I’m taking a few days off from the usual gang of misogynists to explore other terrible people out there in the world being terrible. Today, let me present to you Newt Gingrich, who is still alive and just as terrible as ever.
He thinks that American civilization, if it can be called that, is crumbling before our very eyes, and has written up a little rant on the subject for his Gingrich 360 website. Let me bring you the highlights, by which I mean, as always, the lowlights.
“We are now in a crisis of American civilization fully as dangerous and real as the crisis of the US Civil War or World War II,” he begins. “Today, we face combined internal and external threats which are as great or greater.”
Gingrich offers up a few thoughts on China that are not particularly interesting before moving past this international frenemy to focus on what he sees as the real threats to American from within.
However dangerous the foreign challenges are they fade away when compared with the domestic threats to American civilization.
Consider these indicators that our civilization is beginning to fall apart.
Ok, well, let’s consider them.
One, riots up in Minnesota.
Several days of looting and rioting in Minnesota have occurred even as a trial of a former policeman is underway proving the rule of law works.
Two: No-Go Zones
As a result of riots in Seattle, Portland, and Milwaukee, Gingrich claims, there are now
no-go zones similar to those in France have been created which are effectively localized secessions from the United States.
Portland continues to be attacked nightly by anarchists. Despite pious statements by public officials, no effective action is underway to restore law and order.
Newt — may I call you Newt? –do you remember why these protests are taking place? Maybe the rise in innocent men and women getting killed by the very people who are supposed to be protecting us from violence is the real threat to civilization, or at least one of them.
Newt evidently disagrees, because he thinks the real problem iis …
Three, the “war on police.”
There is a war on police underway with 264 killed in 2020, a jump of 96 percent over the previous year. In New York City, hostile forces use Molotov cocktails to set police cars on fire. Murder rates are skyrocketing around the country with 2020 the biggest one-year jump in homicides in American history – 36.7 percent.
I’m not quite sure how the rising murder rates of people who are not police officers is proof of a “war on police.” If anything, it weakens the case; there may be more cops getting shot because there are more people getting shot overall.
Four, aggravated shoplifting. No, really.
In San Francisco, the declaration by the communist district attorney that theft under $900 will not be prosecuted has led to so much shoplifting that Walgreens is closing all 10 of its drugstores in the city.
For what it’s worth, it’s not clear that the stores actually closed due to shoplifting. Walgreens says the closures were part of a nationwide shutdown of 200 stores in what the company called a “transformational cost management program,” whatever that means. The S.F. police, for their part, say larceny is actually down. Oh, and there are still Walgreens stores operating in San Francisco; they haven’t all been shut down.
Five: “Woke” corporations that don’t want their employees and customers losing basic democratic rights.
Woke CEOs who refuse to condemn genocide and police state tyranny in China are quick to attack Georgia – even though President Joe Biden was just plain wrong (perhaps lying) about the state’s new election law.
Six, some CNN guy on a fake date set up by corruption-fabricator James O’Keefe bragged that CNN’s pro-Biden coverage had cost Trump the election.
I’m not going to bother rebutting this one because Trump and his media enablers (Fox, OAN, Newsmax and many others) spewed out so many lies during the election that the basically truthful news sources outside of the Trump camp could barely keep track. Trump is still lying about the election on a daily basis.
Also, did I mention that O’Keefe is a scammy hack? You can read some of the gory details of O’Keefe’s “sting” operation against CNN here.
Seven: Trump and some of his people have been banned from Twitter for egregiously breaking the social media site’s rules.
[T]he internet giants … are increasingly acting like Russian oligarchs. They are trying to erase a leader who was supported by more than 75 million Americans with a ruthlessness worthy of Soviet tyranny and the Chinese Communist Party.
Strangely, Trump has not been exiled to Siberia but has rather relocated to one of his country clubs in Florida, and he can get on Fox to complain about whatever he wants to complain about pretty much any time he wants.
Eight: Racism (against white men)
Overt racism through race-based reparations, school quotas, and anti-white and anti-male curricula are a return to government-fueled discrimination and segregation.
Nine: California is making students worship an Aztec god?
I have to admit I missed out on this one but, according to Gingrich,
the state of California is considering requiring students to chant every day to an Aztec god who was the center of a human sacrifice cult … .
Snopes dismisses these accusations as “mostly false,” pointing out that the program is a voluntary option and, well, go read their thing on the subject because it’s sort of too complicated for my brain to process after reading this much nonsense from Newt.
Anyway, these are the things that are destroying America, according to Newt. Your mileage may vary.
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.45 said
Yup.
Only until it becomes advantageous to assert otherwise. He is a Republican, after all.
Also, I utterly loathe Fucker Carlson on a level approximating my lack of esteem for Stephen Miller (the baby killer).
