“TRUMP?! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??”

An answer from Brendan O’Neill

It happened because you banned super-size sodas. And smoking in parks. And offensive ideas on campus.

Because you branded people who oppose gay marriage ‘homophobic’, and people unsure about immigration ‘racist’.

Because you treated owning a gun and never having eaten quinoa as signifiers of fascism.

Because you thought correcting people’s attitudes was more important than finding them jobs.

Because you turned ‘white man’ from a description into an insult.

Because you used slurs like ‘denier’ and ‘dangerous’ against anyone who doesn’t share your eco-pieties.

Because you treated dissent as hate speech and criticism of Obama as extremism.

Because you talked more about gender-neutral toilets than about home repossessions.

Because you beatified Caitlyn Jenner.

Because you policed people’s language, rubbished their parenting skills, took the piss out of their beliefs.

Because you cried when someone mocked the Koran but laughed when they mocked the Bible.

Because you said criticising Islam is Islamophobia.

Because you kept telling people, “You can’t think that, you can’t say that, you can’t do that”.

Because you turned politics from something done by and for people to something done to them, for their own good.

Because you treated people like shit. And people don’t like being treated like shit.

Trump happened because of you.  

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Must not call out Leftist elitism

Liberal fans of William Shatner admonished the legendary television star on Sunday after publicly stating that 'Social Justice Warriors' (SJW) in America stand for 'inequality.'

Shatner, who became a household name for his work on 'Star Trek' more than 50 years ago, took to Twitter to express his disdain for SJWs that compare themselves to activists in the reform movement of the 1960s.

'Why is it that SJW's think they can align themselves with those that demanded social reform in the ['60s]?' Shatner wrote.

'SJWs stand for inequality, where they are superior to any one else, hence my use of Misandry and Snowflake,' he added.

Some in the progressive movement in the US see the terms 'SJW'  or 'snowflake' as a derogatory attacks.

Social Justice activists, most prominent on college campuses, have been accused of using illiberal means to make their views known including shutting down public speaking events by guest lecturers and personalities by force.  

The tweets by Shatner, 86, garnered a wave of criticism, with many social media users reproaching the actor for his views.

'So speaks an elderly white man secure and sheltered in his fame, wealth, and privilege. I expected better of you,' one person wrote. 'You are so wrong about this... I don't even know where to begin,' another social media user posted.

Shatner's comments also led to online media personalities writing features over his rebuke of the SJWs.

Gizmodo writer Matt Novak claimed Shatner had 'aligned himself with the so-called alt-right,' a nationalist white-supremacy movement, in an article which featured Shatner in Nazi regalia, an image taken from an episode of Star-Trek

Shatner, whose grandparents fled the antisemitic pogroms of Eastern Europe, is Jewish.

Matthew Rozsa of Salon also took Shatner to task, claiming in an article that: 'It seems pretty clear that there has been a decline in Shatner’s character, at least when it comes to his past support for equal rights.'

'That doesn’t mean that we should struggle with cognitive dissonance over how the man who courageously opposed racism in 1968 can now argue for right-wing establishment views in 2017,' he added.

Shatner has been a vocal supporter of equal rights since becoming a public figure more than five decades ago. In 2013, Shatner publicly stated that he was 'appalled by some of the immature, horrifically racist, sexist (and) homophobic' rhetoric posted by users on the social media site Reddit.

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Jeff Sessions Set to Block Millions in Funding to Sanctuary Cities

The Department of Justice announced last week that sanctuary jurisdictions will lose access to certain federal law enforcement grants in 2017 if they prohibit officials from communicating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, if they block ICE from interviewing jail inmates, or if they fail to notify ICE of the pending release of criminal aliens ICE is seeking to deport.

These particular grants, known as the Byrne Justice Assistance Grants, are the largest source of federal criminal justice funds for state, local, and tribal authorities.

This move is helping fulfill one early promise of the Trump administration: to impose consequences on the most egregious of the more than 300 sanctuary jurisdictions.

It is significant because a large share of the funds awarded in this program go to sanctuary jurisdictions. For example, according to Justice Department records, the four largest grants, and seven out of the top 10 recipients of the Byrne/JAG grants are sanctuaries.

Under the new rules announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, these four top grant-getters (New York City; Cook County, Illinois; Los Angeles; and Philadelphia) are likely to be disqualified from these grants in the future if they maintain their current policies toward ICE.

