Donald Trump is sworn in as 45th President of the United States
President Donald Trump’s inauguration took place on Friday accompanied by huge crowds of supporters, and – unusually – large and some violent anti-Trump demonstrations. The depth of the hatred for Trump has not surprised me but one would have thought that people would have gotten over their anger and accepted the will of the people expressed at the ballot box.
But it seems that the Leftists of today, having been coddled by the nanny state, with politically correct rules for protecting students against “triggering” situations, and the promotion of identity politics over merit, do not know how to handle a result that goes against their wishes.
What we saw in those demonstrations was a display of malice, ill-will, and a sinister undertone of violence that bodes ill for America if allowed to fester.
Legal Insurrection covered some of the demonstrations. Rioters pitch massive tantrum during inauguration:
During the inaugural ceremonies, anti-Trump rioters burned things and smashed car windows.
https://twitter.com/AlexanderEmmons/status/822472272925560833
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NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THE MOB:
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And then there was tear gas:
https://twitter.com/Patrick_Madden/status/822469479296864260
Besides the riots there were a series of feminist anti-Trump demonstrations which protested Trump’s reported misogyny, or at least his very inappropriate comments and attitudes about women. These demonstrations in themselves would be perfectly acceptable – until you examine who their sponsors and organizers were, and then the picture turns into something much less balanced.
One of the main organizers was Linda Sarsour, about whom Israellycool had this to say:
If you are a woman wanting to protest against Trump, go for it.
I’ll leave aside for a second the fact I do not recall any similar march protesting the disgraceful treatment of women in parts of the Muslim world.
Just be aware of the these things about Linda Sarsour, one of the main organizers of your march.
1. She wants everyone to live under Sharia law.
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2. She is not happy “22 states” have banned Sharia, and claims Muslim kids are being executed in the US.
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4. She posed for a picture with Salah Sarsour, a member of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and former Hamas operative who was jailed in Israel because of alleged work for Hamas.
In an article written, astonishingly enough by a Muslim woman, it turns out that more than 50 partners of the the massive Women’s March have ties to none other than our old “friend”, the subversive extreme leftist George Soros: (emphases are mine):
… the march really isn’t a “women’s march.” It’s a march for women who are anti-Trump.
By my draft research, which I’m opening up for crowd-sourcing on GoogleDocs, Soros has funded, or has close relationships with, at least 56 of the march’s “partners,” including “key partners” Planned Parenthood, which opposes Trump’s anti-abortion policy, and the National Resource Defense Council, which opposes Trump’s environmental policies. The other Soros ties with “Women’s March” organizations include the partisan MoveOn.org (which was fiercely pro-Clinton), the National Action Network (which has a former executive director lauded by Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett as “a leader of tomorrow” as a march co-chair and another official as “the head of logistics”). Other Soros grantees who are “partners” in the march are the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. March organizers and the organizations identified here haven’t yet returned queries for comment.
On the issues I care about as a Muslim, the “Women’s March,” unfortunately, has taken a stand on the side of partisan politics that has obfuscated the issues of Islamic extremism over the eight years of the Obama administration. “Women’s March” partners include the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has not only deflected on issues of Islamic extremism post-9/11, but opposes Muslim reforms that would allow women to be prayer leaders and pray in the front of mosques, without wearing headscarves as symbols of chastity. Partners also include the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which wrongly designated Maajid Nawaz, a Muslim reformer, an “anti-Muslim extremist” in a biased report released before the election. The SPLC confirmed to me that Soros funded its “anti-Muslim extremists” report targeting Nawaz. (Ironically, CAIR also opposes abortions, but its leader still has a key speaking role.)
Another Soros grantee and march “partner” is the Arab-American Association of New York, whose executive director, Linda Sarsour, is a march co-chair. When I co-wrote a piece, arguing that Muslim women don’t have to wear headscarves as a symbol of “modesty,” she attacked the coauthor and me as “fringe.”
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Much like post-election protests, which included a sign, “Kill Trump,” were not “spontaneous,” as reported by some media outlets, the “Women’s March” is an extension of strategic identity politics that has so fractured America today, from campuses to communities. On the left or the right, it’s wrong. But, with the inauguration, we know the politics. With the march, “women” have been appropriated for a clearly anti-Trump day.
