Daily Archives: February 11, 2024

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

The view co-host Sunny Holstin has used her platform to rail against Republicans using the typical left-wing lines of racist colonists stealing land and exploiting slavery to build wealth.

But Holstin was recently left in shock when she discovered that her ancestors were slaveholders.

Holstin recently learned that her family tree reaches back to Spain, and that her family owned slaves.

Holstin had a black father and a Puerto Rican mother. Holstin said her mother prided herself on identifying as non-white, and that discovering that their roots are connected to slave owners would be difficult for her.

The glaring racism of Holstins comments notwithstanding, there is a bigger issue here when it comes to the tribal identity some push in America.

Holstin has been raised and identifies so strongly that being white equates to being evil that she considered her Spanish-linked DNA to represent the white culture.

A few decades ago, there were white people who would have reacted with remorse if they discovered any African roots on their family tree, and they were flat out racists. Holstin holds the same contempt in reverse, and like all racists, she feel justified in her disappointment in the very blood that flows through her veins.

The reality is if any of us explore our family trees long enough, we will find relatives from a wide variety of backgrounds, especially Americans. Our ancestry comes from many backgrounds around the globe, and while some prejudices tend to lump everyone in either white, black, hispanic or asian, each of these have multiple variations.

Holstin, like me, is an American. While she wants to identify as a specific color of skin, the genetic study she recently took tells a much larger truth, and the focus should not be on where we came from but where we are. It shouldnt be on the superficial color of skin but on what Martin Luther King, Jr., suggested, the content of our character.

But she was devastated. Stunned, she said.

Is it really the end of the world that she had an ancient relative who owned slaves? She had no control of that.

Societies hundreds of years ago do not have the advantage of understanding we have today. How can we expect people who thought the Earth was flat to understand the wrongs of slavery? We can always look back with a critical eye, or we can learn from where they were and how far weve come.

Another issue this brings is the current far left effort to push concepts like reparations.

What if more blacks discover they have relatives who also owned slaves? Would they still qualify for reparations?

What other historic injustices should we be trying to correct? Asians were treated very poorly in America. Ever hear of the Anti Chinese League? They were like civic clubs even in the Wild West after slavery was abolished.

Italians were not welcomed with open arms in many pockets throughout America, and the Irish were characterized as hot tempered alcoholics.

The scourge of slavery is not to be diminished. Blacks who suffered the injustice were greatly abused.

But the reaction has been to lash out against every white person as indicated in some of the theories of Critical Race Theory. Whites, they say, were born oppressors while people of color were born to be oppressed.

Both are patently false

But Holstins situation shows just how far apart we are because of those who want us to see our differences rather than our similarities.

She is ashamed of her ancestry because of a Spanish connection, and the reality that the world used to be a less egalitarian place.

They were wrong back then, for sure, but because of their wrongs we have learned to do it the right way. Society sometimes reflects what Thomas Edison told us about the light bulb. He didnt just discover how to make an incandescent light bulb, but he also discovered 999 ways how not to invent the light bulb.

History is not to be judged but to be studied. Its not a snapshot. History is a stream, and what you may find in one direction is much different as you continue to follow the path of the stream.

Holstin may have discovered something unpleasant, but at some point that changed, and she is here today, living in a land that has allowed her to live a charmed life.

We are all better off today because we have improved on the errors of the past and are committed not to repeat them by understanding them.

Rewriting history, or erasing it, can only lead to ignorance and the potential to forget how we got here, and how everyone else got here. It omits the struggles, the wars, the winners and the losers, and the reality that the United States is not a perfect story but still the best in human history.

Your history is only a tool to be used to create a better future.

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What happens when a liberal learns her family owned slaves? - Leader & Times

Maines liberal Members of Congress are either keeping quiet, pointing at former President Donald Trump, or defending President Joe Biden after the Commander-in-Chief delivered a confusing and widely-panned press conference Thursday evening.

The presser came in response to a Department of Justice report that said the Special Counsel investigating Bidens mishandling of classified documents would not seek charges but only because Bidens memory was too poor for him to stand trial.

Special Counsel Robert Hur, who was leading a probe into President Joe Bidens handling of classified materials, released a 388-page report Thursday finding that Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified documents after his vice presidency, but that no criminal charges are warranted.

In explaining his decision not to recommend charges against the sitting president, Hur said that Biden presented himself in his interview as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.

[RELATED: Biden Lashes Out at Press, Suffers Memory Lapse While Denying Senility]

The Special Counsel report details instances of Biden having serious lapses in memory, including struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries, and not being able to remember when he was vice president and when his son Beau died.

