* <https://amgreatness.com/2020/05/17/the-left-is-what-it-once-loathed/>Here (below) are two cogent pieces on the chilling metamorphosis of what we * *call "the **left" **into a livid propaganda chorus screaming for repression by the * *state. Both **Matt Taibbi **and **Victor Davis Hanson skillfully elucidate how liberals * *and **"progressives" have **uncannily degenerated into what the US left once rightly * *feared, and struggled **to **oppose. I don't agree with every point each makes; but* *their main point is indisputable (on any grounds that aren't irrational). *
*While no leading Democrat, or high-profile liberal or progressive activist or* *commentator, has (as far as I know, and if I'm wrong, please tell me) spoken * *out in staunch defense of our **inalienable rights, we have a very staunch and * *eloquent defender of those **rights **in—yes—Tucker Carlson, on—yes—Rupert* *Murdoch's Fox News. **Here's what my friend **Cat **McGuire wrote, in sending * *out the links to three of Carlson's sharpest **recent commentaries:* *From Cat McGuire:* > *We're being told from many corners that 2 + 2 = 5. * > > *It's a crazy upside down world when—as Glenn Greenwald too has had to > do—we * > *have to go to Fox News to find someone like Tucker Carlson doing honest > reporting. * > > *Carlson eloquently defends our freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, > and the right * > *to dissent. Are these not fundamental American values we all should > likewise be proactively * > * defending right now?* > > *Why isn't the ACLU fighting for our liberties? > <https://youtu.be/-C45Zd5g1mU> - 8 minutes* > > *Big Tech censors dissent over coronavirus lockdowns > <https://youtu.be/sPrbGU0Wyh4> - 15 minutes* > > *Elites don't want you to question their coronavirus policies > <https://youtu.be/JdF-p97NdaY> - 6 minutes* > Democrats Have Abandoned Civil LibertiesThe Blue Party’s Trump-era Embrace of Authoritarianism Isn’t Just Wrong, it’s a Fatal Political Mistake Matt Taibbi <https://taibbi.substack.com/people/263053> May 15 475 1,138 <https://taibbi.substack.com/p/democrats-have-abandoned-civil-liberties/comments> https://taibbi.substack.com/p/democrats-have-abandoned-civil-liberties <https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c205619-b649-470a-bd83-f20edb285b19_6720x4480.jpeg> Emmet G. Sullivan, the judge in the case of former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, is refusing to let William Barr’s Justice Department drop the charge. He’s even thinking of adding more, appointing a retired judge to ask <https://twitter.com/JonathanTurley/status/1260725990021640192> “whether the Court should issue an Order to Show Cause why Mr. Flynn should not be held in criminal contempt for perjury.” Pundits are cheering. A trio of former law enforcement and judicial officials saluted Sullivan in the *Washington Post, *chirping, “The Flynn case isn’t over until a judge says it’s over <https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/11/flynn-case-isnt-over-until-judge-says-its-over/>.” Yuppie icon Jeffrey Toobin of CNN and the *New Yorker*, one of the #Resistance crowd’s favored legal authorities, described Sullivan’s appointment of Judge John Gleeson as “brilliant <https://twitter.com/JeffreyToobin/status/1260726579308703750>.” MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said Americans owe Sullivan a “debt of gratitude <https://twitter.com/glennkirschner2>.” One had to search far and wide to find a non-conservative legal analyst willing to say the obvious, i.e. that Sullivan’s decision was the kind of thing one would expect from a judge in Belarus. George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley was one of the few willing to say Sullivan’s move could “could create a threat of a judicial charge even when prosecutors agree with defendants <https://twitter.com/JonathanTurley/status/1260727019928793094>.” *Click on the link for the rest.* The Left Is What It Once Loathed <https://amgreatness.com/2020/05/17/the-left-is-what-it-once-loathed/> What is the Left, then? Mostly a Jacobin party that operates *ad hoc*, without principle, or consistency. https://amgreatness.com/2020/05/17/the-left-is-what-it-once-loathed/ <https://amgreatness.com/author/victor-davis-hanson/>By Victor Davis Hanson <https://amgreatness.com/author/victor-davis-hanson/> • May 17, 2020 Compare the current progressive view about civil liberties against the old liberal positions of the past. Surveillance and spying on U.S. citizens? Remember liberal Senator Frank Church of Idaho and his 1975 post-Watergate select Senate investigative committee? It found the CIA, FBI, and NSA improperly over three decades had tapped into the phones of Americans, opened their mail, and worked with telecommunications companies to monitor the data of supposedly suspect politicians, actors, celebrities, and political activists. “Collusion” with the communists and the Russians was often the pretense to surveil American citizens. Consider Church either a bastion of civil liberties protection or a dangerous firebrand who weakened the CIA and FBI. But the point is that the Left’s position had once mostly been that the government’s unelected deep-state intelligence officers simply had too much power to trust. Indeed, the ACLU was outraged at what the committee revealed. Church was deified as a liberal hero uncovering government abuse. About the worst thing a government could do, liberals reminded us, was to spy on its own citizens. Then we were also warned that the scandal was the result of the government, for over 30 years, targeting mostly liberals on grounds of trumped-up suspicions that they were sympathetic to Communism in general and the Soviet Union in particular. Yet in addition, the Left argued that the state had no business spying on any American at all, unless it had a certified warrant and ample criminal cause—or we found ourselves in a war with enemies at home among us. And now? -- If you appreciate News From Underground, please consider making a donation — either a one-time gift or a monthly subscription: http://markcrispinmiller.com/support/ Thank you for your support. Ways to unsubscribe: 1) send a blank email to [email protected] PLEASE NOTE: you must unsubscribe using the SAME email with which you subscribed 2) go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "News From Underground" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/newsfromunderground/CAGxB6W-M6bqref3r1AK9FP0TCveFy58b%2BSpC4nyMaEG_zEM3AA%40mail.gmail.com.