The blogger Lex who writes at Israellycool expressed similar misgivings about the Women’s March, wondering with whom they are hitching a ride despite her extreme dislike of Donald Trump:
However, I was embarrassed by the behavior of over 2.9 million of my fellow social progressives at the American Women’s March, which replicated itself with other satellite solidarity marches across the world, including one in Tel Aviv. I think the whole concept of the march was silly and melodramatic, and reeked of entitlement that the left built up after being coddled and nourished by Obama for so many years. It also appeared to me as a giant temper tantrum of young children who didn’t get their way in a fair democratic process. There are three major reasons I refused to show any solidarity with the marchers, despite the fact that many of my close friends participated, that I agree on many of their appraisals of the situation, and that I share many of their worries and concerns regarding how Trump will treat his most marginalized and downtrodden citizens.
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The Girls Who Cried Wolf
One of the biggest reasons why I am worried, and why I see these protests proof of a gigantic sense of entitlement the left has nurtured and abetted for many years, is because Trump hasn’t actually done anything objectionable yet as president.
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These women are protesting Trump because he was elected and they don’t like him.
To any outsider, they seem to be behaving like spoiled brats used to always getting what they want, throwing a tantrum when they didn’t win after a fair process.
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…But What About The Other Scumbag Presidents?
… John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and even the much-loved FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt), had presidencies racked by numerous affairs and cheating scandals, yet went down in history as arguably among the best presidents to ever take office, at least in the 20th century. So no, even if he has a weakness for women and can’t maintain a relationship without being a jerk, that doesn’t mean he will make a bad president.
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Dangerous Liaisons
I was very skeptical when I found out that community activist and noted Israel-hater Linda Sarsour was running the movement. Sarsour is a proud Palestinian pro-Sharia Law activist who pretends to be a progressive and uses her charm to endear progressives to the highly regressive Sharia Law (yes, she is probably a genius if she can do that, I’ll give her that).
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Throughout her speech at the women’s march, Sarsour injected some pretty subliminal anti-Israel messaging, as did activist Angela Davis and others. There was also some subliminal Islamic proselytizing going on, with a station where march participants were fitted with American flag hijabs. Such an outcome didn’t surprise me in the slightest given Sarsour’s past behaviour and evident agenda. So no, I don’t want anything to do with her or her activism, because I always know that her end goal is to undermine Israel and popularize the anti-Israel movement, which she did empowered under Obama’s mentorship.
Any self-respecting Jew should steer clear of her and anything she is involved in as well, no matter how noble the cause may seem. There is always an ulterior motive to “inject” anti-Israel, terror-apologist, and pro-Islamist rhetoric, no matter how subtle, in all she does.
Concluding my trifecta of commentators, here is Melanie Phillips explaining the pathology in the thinking of the Left, in her article on the Insurgency Against Democracy:
President Donald Trump was brought to power by a cultural counter-revolution: a revolt by millions of Americans against a liberal progressive consensus and the establishment that embodied it.
Those who voted for him want him to overturn that consensus. He promised to do so. In his inaugural address he told them he would keep his word; he would take power away from that establishment and give it back to the people. What we are now seeing, on the streets of America and in its media, is an all-out attempt to stop him.
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For in deeming Donald Trump to be unfit to hold public office, in twisting and distorting what he says and does and then turning him into a vile monster on the basis of those distortions and in accusing him of fascism and Nazism and racism and very other form of evil, his opponents are setting themselves against the very democratic system they supposedly want to defend and are themselves unleashing the hatred and violence they affect to despise.
The reason for such disproportionate, indeed almost pathological behaviour is obvious. Left-wing “progressives” regard themselves as the elect who alone are entitled to wield power. This is because they alone know how society must be refashioned to bring about the transformation of human nature and the utopia of universal equality. The fact that they have now lost power is not just a set back. It simply cannot be allowed to happen.
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Those who accuse Donald Trump of fascism are not only guilty of what might be called “fascism-denial” by diminishing what fascism actually is and the terrible things it entails. They are also projecting onto the President behaviour which they themselves are guilty of inciting.
