the political or personal cost.
The strategy’s chief weakness is that it depends on dividing the electorate, much as Obama has done–even though the Electoral College favors Democrats.
To win, Cruz has to be the boldest conservative running, without alienating more timid voters whose support he still needs. In that light, his attack on “New York values” was an unforced error that revived doubts about his ability to win a general election–just as he was becoming the most likable candidate.
The Trump strategy is more primitive: win, and keep winning. That is why he begins every speech by citing his yuge poll numbers.
As Democrat strategist (and convicted felon) Robert Creamer wrote in August, predicting Trump’s nomination: “…Trump seems like a winner. Voters follow winners, not losers…Now that he has established himself as the leader of the GOP political pack, the sense of bandwagon will generate even more supporters.”
His momentum has brought Trump support from moderate Republicans, working-class Democrats, and previously disaffected voters. He has expanded the Republican electorate–and not, as GOP consultants had advised, by pandering to minorities; nor, as movement conservatives would have preferred, by using the persuasive power of ideas.
No, his movement is not an Obama-like personality cult, nor “agrarian national populism,” nor proto-fascism. The Trump phenomenon is neither so ominous nor so complicated. It is today what it has been from the start: a rebellion against the media elite.
Yet while Trump counted on the initial support of much of the conservative media, he no longer needs conservatism to win–or to govern. There are more conservatives than liberals in America, but conservatives may be relegated to minority partner in a winning coalition.
At best, what the conservative intellectuals mounting a likely doomed effort to stop Trump are actually doing–though they may not realize it–is staking a claim to lead the new opposition.
They are laying down a marker, and articulating a set of conservative principles that could guide a Republican-led Congress as it begins, under a hypothetical Trump administration, to take seriously its role as a check on the executive.
The danger is that in attempting to stop Trump, these conservatives risk alienating him totally. If there is one near-constant in the Trump campaign, it is his use of a strategy that game theorists call “massive retaliatory strike“: he is friendly by default, but hits back hard if challenged.
Cruz knocks Trump for being a dealmaker. But his conservative critics may regret a missed opportunity to win policy concessions from Trump in exchange for their support, should he win the nomination.
Now they, too, will watch the debates on television.
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Friday, January 15, 2016

Iran's Propaganda Victory in One Illegal Image

www.nationalreview.com

Here it is:

This photograph violates international law. Article 13 of the Geneva Convention (III), governing the treatment of prisoners of war, requires Iran to protect prisoners against “insults and public curiosity.” This photograph — including a female sailor apparently forced to wear a headscarf – is a quintessential example of “public curiosity” and would be interpreted as insulting throughout the Muslim world. (And if you don’t think Iran is in a state of armed conflict against the United States, tell that to the families of hundreds of American soldiers who’ve lost their lives to Iranians and Iranian-backed terrorists.)

The sight of members of the American military, disarmed and under Iranian control, is of enormous propaganda value in Iran’s ongoing war against the United States. To its allies in the Middle East, the photo demonstrates Iran’s strength – how many jihadist countries have had this many American servicemembers under their power? – and it demonstrates American weakness. Then there’s this:

“This time, the Americans were cooperative in proving their innocence, and they quickly accepted their faults without resistance,” the analyst, Hamidreza Taraghi, said in a phone interview. “The Marines apologized for having strayed into Iranian waters.”

Never fear, John Kerry made friends with the Iranians, and that made all the difference:

Also playing a role was the strong relationship that has developed between Mr. Kerry and the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, during negotiations on the nuclear deal, Mr. Taraghi said.

“John Kerry and Zarif were on the phone during the past hours, and this helped the problem to be resolved quickly due to their direct contact,” he said.

Nations that take illegal propaganda photos, crow about their seizure of American boats, confiscate part of their equipment, and then point to our allegedly admitted faults aren’t “easing tensions,” they’re flexing their muscles. I’m glad our sailors and boats are back in American hands — minus, apparently, their GPS equipment — but once again Iran has thumbed its nose at the U.S., demonstrating that it does what it wants — whether it’s testing missiles, launching rockets near U.S. warships, or taking, questioning, and photographing American sailors who (allegedly) stray into Iranian waters.

Well, at least our secretary of defense understood the gravity of Iran’s actions:

Around the world, the U.S. Navy routinely provides assistance to foreign sailors in distress, and we appreciate the timely way in which this situation was resolved.

Iran violates international law, and the United States thanks the jihadists for not doing worse. Our country is in the very best of hands.

UPDATE: Now Iran is showing surrender images on television, deliberately humiliating Americans for their home audience:

John Kerry thanked Iran for how they treated our soldiers. Here they are being paraded as trophies on Iranian TV

pic.twitter.com/kVkmVYKHzM

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) January 13, 2016

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