These cities received more than $10 million in grants in 2016.

Ten sanctuaries are already at risk of debarment based on an initiative launched last year by Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls the Justice Department’s budget.

Last year, the department notified 10 of the worst sanctuaries that their Justice Department law enforcement grants could be pulled if they did not come into compliance with the federal law prohibiting sanctuary policies.

The jurisdictions are California; Connecticut; Cook County, Illinois; Chicago; Milwaukee County; New York City; New Orleans; Philadelphia; Miami-Dade County, Florida; and Las Vegas.

A few months later, Miami-Dade County reversed its sanctuary policy and began cooperating fully with ICE.

In April 2017, the Justice Department sent letters to nine of the jurisdictions (all but Connecticut) reminding them that by a deadline of June 30, they had to send documentation of compliance with the law or lose certain funding (and potentially face clawbacks of previously awarded funding).

The documentation of “alleged compliance” is currently under review and the results are expected soon. Sessions has said their statements will be reviewed carefully: “It is not enough to assert compliance, the jurisdictions must actually be in compliance.”

Last Tuesday’s announcement makes clear that the Justice Department is not looking merely at bare minimal compliance with the letter of Section 1373, the federal law that prohibits policies that block communication between local officials and federal immigration agencies, which many sanctuaries dubiously claim to meet.

It also signals that if a jurisdiction feels constrained by the legal controversies surrounding detainers (see discussion here), they can still demonstrate satisfactory cooperation by giving ICE 48 hours advance notice of criminal alien releases.

The following jurisdictions have extreme sanctuary policies that, if maintained, are likely to lead to disqualification from Byrne/JAG grants under the new rules: New York City; Chicago; Cook County, Illinois; Philadelphia; San Francisco County, California; Orleans County, Louisiana; Newark, New Jersey; Travis County, Texas; Taos County, New Mexico; Lycoming County, Pennsylvania; and Butler County, Pennsylvania.

Some jurisdictions have milder versions of sanctuary policies that may not lead to disqualification from grants under the Justice Department rules announced Tuesday.

For example, the following jurisdictions do not honor detainers but already provide ICE with adequate notification of criminal alien releases: Chesterfield County, Virginia; Erie County, Pennsylvania; Bedford County, Pennsylvania; Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; and Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.

Under the new rules, these counties and others may still maintain eligibility for grants if they continue to cooperate fully with ICE.

A new map shows the jurisdictions that are most likely to fail to meet the new requirements, those that likely can meet requirements with their current policies, and a large number that could go either way.

The Byrne/JAG grants are one of three programs now off limits to sanctuaries. Last year, Culberson imposed requirements for basic compliance on the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which offers partial reimbursement for the costs of incarcerating illegal aliens, and the Community Oriented Policing grant program.

How much money is at stake in the Byrne/JAG program? The Trump administration reportedly is seeking $380 million for the program in 2018.

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Stalin lives: Huffington Post Writer Calls For “Purge” of Conservatives

Huffington Post contributor and author Dan Arel, who last week advocated violence against Mike Cernovich, has called for a “purge” of conservatives while also labeling Dave Rubin, a gay Jewish man, “Nazi f**king trash”.

The exchange began when I tweeted about YouTube’s temporary removal of Jordan Peterson’s channel, remarking, “The purge begins.”

“Oh Paul, when the left begins its purge, it will be much different than this…” responded Arel, meaning that the “purge” would be something different to just silencing free speech.
When asked to clarify what he meant and whether it constituted a threat of violence, Arel deleted the tweet.

After being called out on the tweet, Arel began to backtrack, subsequently claiming that by “purge” he meant to ban conservatives from the Internet, although his initial deleted tweet suggested an alternative to censorship.

On Sunday, Arel also tweeted an endorsement of violence against Mike Cernovich, remarking that a troll who physically approached Cernovich should have assaulted him. That tweet was subsequently deleted too.

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For more blog postings from me, see  TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH,  POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, and Paralipomena (Occasionally updated),  a Coral reef compendium and an IQ compendium. (Both updated as news items come in).  GUN WATCH is now mainly put together by Dean Weingarten. I also put up occasional updates on my Personal blog and each day I gather together my most substantial current writings on THE PSYCHOLOGIST.

Email me  here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here (Academic) or  here (Pictorial) or  here  (Personal)

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