The anti-Trump demonstrations in Washington DC, although largely peaceful, were nevertheless marked by thuggery and violence, with masked hooligans hurling bricks and rocks through the windows of shops and offices.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, who blessed the new President at his inauguration, became the target of hundreds of antisemitic messages, including Nazi imagery, from US viewers watching the inaugural events online.
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We don’t yet know what kind of President Donald Trump will be. But those accusing him of anti-democratic, hate-fuelled and fascist attitudes are themselves displaying and inciting these very qualities.
And with every single thing they do or say, they are proving over and over again just why he was elected.
As Melanie Phillips says, until the Left “gets it” and internalizes just where they went wrong, they will spend a lot of time waiting to regain power again.
Donald Trump is certainly not the perfect President, and not the person many of us would have voted for, but he is the American people’s choice, and we should wish him the best of luck and great success, not only for America’s sake but for the sake of the West which has deteriorated so egregiously during Obama’s regime.
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Actually the problem is that he really wasn’t the people’s choice. Hillary was. She won the popular vote. But the way the Constitution is written it is the electoral college that votes for president and we only vote for the electors in each individual state. Trump won more states than Hillary, but Hillary won the popular vote because of how many people live in “blue” states versus “red” states.
Now as far as the protestors are concerned, the ones protesting on the day of the election, were those who carried on in Portland after the election. They are anarchists, the same malcontents that you see when there are global business meetings. They are the far left and would not have liked a Hillary presidency any more than Trump. Would they have protested the same way. Probably not. But in truth I really wouldn’t be concerned about them.
I read Lex’s piece and I agree with her. The problem is that the overwhelming majority of the women who participated in that march probably have no idea who Sarsour or Angela Davis are. They don’t care about Israel, Palestine or globalization. The organizers may have ulterior motives but the majority of women came because of abortion rights and that is all.
Women came because Trump is a pig. But They missed the mark. Because as my sister said he is an equal opportunity pig. He is not a misogynist. One of his main advisors is his daughter and other women like KellyAnne Conway. He is also not any grosser than many Presidents or many men. Heck, have you heard how women talk about men in today’s day and age. In truth they are looking for a reason to dislike Trump. And believe me I can give you a big list. One that actually makes sense.
Trump is President. There is going to be enough to fight against. This would be the time to pull back and see what battles actually lay ahead. One I am concerned about is disability rights. Especially when the new supposed head of the Dept of Education doesn’t even know about the laws protecting disabled children’s rights to an education. If they try to gut that legislation then you might see me marching. When there really is something to march about.
Interesting Elise. Thank you for your insight. It’s hard to tell what’s what, what the truth is and what is hype or fake news or simple bigotry.
Indeed Trump makes a lot of us nervous, if only because of his volatility. But no one has given him a chance yet.
It was the direct opposite with Obama. No one gave him a chance but they gave him the Nobel Prize just “because”.
Both extremes are wrong.
And basically,as Melanie Phillips states, the left lost and they cant bear this type of democracy where they are the losers.The same too here in Israel. If they would’ve put more effort into producing a candidate better than Hillary Clinton,instead of trying to pull the rug out from under Trump, they may indeed have succeeded in producing a better person for president.But who knows?Maybe he’s what we all need,a breath of fresh air who couldn’t give a damn what we think of him!I wish him only success.By the way in his inaugral speech ,he only used the word “me “three times.Obama in his leaving speech used the same word 73times! A heck of a difference
Good luck Donald Trump
Please, people, let’s get this right (and I mean factually correct)! Melanie Phillips is usually so far to the right that she leaves most others choking in her dust. BUT the left are not for the most part (see Elise Ronan, 1st comment above) poor or bad losers. They are worrying about a President who has no sense that he is the choice of a minority (and most Presidents are, at best, the choice of a small majority) and believes that his mandate from less (significantly less) than half of those who voted gives him a mandate to do what he wants – or believes his followers want.
And when his Press Secretary threatens the US press for reporting other than what the President wants them to report, this (as our US-based daughter rightly noted) is the start of fascism. Even a republican appointed Chief Supreme Court Justice like John Bolton will choke on this flagrant violation of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, the one that enshrines freedom of speech.
