September 3, 2017
Sep 03 04:27 Daryle Jenkins, Antifa's spinmeister Sep 03 11:18 Democrats still haven't learned Sep 03 13:35 Antifa's dishonesty continues Sep 03 18:52 What's wrong with Evergreen?
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Daryle Jenkins, Antifa's spinmeister
I just learned that Antifa has its own spinmeister. His name is Daryle Jenkins. Recently, Vox sat down with Jenkins for an interview . Saying that most of Mr. Jenkins' statements weren't honest is understatement. Let's start with Vox's interviewer Sean Illing asking Jenkins "Let's talk about Antifa, the militant left-wing group that has received a lot of attention since Charlottesville. You've emerged as one of the faces of this group. Do you own that label?"
Jenkins replied "Absolutely. I proudly stand with Antifa, and I've always been Antifa, even before people knew what that meant. People keep talking about Antifa like it's a comprehensive belief system, but it's not. Antifa, as a group, simply stands against fascists - and we fight them wherever they emerge. Once upon a time, anti-fascists were just called civil rights activists or anti-racist activists. So this isn't exactly new or unusual."
Let's get serious. Antifa's tactics look a lot like the Black Panthers. They don't look like anything that Martin Luther King would've sanctioned. Jenkins' attempt to portray himself as a civil rights activist isn't honest. It's spin.
As dishonest as that spin from Jenkins was, it doesn't compare with this exchange:
Sean Illing: Antifa endorses violence as a justifiable means, and I assume you do as well. Why?
Daryle Jenkins: I'm glad you brought this up, because I've noticed a lot of attention has been placed on Antifa's use of violence. But it's not as though we're running around like the nihilists in A Clockwork Orange looking for a nasty fight. Violence is not a central component of what we do and it's definitely not the only thing we do. It's not preferred or even the first option.
Sean Illing: And you, personally, how do you think about violence in defense of your political goals?
Daryle Jenkins: Look, I was a police officer in the Air Force. I was trained to deescalate situations. That's how I approach things. I try as much as I can to deescalate, and if I can't, I'm prepared to do what I have to do to protect myself and anyone around me.
Does this video show Antifa trying to de-escalate things:
I don't think there's an honest person that'd say that Antifa was trying to de-escalate the situation. The police officers that arrested these thugs later certainly didn't think Antifa tried de-escalation. This might be the most honest answer Jenkins gave:
Sean Illing: Do you think your emphasis on de-escalation is shared by most of the people in Antifa?
Daryle Jenkins: While we do have some people who go on the offensive, that's not what I do. I try to encourage folks to not put themselves in bad positions. I tell them to not make themselves the aggressor or the bad guy when you're not. But what's happened over the last couple of years is that the frustration levels have gone way up. People are lashing out now. There's a desperation setting in and people don't know what to do.
People of integrity know exactly what to do. Antifa isn't made up of people of integrity. Antifa is composed mostly of thugs. Their first instinct is to react violently. This exchange is telling, too:
Sean Illing: When you say expose them, you mean dox them, right?
Daryle Jenkins: Exactly. Our belief is that we research and report on these groups and encourage communities to be proactive in dealing with them. This diminishes their ability to hide and function. This is why we expose them.
Sean Illing: So you take their pictures, find out their names, and share that information with their communities, their friends, their employers?
Daryle Jenkins: Yes, all of that. We share it with communities and employers in particular. We contact anybody that may be receptive to this particular information. Most importantly, we make sure it's on our website. We write new stories, and we also write mini-bios of various individuals as well. And that exposes them. They don't like that.
That isn't all that Antifa does. This article exposes Antifa:
I expected to see a dust-up, a handful of white supremacists in MAGA hats, angry that that they'd been denied a permit to spew their reprehensible bile due to a 'culture of political correctness' or some other preposterous catchphrase. What I saw was a photographer - a white guy, thirty-something, pink shorts, black tee-shirt; media affiliation, if any, still unknown - taking blows to the head and body while cradling his camera like a football recovered post-fumble. Evidently, he'd captured something the Antifas didn't want him to document. They wanted to destroy the evidence, and he wasn't going to hand it over.
Posted Sunday, September 3, 2017 4:27 AM
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Democrats still haven't learned
Democrats haven't figured it out that Americans have rejected identity politics. This op-ed is proof that they're still thinking like they did before Hillary's humiliating defeat.
For instance, when Michael Starr-Hopkins wrote "One of the primary complaints leveled by Democratic supporters during and after the 2016 election was the lack of diverse faces in leadership positions. A party once led by Barack Obama and his picturesque first family is now scrambling to find candidates that can excite millennials and invigorate the base", it's clear that he thinks substantive policies aren't that important, that diversity and inclusion is what's most important. Nothing is farther from the truth.
