I'm a conservative Republican and cannot agree more with your Laura Ingraham commentary. She, Hannity and others who sent texts to Mark Meadows calling for Trump to publicly call it out needed to call out Trump publicly themselves (I voted for Trump twice). Trump confidant Hannity did call out the riot, but didn't call out Trump.
Even Don Trump Jr. who I can't stand called for his dad to step up.......If FoxNews hosts who have license to bloviate don't want to be labeled "Fake News" with the leftist media.....they need to be brutally honest about Trumps regular shortcomings.
This incident at Fox News is so small-time compared to the partisan incestuousness rampant at the Democrat-controlled news networks, including the formerly respectable big-three broadcast networks. It's certainly small potatoes compared to the Cuomo fiasco. It concerns me not at all. Unlike most of those networks, I don't think the Fox lineup has ever pretended to be politically neutral, and I think most viewers understand that. On the other hand, CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS put themselves forth as being objective news, and the sheeple who watch them believe it. Sorry Nellie, but you missed the boat on this one.
I never thought that Jordan Peterson nemesis and communist-lover Nellie Bowles would be the author I look forward to reading every week but I'm really enjoying the TGIF section. Merry Christmas!
Amidst the discouraging back and forth below (yes, discouraging. Mostly name calling, not making points about policy and its consequences--the only way to get anywhere). I will point out that this is a perspective-o-mania. These news bites are almost too small to matter, but they make the cut. Anyone is free to consult the source as it is given. I would also like some non-Trumpian conservatives to weigh in. It would round out this large chunk of information. In any case, I tried to pick one thing to comment on, but just ended up scrolling up and down. For those of us who are not news addicts or involved in policy, this sort of thing is priceless (i.e. this column, even if it were from another side). For the rest of you commenting folks, could you please respond in kind. Give the data or argument as to why you disagree and maybe a source. When I was in college I subscribed to National Review (and called myself a conservative for the next decade) because of a 1/2 page box they had called "Right Data." They actually gave an argument with data about policy. Who were these people? I wrote to William F. Buckley who actually wrote back. Bring back Right Data.
Mark, I’ll try to satisfy your request for a “non-Trumpian” comment although I’m limited by several factors. First one is that I have supported Trump a lot but have had to shelve it when he couldn’t accept a defeat. We teach our kids that even if you don’t like the call the ref makes, if you can’t accept it and come back stronger then you enter the sore losers club. That’s hugely antithetical to American culture (at least until about 2016 or so).
I work hard to try to force myself to be objective. After 4+ yrs of continuous attacks on Trump, be it the almost daily anonymous leaks of Classified information that couldn’t be tested, Russia Collusion (and it’s true source) two bogus Impeachments , to the massive changes in basic voting rules, the “Trumians” were bound to be highly skeptical of an election that completely flipped many folks’ paradigm. Still though as I said above if you lost, you lost. Go get better and come back better. (If you want a reference, please look here: https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/?amp=true)
That said, I can’t support Trump now, but don’t regret supporting him previously. As everyone runs to their corners for the next food fight, I have to say that I see a tragic Leftist drive to tear down this country and the US Constitution being perpetuated by Sanders, Squad et. al. I know that there are a handful of moderate Democrats who don’t subscribe to this but with 2-3 exceptions the Democrats are all just going along with it.
Take your pick of specific issue this country has - they nearly all would be solvable by a handful of regular citizens but we just can’t seem to get our Government to make it happen. We need the Moderates to take the megaphones away from the extreme Left and Right.
Dang, Mark...excellent point. so much here, that it is not easy, granted. But you point in the right direction when you state "give the data or argument as to Why"..."bring back Right Data" with love.
So Ms. Bowles is running with this "story" of Black Hammer joining up with the "far right" Proud Boys. Does she in fact know anything about either group? The Proud Boys are more of a joke than an actual movement, they're not far right (whatever that even means), they're not all white, they're nonviolent unless physically attacked, they're not racist (their leader's this black/Hispanic gay guy)... How about do a little research before posting this crap?
I think you, and a lot of others, are wrong on the Fox hosts private texts to Meadows. First off, they do have a right to not have their private communications broadcast to the nation. This is the problem with the J6 commission which I don't think is truly Constitutional. Anyone watching what was playing out was appalled and wanted it to stop and their texts support that. Ingrahm's reporting specifically was correct. There were some Antifa, black block and other agitators mixed in the crowd. Would love for you and Bari to do more reporting on what the hell is going on with the Ray Epps character. Why is he not behind bars when grandma's who took a wrong turn are having their lives destroyed? Second, the left loves to scream that this was a coup orchestrated at all levels of the right wing. Clearly, Fox and Don Jr. must not have been privy to this plan. What a farce and disgraceful spectacle this whole J6 has become. I guess I can't blame the Democrats, this is literally ALL THEY HAVE and they will ride it into the ground and most of the public will continue to do what they are doing now, ignoring their preening and hysteria.