Alan – I like how the Arabic translation is rustier and looks like it’s been there longer. Any idea why the city’s coat of arms looks like it has two cartoon dinosaurs wearing backwards facing baseball caps?
There’s not a war on cops. But there should be.
@Moggie:
Shocking! I need a nice bike ride to get away from it all…maybe along Lakeshore Road / Chemin Bord-du-Lac…oh NOOO…
Anyway, I hereby appoint Gingrich the president of the Missing the Point Club. Because someone could begin this way…
…and make a reasonable point about how companies put their market base above actual social responsibility. But of course it’s just an excuse for him to complain about Biden.
Any idea why the city’s coat of arms looks like it has two cartoon dinosaurs wearing backwards facing baseball caps?
Them’s Credit Crunch monsters. (Ronzo is a street artist – think Banksy, but in concrete or brass)
@Hambeast:
That’s Bengali.
@ hambeast
As Threp mentioned, it’s a street art thing. There’s load of great art on and around Brick Lane. Googling ‘Brick lane street art’ is well worth a look.
I mainly go for the food though. There’s all sorts from all over. I have a routine though. Start at a place that does interesting teas to clear my palette. Then up the street to a bloke who does amazing Ugandan food. Stroll back down the street eating that and then to a posh chocolate place that hands out free samples. So that’s dessert sorted. There’s also a place that does amazing Asian sweets. Big piles of all sorts of wonderful things. Imagine if Willy Wonka had a shop in Mumbai and you’ll get the idea.
The dodgiest boozer I was ever in in London was a place in Brick Lane. Very threatening. But that was back in the 1980s, and the area is very different now.
@Alan Robertshaw:
Would you like to buy a vowel? At least one, to stick somewhere in “nwch”? 🙂
I believe Newt tried his hand at science fiction once or twice, and he mixed up his column with his latest alternate universe.
Or he could just be a bloviating liar like always.
Walgreens way over-expanded and had too many stores, so they’re shutting some down. Even if the economy hadn’t taken the hit it has, they probably would have shut a few.
I will have to tell my friend in San Francisco she has been visiting a complete illusion for all her quick needs and medicine, including vaccination. And that the one 3 blocks further on is also a mirage. (See what I mean about the over-expansion?)
Newt probably would have clutched his pearls if he’d been me, a small disabled white woman by myself after 10 PM at a downtown Oakland BART station. I was just bored, because I had nothing to read and my phone didn’t work down there. Several feet away was a clutch of trophy Karens waiting to get the train out to the end of the line rich exurb. They were in a circle and looked really nervous… about me. We were the only people in the station, and I was dressed really nice. But since I wasn’t terrified, obviously I was one of Those People. I was clearly about to turn into a big Black gangbanger. Maybe they were just confused because it was their first time on public transit instead of in their Mercedes?
If there is a war on cops, they seem to be winning.
@Mogwitch: I’m jealous! I had to pick that up on my own, my Latin teacher never got into the fun stuff. We did have a substitute one day who taught us a few dirty words.
I admit, I’m curious as to why he thinks The End Times are here now when they were also here in the ’90s?
Milwaukee festival organizers are falling over themselves to see if they can open and when. Christ, State Fair released three new flavors of cream puffs [ahem] over the course of the riots ?
@hambeast : was it good ? the best african dishes I have eaten in Paris was in a super seedy restaurant, stuck between two brothel (and the creepy kind, with very visible “protectors” in the street). Without french menus, you had to ask the waitress. I never was able to share it with a good portion of my friend just because I feared their reaction to how seedy it seemed.
Thanks for the info, everyone!
Well, it’s pretty brilliant; very convincing upon first glance because it looks likes it’s been there for ages. I love stuff like this!
Having read the “Aztec chant” Newt was talking about, I don’t think it’s particularly threatening. It is, however, kinda cringey, and I’m sure 12 year olds would prefer to be chanting about actual human sacrifice rather than “the will to action as we grow in consciousness” and “makin’ things happen, with agency, resiliency, & a revolutionary spirit that’s positive, progressive, creative, native,” etc.
Ugh, Newt. Thought he shut up years ago…
An odd Newt ancdote: Around 1970, my father was a young exec with an energy consulting company in the DC area, mother returning to college after birthing 4 children in five years (eventually becoming a Doctor). They didn’t go out much, but occasionally made it to parties, with young exec types and, being in the DC area, young pols of all sorts. Parties where the ladies looked pretty and chatted, and the men schmoozed—but mostly everyone just got drunk.
At one of these, my mother, who was never much of a drinker, ended up in a bathroom alone and vomiting. After some length of time my father noticed she was nowhere to be seen. Asking about, someone said they’d last seen her talking to young Newt, but Newt was nowhere to be found, either!
Drunk & jealous, father proceeded to make a toxic-male fool of himself, until mother eventually reappeared. Still no sign of Newt, but pretty sure my father believes to this day that she cheated on him with Newt.