2022-01-02 | World | Linkage.

AMSTERDAM PROTESTERS BEATEN, MAULED.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1477633528858824706
"Unauthorized protest."

JOE ROGAN JOINS GETTR.
https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-joe-rogan-joins-gettr-as-twitter-censorship-intensifies
'"Just in case shit over at Twitter gets even dumber, I'm here now as well. Rejoice!" Rogan wrote on his GETTR account Sunday afternoon.'

GLENN GREENWALD: CONGRESS TELLS TECHNOCRATS TO CENSOR MORE.
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/congress-escalates-pressure-on-tech
'For the third time in less than five months, the U.S. Congress has summoned the CEOs of social media companies to appear before them, with the explicit intent to pressure and coerce them to censor more content from their platforms. On March 25, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will interrogate Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Facebooks’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai at a hearing which the Committee announced will focus “on misinformation and disinformation plaguing online platforms.”'

Key point: '... the key point raised by these last threats from House Democrats is an often-overlooked one: while the First Amendment does not apply to voluntary choices made by a private company about what speech to allow or prohibit, it does bar the U.S. Government from coercing or threatening such companies to censor. In other words, Congress violates the First Amendment when it attempts to require private companies to impose viewpoint-based speech restrictions which the government itself would be constitutionally barred from imposing.'

The techocrats are bidden to pay special attention to censoring Covid-19 debate, and any discussion of fraud in the so-called "election" of 2020.

2022-01-02 | Journal | Sunday afternoon.

Looking back on my journals from 2 and 3 years ago, I realize I gained about 20 pounds during the lockdown. So for that and other reasons, I'm going to start walking more, and that's going to begin with getting back in the habit of walking to the grocery store. So from about 10 to 11 this morning I walked to Whole Foods (it is 18 minutes one-way) and bought a few fresh items, including salad and onions.

I did my cardio for the day, too, 5 minutes on the elliptical. I wasn't planning to go over 160, much less 170, but it looks like I did:

2022-01-02 05:00 123 79 72 97.2 185.8 5 171

I worked on my A+ material from the Professor Messer course this morning, and watched one installment each of the Grant Sanderson's series on calculus and linear algebra. Got caught up on politics and world events, and worked a little on local stuff. I've just about finished memorizing the names of Oregon's 30 State Senators. I've already got the State's counties and county seats down, as well as the name of Hillsboro's Mayor (Steve Callaway), City Manager (Robby Hammond), City Council President (Kyle Allen), and remaining council members (Alcaire, Martin, Pace, Roletto, and Van Beveren).

So, the program for the rest of the day is to finish the housekeeping, dishes, laundry, and trash. Then relax with a good book before bed. Tomorrow's gonna be an early day at work.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG49S3nxzAnlGHY8ObL8DiyP3AIu9vd3K
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUvTyaaNkzM&list=PLZHQObOWTQDMsr9K-rj53DwVRMYO3t5Yr
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2xVFitgF8hE_ab
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/senate/Pages/SenatorsDistrict.aspx
https://quizlet.com/512954570/oregon-counties-and-county-seats-map-flash-cards/

New on GETTR:

My good friend Michael Weingrad!
https://gettr.com/user/weingrad

Oh, and Joe Rogan has also joined.
https://gettr.com/post/plgurw90c5

Anti-Semites and "anti-Semites".

Well I don't know about you, but when I want to find out who's an anti-Semite, I always turn to the hallowed pages of the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/18/donald-trump-antisemitic-tropes-anti-defamation-league

The chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League led condemnation of Donald Trump after the former president used antisemitic tropes in remarks about American Jews and Israel.

Of course he did. The ADL long ago cast off any pretense of fighting anti-Semitism. It's just another front for the leftist demokrat establishment, like so many other once-honorable organizations that used to fight real prejudice (such as the SPLC). For the ADL, "anti-Semite" is just a label to smear their political enemies.

What was Trump's offense this time, in Greenblatt's estimation?

“Insinuating that Israel or the Jews control Congress or the media is antisemitic, plain and simple,” Jonathan Greenblatt said. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time he has made these offensive remarks.”

And what did Trump actually say?

“It’s a very dangerous thing that’s happening,” Trump said. “There’s people in this country that are Jewish and no longer love Israel. I’ll tell you, the evangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country.”

Well, it's true, and Trump is far from the first person to say it. I've made the same observation many times, as have a lot of conservative and pro-Israel American Jews. It's why many of us don't support the ADL - because they're aligned with the same leftist cabal that controls the media and big tech. (Uh-oh, I used the word "cabal".)

https://andrewducker.tumblr.com/post/655801904998252544/what-things-are-antisemitic-that-gentiles-dont

Now the word "cabal" derives from the Hebrew word kabbalah [קבלה], which itself comes from the root [קבל] meaning to receive. It originally refers to the mystical tradition of such books as the Sefer Yetzirah and the Zohar. (In modern Israeli Hebrew, it means a sales receipt or restaurant check.) According to my dusty OED, it first made its appearance in English in 1616 (in the sense of the Jewish mystical tradition) and in 1646 with the connotation of "a secret or private intrigue of a sinister character formed by a small body of persons". I've heard it used both with and without anti-Semitic overtones, and I've used the word myself and will continue to do so.

You can delve down into the discussion as these liberal intellectuals scratch their heads over the conundrum:

So yes, politicians in the GOP use these terms plenty, and it got worse under the last administration. At the same time, GOP politicians defend Israel to the point of utter absurdity.

Why do they do these things? Because they’re antisemitic and also pro-Israel. Why would antisemitic people be pro-Israel? Because their evangelical Christian constituents are pro-Israel. Not in the sense that any of them necessarily care about Israel, Israelis, or Palestinians (unless they’ve got their islamophobia hats on, as they frequently do), but because they care that Israel exists to fulfill their end times theologies.

So yeah, "the GOP are anti-Semitic" but they "defend Israel to the point of utter absurdity."

But let's get back to Greenblatt and the Guardian article:

Trump also said “they’re Jewish people that run the New York Times” and claimed the newspaper “hates Israel”.

Well, okay, which of these two assertions is controversial, exactly?

Like many of us, Trump is appalled that support for Israel is not stronger among American Jews, and that so many influential organizations - like the NYT - are strongly anti-Israel. It's not complicated, and you almost have to misunderstand on purpose not to get it.

Greenblatt and the Guardian have to tie themselves in rhetorical knots to paint Trump as an "anti-Semite".

It's intellectuals doing what intellectuals do best: intellectualizing.

For a different perspective - one that represents conservative American Jews who are unabashedly pro-American, pro-Jewish, and pro-Israel - visit Rabbi Aryeh Spero and the Conference of Jewish Affairs:

https://conferenceofjewishaffairs.org/

What does Donald Trump think about the End Times? I don't know and I don't care. I judge people by their actions. The anti-Semites I'm worried about are the ones who actually want to kill Jews.