Yes obviously the J6 is nothing but a witch hunt and a distraction from actually important matters like, for example, massive and ignored ballot harvesting that flipped the 2020 elections, a disastrous failure in Afghan, the worst inflation in 40 years, the highest crime rates in decades... things like that.
Terry...agree. And just think, this is the very same administration Promoting Climate change, which it always does, but aren't these the same people that managed to feed this last year with about as much horse' play as possible...how and why?...they gettin Rich or something.
Re-Fox news and other worldy stories about the most polarized news room in the country. I am an out gay liberal woman. I thought I was walking into the Death Star when I entered FOX. I’ve been there 7 years now. As Trump came to power in office, and I worked my entertainment beat, the target on my back became a permanent tattoo. It didn’t matter my beliefs, all that mattered was, who I worked for. That day of the capitol riots - I too was appalled, I had met Trump supporters and I had learned so much about them as I travelled to places like Nashville. They are for the most part, working class people and he was their mega phone. Their messenger. But what happened that day was odd, especially for Trump supporters. For Ingraham to mention possibly anti-fa took part in it, she was merely positing something out loud. She said there are some reports that some may have been part of the wreckage of that day. And later clarified that indeed they were not. I do not watch much of my network outside of the occasional Tucker and Martha Mcallum and Gutfeld. But is this what we need to focus on? Doesn’t this further divide us. I think the positive here is, wow they were trying to stop this horrible situation from getting worse.
Young Democrats don't like America? Quelle surprise. If only Gofundme would permit a fundraiser to purchase one-way plane tickets. I can think of a few choice destinations - Venezuela, Congo, PRC. Good riddance.
Thanks for the introduction to Alison Roman. But after reading the essay, I’m now depressed that apparently some people think cooking lentils is deeply offensive.
Outstanding. Honestly (no pun intended), this if the best yet TGIF newsletter. Inclusion of the reference links was extremely useful. I wish more journalists demonstrated the open minds they profess, and that Nellie exemplifies.
Dec 17, 2021·edited Dec 17, 2021Liked by Nellie Bowles
Final comment! Young progressives are not only clueless, they're boringly unoriginal. "AmeriKKKa! HAHAHA!" Well, as someone who lived through the Long Sixties I well recall that the comrades of the New Left spelled it thusly: "Amerika" or, for emphasis, "Amerikka." That, you see, was supposed to highlight the neo-Nazism of this wicked country, whose stormtroopers (I among them) were trampling over the bodies of saintly Third World freedom fighters. That was how the New Left explained the Vietnam War to themselves, duh.
The inheritors of the New Left replicate this dumbness, adding to it a near-invincible sense of entitlement and a tin ear. Say what you will about Bernardine Dohrn, but at least she never whined, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did just the other day, that the American people had a "moral obligation" to pay off the student loans of the revolutionary vanguard. (Her Squaddie, Ayanna Pressley, went so far as to opine that student loan debt is "violence." You can't make it up!)
Anyhow, for all their whining most of these AmeriKKKA bashers seem none too eager to lace up their boogie shoes and hustle off to some Scandinavian socialist paradise. Perhaps emigrating to Denmark seems not so attractive when the realization dawns that one would first be obliged to learn Danish, then to labor under the burden of an approximately 50% tax rate.
"Youth is wasted on the young." Yeah, I know, Oscar Wilde is just another Dead White Guy—but at least he was gay so come on!
Reagan's shining city upon a hill, didn't even make it in the top 10 for happiness. We show American exceptionalism by incarcerating more people Per capita than El Salvador, Turkmenistan, or Cuba; in this category were are number one!
People in prison have one thing in common: with rare exceptions, they’re all guilty as charged and convicted. So they’re right where they belong, correct?
More than likely, you're not even aware of the cognitive dissidents within your statement; you call countries that incarcerate fewer people per capita than the United States as prisons masquerading as countries! Your mind dare not venture into why other countries don't imprison like we do and what America great is doing wrong, because America never does anything wrong, right?
Perhaps you meant "cognitive dissonance." In any case you've added to the world's oversupply of that commodity. Thanks a lot.
