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Biden Warns That MAGA Republicans Pose ‘Clear and Present Danger’ to Nation
It was fitting for Joe Biden to deliver Thursday night’s Independence Hall speech at a venue lit by gas lights. Backed by a blood-red background and two military men shrouded in darkness, the president condemned half the nation as insurrectionists who pose a “clear and present danger” to the United States.
The language was deliberate as it was divisive. “Clear and present danger” is a legal doctrine created by the Woodrow Wilson-era Supreme Court to curtail the free speech of Americans. At the time, an antiwar activist was jailed for advocating draft resistance during World War I. In Schenck v. United States (1919), Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., wrote for the majority:
The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that the United States Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree. When a nation is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.
Thereafter, courts employed the “clear and present danger test” to limit citizens’ First Amendment rights. That is, until Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) replaced it to address only “imminent lawless action.”
Notably, Biden resurrected this extinct phrase to attack his political enemies just as the authoritarian Wilson used it to attack his detractors. He floated a legal pretext to silence Republicans heading into the midterm elections. The administration has already directed tech companies to ban dissenting voices on social media, so such a move would be in character. Not to mention using the FBI to raid Trump’s home and the DoJ to harass Trump’s legal team.
The speech, titled “Soul of the Nation,” was an attempt to reframe the November elections as a battle between the virtuous bearers of light (like himself) and the sinister, Ultra MAGA semi-fascists. His serial message-switching between good-vs.-evil rhetoric and bipartisan unity was jarring.
“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic,” Biden said, adding they “are determined to take this country backward … promote authoritarian leaders and fan the flames of political violence.”
“For a long time, we’ve reassured ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed. But it is not,” Biden said between coughs. “We have to defend it. Protect it. Stand up for it. Each and every one of us.”
Having dropped back to a 38 percent approval rating, the president and his allies are obviously sweating the election looming two months away. Joe “he’s gonna put y’all back in chains” Biden has thus reverted to form, spreading hatred and division in the name of “preserving democracy.”
But a one-party state isn’t democracy. It’s an oligarchy at best and authoritarianism at worst.
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It is supposed to be a fundraiser too, right? I’d guess they’re targeting people who could afford to just cut them a 5-figure check as a donation, but would prefer to get a nice vacation in the bargain.
And tax-deductible too!
They should organize a Merry Pranksters-style cross-country bus trip instead…minus the LSD. (Hey, what you do is YOUR business…)
If there’s no LSD, then Rob Long isn’t going!
Of course a cruise costs a lot of money. But so does a rock concert and an apartment in Manhattan.
My life is set up in a way where I have multiple mini vacations. I’ve been on cruises and I’m sure it’s fun.
Others work like dogs and have no life for months and then can spend 10% of their earnings – or maybe the cruise itself is a bonus – and the experience is more important and needed than the money.
And people work in the cruise industry and are there to help you have a fabulous time.
Maybe NR could set up the Kevin Williamson Scholarship for Displaced Workers and sponsor one or two of them to go on on an NR cruise.
Heck, I’ll do it.I pledge $500 to send Drew. Who’s in?
I would, if I could afford it. Which probably means I need to apply for that sponsorship myself.
Minus the LSD? …I’m out.
But okay, I can abstain, I’ll just try to invoke a flashback….And showers are mandatory, right?
What if everyone just invokes a flashback to a previous shower?
Every once in a while, y’all can stop the bus and jump in a pond for a spell.
For a dude who punched out a Pop of Corn, he has tiny little fey hands.
This is just reinforcement of the previously-super-reinforced notion that Jonah has waddled off into the desert, unattended. Quickly now, someone fetch him back before he faceplants in the cholla.
I’ll overstate the obvious: Polling. He’s been losing ground in key demographics, not just the approval numbers. The only way to fix that is to scare the left and center to eke out a few more percentage points due to volume of voting.
Sort of like getting butts in seats at the movie theatre. He’s done everything else – spent hundreds of billions to buy votes through various means (student loans, inflation spending insanity), he’s done some international traveling and finger-wagging at bad guys. Now all that’s left close to the election is to scare enough educated suburban women to take the time and get out and vote in enough volume to make a difference.
We’ll see if it works. As to the thinking, someone is doing it for him, and he’s going along with the suggestions, because enfeeble.
Like Jonah when someone tells him what he’s going to have for dinner, now shut up and eat it and tell me you like your num-nums! Yes you DO! Yes you DO!
Our country has a soul? That’s weird coming from the head of the party that seems to treat the God-fearing like they’re Maga Maniacs ™.
Fixed it for you.
Because she was hot?
In Jennifer’s defense, she’s just making sure she’s on the right side of history. I hear they eat those people last.
The other idea is that it’s meant to troll and provoke, to elicit a response that the administration can then say “Hey, I told you they were extremists”, while gassing/beating protestors. Which seems to be fine as long as it’s the right kind of protestor getting gassed/beaten.
And get him some pants.
If you compare the cost of a regular cruise, which is more than the advertised price, and compare with the cost of the NR cruise, then figure out the difference, the NR portion isn’t bad. Then compare with a week inside DC or at Disney. For us, it is our vacation. It wasn’t anything I could do while in the Air Force or while having young children. I know it isn’t everyone’s idea of a vacation.
Once you transition from planning for retirement to planning for your funeral, and you are attending funerals for people your age, bucket list items become a part of your annual adventures.
Rod Dreher now thinks it’s a fake account. Maybe somebody should find the real one to see what she’s been saying.
The Tweet may have been faked, but the account is her real account. And she stand by Biden’s words.
She says “It’s not my account” but it is from “JRubinBlogger” . . . which is her account.
I suspect she posted it. Deleted it, and is now pulling the Joy Reid-patented “I was hacked” garbage. Her pals at the Washington Post are defending her. One is even calling it “satire,” (which is odd because as written there’s nothing satirical about it. Just wrong-headed and evil), but I think rather she posted it, then deleted it, but not before it was screen-shotted, and now she’s trying to do damage control.
They say “But the time stamp is all wrong! The President’s speech hadn’t even started yet.”
(As if they’re unaware of time zones. That deleted tweet has a later time stamp than several earlier ones praising and quoting the speech.)
So I don’t think it’s fake at all.
Who cares what that creepy little fraud thinks?
Jen Rubin? Not me. However, given her platform at the Washington Post, she is in a position to influence low-information-voters and other fence-sitters. The holy “independents” and mushy middle that the Trump Haters think we have to court by adopting Democrat policies. And because she’s in that position, she must be exposed.
But I want to point out those running cover for her with cries of “fake!” Because their proofs aren’t proof at all, and Sherlock Holmes would have laughed at them for presenting such flimsy evidence.
I think he should faceplant, good and hard. Serves him right.
They are so deep in their Trump hatred that they can’t help themselves.
I could never afford any of those vacations. Not even once.
And I never will. Boomers get the great retirement.
The rest of us will work until we die. Retirement was a blip.
A vacation is anywhere you can relax and enjoy yourself. For years in the Air Force, my vacations (my days on leave) were a week off to go see my immediate family or a week off when they came to see me. Now I have retired and live near my kids and grandchildren. I don’t have to factor How many days off I can take. I am as content on my porch as anywhere so I rarely leave for even a week.
I feel for those born after us. It bothers me that the federal government and some state governments are sucking the life blood out of the working class.