In its own way, Hurricane Harvey changed America's thinking. All this week, we've seen different levels of government working together to protect people. We saw churches, private companies and football players (Thanks JJ Watt) lead searches for families, feeding the families that were found, then finding clothing and shelter for these families who'd lost everything.
There's no way people will be satisfied anytime soon that people will be satisfied with Obama- and Hillary-style symbolism.
Until Democrats get over this silliness, they'll remain a coastal political party:
Rising stars Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) seem to have the rare ability to unite the party and excite the various factions making up the base. While the senators originate from very different sections of the country, their paths to elected office are extremely similar. Both women began their careers as attorneys prior to landing in the U.S. Senate. Both women have publicly endorsed a single-payer health care system. Harris recently said, 'It's not only about what's morally and ethically right. It also just makes sense from a fiscal standpoint or a return on investment for taxpayers.'
Advocating for a single-payer health care system won't help swing blue collar workers in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. In fact, it's more likely to push more people away than it would attract.
Further, making health care the centerpiece of the Democrats' presidential campaign will bring back memories of HealthCare.gov breaking down and premiums skyrocketing. Defending Obamacare isn't the basis for a winning Democratic Party campaign.
God bless the activists if they think more identity politics and running on defending Obamacare is a winning strategy.
Posted Sunday, September 3, 2017 11:18 AM
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Antifa's dishonesty continues
When I wrote that Daryle Jenkins was Antifa's unofficial spokesman , I highlighted how he spun things to make his cause seem justified. There's no way Antifa can spin this article successfully.
For instance, when it's said that "The vast majority of the 4,000-some protesters who descended on Berkeley's Civic Center Park last Sunday to demonstrate against a small group of Trump supporters were perfectly peaceful, but some of the 100 to 200 black-clad Antifa there ganged up on the Trump fans, punching and kicking them. Other Antifa carried colorful shields painted with the words 'no hate' to build a barrier that Antifa claims is needed to protect anti-racist protesters from the police and right-wingers. The activist said Antifa takes to the streets 'out of love', keeping nonviolent protesters safe from right wing protesters and the police."
That isn't just spin. It's an outright lie. This video provides verifiable proof that that isn't what's happening:
According to the newscaster, Antifa protesters "broke through police barricades during a rally against hate and clashed with right wing activists." It's impossible to explain why Antifa rioters needed to break through police barricades and fight with right wing activists while protecting "nonviolent protesters from right wing protesters." If there's a police barricade separating the non-violent protesters and Antifa, then all that's needed to 'protect' Antifa is for them to stay separated. Let the police do their job of protecting the peace.
Later in the article, an Antifa activist said "if the police try to attack protesters, Antifa gives other people the space to stay safe." According to the article, "violence is justified, the Bay Area Antifa member said, because the far right is trying to create a fascist state."
I'm pretty certain that thoughtful people might dispute who's trying to create a fascist state. Activists that crash through police barricades to attack peaceful protesters aren't likely to be considered peaceful protesters. They're most likely to be called anarchists and/or rioters.
Posted Sunday, September 3, 2017 1:35 PM
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What's wrong with Evergreen?
This article offers readers a false choice situation. Let me explain. According to the article, "Conservative news websites and talk radio hosts gleefully publicized the enrollment decline, tying it to the unrest and outside threats related to racial issues and allegations of liberal intolerance on campus that were covered nationally last spring." Evergreen spokesman Zach Powers "sees it differently, saying a big factor is heightened competition among small liberal arts colleges. 'This is a situation that is ongoing and is something that we are exploring different options and solutions to,' Powers said."
Why fight? It isn't a stretch to think that the campus unrest gave alumni a legitimate excuse to tell their kids not to attend. I wrote in this post about the "Mizzou Effect." In that post, I quoted an article, which said "Emails obtained by The College Fix show that some parents pledged to keep their kids away from Evergreen in a development that's known as the 'Mizzou Effect.'"
It's possible that the competition from "small liberal arts colleges" was high. That's possibly why Evergreen couldn't afford to be seen as having ineffective leadership. Let's face it. Evergreen's leadership team looked like it let the patients run the asylum for almost a month.
If you're an alumnus, why would you send your son or daughter attend a college that's that badly mismanaged? Further, Evergreen is forecasting a $2,100,000 budget deficit for this academic year. They've already announced that they'll have to lay off faculty for next year. What parent would let his/her son/daughter attend a college that's that unprepared to give students a good education? What parent would send their son/daughter to a campus after hearing this?
You'd be a fool sending them to a campus like that.
Mr. Powers apparently isn't familiar with the concept of competition. If he was familiar with that concept, he'd know that his employer should improve rather than whine about competition.
Posted Sunday, September 3, 2017 6:52 PM
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