The claim that a low per-capita incarceration rate is prima facie evidence of a country's superior virtue assumes facts not in evidence. If Absurdistan or Trashcanistan have lower incarceration rates than the United States, that may be due not to their enlightened policies but to the inefficiency and corruption of their criminal justice systems. Then too, how do we know that Cuba—one of your exemplars—actually does have a lower incarceration rate than the United States? Totalitarian regimes are not exactly known for their openness and honesty regarding such things.
In the United States itself, various municipalities have put your proposition to the test by refusing to pursue, prosecute and imprison criminals. The results, as we know, have not been brilliant. That enlightened policy, so called and so beloved of progressives, has been paid for with the blood of numerous victims of violent crime, most of them belonging to the very minority groups that anti-police groups like Black Lives Matter purport to champion. So perhaps the truly enlightened policy is to wage war on criminality, using every weapon the law provides, most definitely including incarceration. And if that means that we lock up more criminals per capita than, say, Denmark, so be it. Law, order and public safety are the true measures of enlightened policy in this context.
Dec 17, 2021·edited Dec 17, 2021Liked by Nellie Bowles
China produces 42% of the world's CO2, the US 14% The US has reduced CO2 by switching from coal to gas; China continues to build coal plants and there is no reason to expect them to stop. Therefore even if the US were to totally end CO2 production there would be no discernible effect on the climate.
Therefore it makes ZERO sense to spend money on CO2 reduction. Much better to spend it hardening the infrastructure against the effects of climate change. New York's ban on new gas hookups is idiotic. It produces about 1/3 the CO2 for the same amount of energy and almost no chemical pollution. Replacing it with oil or electricity will cause more CO2.
Your reasoning goes China will not stop polluting the air, so we need to harden our infrastructure. You heard that old saying, details, details; resilience. Org has some thoughts on that: "No matter how much we decide to harden our systems, the cost will be enormous.", It makes more sense to focus our energy on renewable energy because it's cheaper than fossil fuels, thereby making us more competitive on the world market, forcing China to give up fossil fuels, because of the cost.
I'm a conservative Republican and cannot agree more with your Laura Ingraham commentary. She, Hannity and others who sent texts to Mark Meadows calling for Trump to publicly call it out needed to call out Trump publicly themselves (I voted for Trump twice). Trump confidant Hannity did call out the riot, but didn't call out Trump.
Even Don Trump Jr. who I can't stand called for his dad to step up.......If FoxNews hosts who have license to bloviate don't want to be labeled "Fake News" with the leftist media.....they need to be brutally honest about Trumps regular shortcomings.
This incident at Fox News is so small-time compared to the partisan incestuousness rampant at the Democrat-controlled news networks, including the formerly respectable big-three broadcast networks. It's certainly small potatoes compared to the Cuomo fiasco. It concerns me not at all. Unlike most of those networks, I don't think the Fox lineup has ever pretended to be politically neutral, and I think most viewers understand that. On the other hand, CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS put themselves forth as being objective news, and the sheeple who watch them believe it. Sorry Nellie, but you missed the boat on this one.
I never thought that Jordan Peterson nemesis and communist-lover Nellie Bowles would be the author I look forward to reading every week but I'm really enjoying the TGIF section. Merry Christmas!
Amidst the discouraging back and forth below (yes, discouraging. Mostly name calling, not making points about policy and its consequences--the only way to get anywhere). I will point out that this is a perspective-o-mania. These news bites are almost too small to matter, but they make the cut. Anyone is free to consult the source as it is given. I would also like some non-Trumpian conservatives to weigh in. It would round out this large chunk of information. In any case, I tried to pick one thing to comment on, but just ended up scrolling up and down. For those of us who are not news addicts or involved in policy, this sort of thing is priceless (i.e. this column, even if it were from another side). For the rest of you commenting folks, could you please respond in kind. Give the data or argument as to why you disagree and maybe a source. When I was in college I subscribed to National Review (and called myself a conservative for the next decade) because of a 1/2 page box they had called "Right Data." They actually gave an argument with data about policy. Who were these people? I wrote to William F. Buckley who actually wrote back. Bring back Right Data.
Mark, I’ll try to satisfy your request for a “non-Trumpian” comment although I’m limited by several factors. First one is that I have supported Trump a lot but have had to shelve it when he couldn’t accept a defeat. We teach our kids that even if you don’t like the call the ref makes, if you can’t accept it and come back stronger then you enter the sore losers club. That’s hugely antithetical to American culture (at least until about 2016 or so).