Even Fox News is likely to choke on this, for what happens when the next liberal Democratic President gets elected and repeats Trump’s words to the right-wing press?
Be careful of what you wish for. You may get it.
And organise for the next elections, starting now.
And don’t forget that not even all Republicans legislators believe that Trump is the answer to all their prayers.
And now his team has come up with a neologism: “alternative facts”. For heaven’s sake! Facts are, by definition, what is the truth, the real situation, what is, etc and so forth. They are not, whatever the relativists and the post-modernists might like or even want us to believe, mutable and subject to alteration if we don’t like them.
Facts are, as ever, subject to interpretation, expansion, interrogation and so forth. They never “speak for themselves”. But that is not to say that we can ignore them or say that something else is “really” the truth, and that “facts” are changeable.
And this man is the leader, for at least 4 years, of the most powerful nation on earth?
Oh dear…get me out of here, please…alive!
Deborah Lipstadt has an article in The Times of London (behind a pa-wall, sadly), second section, 23 Jan., in which she writes about her reasons for fighting David Irving (see “Denial”, the film, a.s.a.p., it’s excellent), and uses the term “truthiness” to illustrate the increasing tendency for those who don’t like the facts of the world as it is and prefer to invent “alternative facts”: well, as she sort of says, these people prefer to relate to how people feel, rather than what the facts are.
The saddest thing is that if there are enough of them, they can cause real damage.
And that’s what Trump’s people are starting to do. Rewrite the world to fit what they want to be the case, not what the world actually is.
Brian I beg to differ. Truthiness has been a “thing” for the past 8 years with the Obama administration and their supporters. How else to explain the constant mantra of “Islam is a religion of peace” even as they are chopping people’s heads off in the streets or blowing up European airports and train stations? Admittedly, it was Bush who started this ridiculous charade,but Obama took it to a whole new level.
They have refused to see the inconvenient fact of the Iran deal that has empowered Iran and endangered the entire Middle East, not to mention the West, and possibly the world itself if the mad mullahs get the Bomb.
So Trump’s people are not ‘starting’ to rewrite the world. They are merely continuing Obama’s illustrious example. That’s not a recommendation from me or a compliment. Just stating a fact. A real fact, not an alternative one!
Brian, I understand your distress, but after the lies and obfuscations of the Obama regime for the last 8 years, you can hardly blame Trump for trying it on in the same way.
Plus, the media IS biased against him. They gave an exceptionally easy ride to Obama but are not giving Trump even one day’s grace, let alone the traditional 100. So let’s fact check the fact checkers first.
And one final thought: My only interest is Trump’s relationship to Israel. Yeah, I know, that’s very egocentric of me, or ethnocentric if you prefer, but I’m not American and have no dog in that fight. Having suffered the effects of Obama on Israel directly, and indirectly via his dealings and non-dealings in the Middle East, particularly Iran, I think Israelis can be forgiven for being delighted with a US president who is so overtly and proudly pro-Israel and yes, gasp, even right wing.
Turnabout is fair play after all.
That Obama had his own version of “the truth” in relation to, especially, Iran, doesn’t, therefore, excuse Trump for HIS version. To say that Obama did it, so that it makes it alright for ME (i.e., Trump) to do it is the royal road to chaos.
You know that I was no fan of Obama’s ME policy. That doesn’t mean that anyone with an alternative (and more pro-israel) policy is, therefore, per se a wonderful President (outside the Mid East). I welcome anything he does that strengthens the US-Israel link and makes Israel strong…etc. BUT that doesn’t mean that he is therefore an unalloyed good for the West as a whole.
Indeed, anyone who is interested should google H.L.Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920 and “a complete narcissistic moron”, read the result and come back and tell me I’m 100% wrong about Trump.
Remember, I said “100% wrong”!
Dear Anne, your blog is something to read daily. Thanks for your work.
Thank you 🙂
And this just in from Edmonton, AB, Canada; another demonstration of progressive tolerance (and irony?).
Male progressive anti-Trump demonstrator charged with assault on female reporter and uttering threats; aided and abetted by female progressive protesters:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-police-charge-man-in-women-s-rally-incident-1.3950790
/Ms. Phillips could not write this lunacy as fiction…
Black is white and night is day. Newspeak. The mind boggles.
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