I work hard to try to force myself to be objective. After 4+ yrs of continuous attacks on Trump, be it the almost daily anonymous leaks of Classified information that couldn’t be tested, Russia Collusion (and it’s true source) two bogus Impeachments , to the massive changes in basic voting rules, the “Trumians” were bound to be highly skeptical of an election that completely flipped many folks’ paradigm. Still though as I said above if you lost, you lost. Go get better and come back better. (If you want a reference, please look here: https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/?amp=true)
That said, I can’t support Trump now, but don’t regret supporting him previously. As everyone runs to their corners for the next food fight, I have to say that I see a tragic Leftist drive to tear down this country and the US Constitution being perpetuated by Sanders, Squad et. al. I know that there are a handful of moderate Democrats who don’t subscribe to this but with 2-3 exceptions the Democrats are all just going along with it.
Take your pick of specific issue this country has - they nearly all would be solvable by a handful of regular citizens but we just can’t seem to get our Government to make it happen. We need the Moderates to take the megaphones away from the extreme Left and Right.
Dang, Mark...excellent point. so much here, that it is not easy, granted. But you point in the right direction when you state "give the data or argument as to Why"..."bring back Right Data" with love.
So Ms. Bowles is running with this "story" of Black Hammer joining up with the "far right" Proud Boys. Does she in fact know anything about either group? The Proud Boys are more of a joke than an actual movement, they're not far right (whatever that even means), they're not all white, they're nonviolent unless physically attacked, they're not racist (their leader's this black/Hispanic gay guy)... How about do a little research before posting this crap?
I think you, and a lot of others, are wrong on the Fox hosts private texts to Meadows. First off, they do have a right to not have their private communications broadcast to the nation. This is the problem with the J6 commission which I don't think is truly Constitutional. Anyone watching what was playing out was appalled and wanted it to stop and their texts support that. Ingrahm's reporting specifically was correct. There were some Antifa, black block and other agitators mixed in the crowd. Would love for you and Bari to do more reporting on what the hell is going on with the Ray Epps character. Why is he not behind bars when grandma's who took a wrong turn are having their lives destroyed? Second, the left loves to scream that this was a coup orchestrated at all levels of the right wing. Clearly, Fox and Don Jr. must not have been privy to this plan. What a farce and disgraceful spectacle this whole J6 has become. I guess I can't blame the Democrats, this is literally ALL THEY HAVE and they will ride it into the ground and most of the public will continue to do what they are doing now, ignoring their preening and hysteria.
Cole...Barri does a great job and she could use You, thanks. You have 12 lines and 12 Good points, reflexive..."farce" was great.
Yes obviously the J6 is nothing but a witch hunt and a distraction from actually important matters like, for example, massive and ignored ballot harvesting that flipped the 2020 elections, a disastrous failure in Afghan, the worst inflation in 40 years, the highest crime rates in decades... things like that.
Terry...agree. And just think, this is the very same administration Promoting Climate change, which it always does, but aren't these the same people that managed to feed this last year with about as much horse' play as possible...how and why?...they gettin Rich or something.
Follow the money. It's always about the money!
Thank you Nellie and Bari.
Re-Fox news and other worldy stories about the most polarized news room in the country. I am an out gay liberal woman. I thought I was walking into the Death Star when I entered FOX. I’ve been there 7 years now. As Trump came to power in office, and I worked my entertainment beat, the target on my back became a permanent tattoo. It didn’t matter my beliefs, all that mattered was, who I worked for. That day of the capitol riots - I too was appalled, I had met Trump supporters and I had learned so much about them as I travelled to places like Nashville. They are for the most part, working class people and he was their mega phone. Their messenger. But what happened that day was odd, especially for Trump supporters. For Ingraham to mention possibly anti-fa took part in it, she was merely positing something out loud. She said there are some reports that some may have been part of the wreckage of that day. And later clarified that indeed they were not. I do not watch much of my network outside of the occasional Tucker and Martha Mcallum and Gutfeld. But is this what we need to focus on? Doesn’t this further divide us. I think the positive here is, wow they were trying to stop this horrible situation from getting worse.
So now I have to add Mai-Tai’s to the list of cancelled products and books that I consume.
Young Democrats don't like America? Quelle surprise. If only Gofundme would permit a fundraiser to purchase one-way plane tickets. I can think of a few choice destinations - Venezuela, Congo, PRC. Good riddance.
Thanks for the introduction to Alison Roman. But after reading the essay, I’m now depressed that apparently some people think cooking lentils is deeply offensive.
Outstanding. Honestly (no pun intended), this if the best yet TGIF newsletter. Inclusion of the reference links was extremely useful. I wish more journalists demonstrated the open minds they profess, and that Nellie exemplifies.
I’d like to see you source your snarks a bit better than some clueless limey tabloid and a dumbass tweet. I expect better for my five bucks a month.
For Laura Ingraham's response, watch here: https://video.foxnews.com/v/6286884559001#sp=show-clips
Final comment! Young progressives are not only clueless, they're boringly unoriginal. "AmeriKKKa! HAHAHA!" Well, as someone who lived through the Long Sixties I well recall that the comrades of the New Left spelled it thusly: "Amerika" or, for emphasis, "Amerikka." That, you see, was supposed to highlight the neo-Nazism of this wicked country, whose stormtroopers (I among them) were trampling over the bodies of saintly Third World freedom fighters. That was how the New Left explained the Vietnam War to themselves, duh.
The inheritors of the New Left replicate this dumbness, adding to it a near-invincible sense of entitlement and a tin ear. Say what you will about Bernardine Dohrn, but at least she never whined, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did just the other day, that the American people had a "moral obligation" to pay off the student loans of the revolutionary vanguard. (Her Squaddie, Ayanna Pressley, went so far as to opine that student loan debt is "violence." You can't make it up!)
Anyhow, for all their whining most of these AmeriKKKA bashers seem none too eager to lace up their boogie shoes and hustle off to some Scandinavian socialist paradise. Perhaps emigrating to Denmark seems not so attractive when the realization dawns that one would first be obliged to learn Danish, then to labor under the burden of an approximately 50% tax rate.
"Youth is wasted on the young." Yeah, I know, Oscar Wilde is just another Dead White Guy—but at least he was gay so come on!
Reagan's shining city upon a hill, didn't even make it in the top 10 for happiness. We show American exceptionalism by incarcerating more people Per capita than El Salvador, Turkmenistan, or Cuba; in this category were are number one!
Oh, and I would add that the countries you cite are unfortunate examples, since what they are, more or less, are prisons masquerading as countries.
People in prison have one thing in common: with rare exceptions, they’re all guilty as charged and convicted. So they’re right where they belong, correct?
More than likely, you're not even aware of the cognitive dissidents within your statement; you call countries that incarcerate fewer people per capita than the United States as prisons masquerading as countries! Your mind dare not venture into why other countries don't imprison like we do and what America great is doing wrong, because America never does anything wrong, right?
Perhaps you meant "cognitive dissonance." In any case you've added to the world's oversupply of that commodity. Thanks a lot.
The claim that a low per-capita incarceration rate is prima facie evidence of a country's superior virtue assumes facts not in evidence. If Absurdistan or Trashcanistan have lower incarceration rates than the United States, that may be due not to their enlightened policies but to the inefficiency and corruption of their criminal justice systems. Then too, how do we know that Cuba—one of your exemplars—actually does have a lower incarceration rate than the United States? Totalitarian regimes are not exactly known for their openness and honesty regarding such things.
In the United States itself, various municipalities have put your proposition to the test by refusing to pursue, prosecute and imprison criminals. The results, as we know, have not been brilliant. That enlightened policy, so called and so beloved of progressives, has been paid for with the blood of numerous victims of violent crime, most of them belonging to the very minority groups that anti-police groups like Black Lives Matter purport to champion. So perhaps the truly enlightened policy is to wage war on criminality, using every weapon the law provides, most definitely including incarceration. And if that means that we lock up more criminals per capita than, say, Denmark, so be it. Law, order and public safety are the true measures of enlightened policy in this context.
China produces 42% of the world's CO2, the US 14% The US has reduced CO2 by switching from coal to gas; China continues to build coal plants and there is no reason to expect them to stop. Therefore even if the US were to totally end CO2 production there would be no discernible effect on the climate.
Therefore it makes ZERO sense to spend money on CO2 reduction. Much better to spend it hardening the infrastructure against the effects of climate change. New York's ban on new gas hookups is idiotic. It produces about 1/3 the CO2 for the same amount of energy and almost no chemical pollution. Replacing it with oil or electricity will cause more CO2.
Your reasoning goes China will not stop polluting the air, so we need to harden our infrastructure. You heard that old saying, details, details; resilience. Org has some thoughts on that: "No matter how much we decide to harden our systems, the cost will be enormous.", It makes more sense to focus our energy on renewable energy because it's cheaper than fossil fuels, thereby making us more competitive on the world market, forcing China to give up fossil fuels, because of the cost.
https://www.irena.org/newsroom/pressreleases/2021/Jun/Majority-of-New-Renewables-Undercut-Cheapest-Fossil-Fuel-on-Cost
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2021-09-05/a-moving-target-hardening-our-infrastructure-against-climate-change/