Hur speculated that it would be difficult to convince a jury to convict Biden due to the felony statute requiring a mental state of willfulness.

Following the release of Hurs report, President Biden gave a press conference Thursday evening to respond to the allegations in the report regarding his memory.

Biden explained away the Special Counsels account of his apparent mental incapacity by pointing to the date of his interview with Hur being in the days following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.

The president angrily condemned Hurs report for noting that he struggled to remember when his son died.

How in the hell dare he raise that, Biden said. Frankly, when I was asked the question I thought to myself it wasnt any of their damn business I dont need anyone to remind me when he passed away.

[RELATED: White House Spins After Confused Biden Claims He Recently Spoke to Long-Dead French President]

The 81-year-old president did not inspire confidence in his memory later in the Thursday press conference, however, when he referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the president of Mexico.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins told the Maine Wire Friday that the Special Counsel report raises important questions.

I encourage people to look at it themselves and draw their own conclusions, Collins said. Its up to the Democrats to decide whom they want their nominee to be. And, ultimately, all of this will be in the hands of the voters.

Maine Sen. Angus King (I) has remained silent on the Special Counsel report and Bidens press conference.

Neither he nor Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-01) responded to requests for comment from the Maine Wire.

State Rep. Austin Theriault (R-Fort Kent), one of two 2024 Republican challengers to Democratic Congressman Jared Golden in Maines 2nd District, quickly responded to Bidens press conference by demanding to know if Golden still supported Biden for president.

Theriault also released a statement Thursday evening insisting that Golden join him in calling for President Bidens resignation.

This is a very somber, serious moment for our country. We cant have a president thats so mentally limited that they cant even stand trial, Theriault said.

In this case, its not a question of age there are plenty of sharp people who are older than Biden its a question of capability, he continued. This is a dangerous world, and a person who can start a nuclear war should not be in the mental state described by the Biden Department of Justice.

This is a time for bipartisan action: Jared Golden should join me in calling for Bidens resignation, Theriault concluded.

The Maine GOP capitalized on Bidens bad press in a Friday fundraising email, writing that Joe Bidens mental incompetency was made clear to the world TWICE yesterday.

First, a Special Counsel working for the Biden Department of Justice found that Joe Biden is so mentally incompetent that he couldnt even stand trial, the email stated. Then Biden gave an stumbling, bumbling, feeble address to the nation that proved the Special Counsel right without a doubt.

The Special Counsel report and Bidens surprise presser also drew attacks from national Republicans.

National Republican Congressional Caucus (NRCC) spokesperson Savannah Viar released a statement Friday morning declaring that Mainers deserve immediate answers from Golden on Bidens mental state.

Nothing could be more dangerous than a president going senile, yet that is exactly who House Democrats including Jared Golden are backing, Viar said.

Golden did not respond to a request for comment from the Maine Wire, though he provided a comment to the Bangor newspaper that was characterized as drawing an equivalency between former President Trump and Biden.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) posted to X Thursday that Bidens press conference confirmed on live television what the Special Counsel report outlined.

He is not fit to be president, Johnson wrote.

At the conclusion of a gun violence prevention event at the White House Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris slammed Hurs report as politically motivated and gratuitous.

Harris took a similar tact to President Biden by explaining the presidents reported mental incapacity during the two-day interview with Hur by noting it occurred directly after Hamas attack on Israel.

It was an intense moment for the commander in chief of the United States of America, Harris said.

The vice president added that the way that the presidents demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated, gratuitous.

New York Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler released a statement Thursday afternoon in defense of Biden, saying MAGA Republicans will no doubt now call to investigate the investigatorsits their favorite movebut the Hur report effectively ends the discussion.

President Biden cooperated fully with the Special Counsel and redacted no portion of the Special Counsels report, Nadler said. Unlike Trump, President Biden has nothing to hide.

Nadler contrasted the Department of Justices probe into Trumps handling of classified documents with that of Bidens, saying If Trump had cooperated with the [DOJ] instead of lying to investigators, again and againhe might have avoided at least some of the 91 criminal charges currently pending against him.

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Maine's Liberal Members of Congress Stand by Biden After Disastrous, Confused Press Conference - The Maine Wire

This weeks Liberal Media Scream features a look at new Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welkers treatment of Republican leaders. And surprise not she continues to be just as biased as former host Chuck Todd.

First, she lectured House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on the border bill released by the Senate on Sunday. You are now the speaker of the House. Do you not have a responsibility to your voters, to the people who put you in office, to address what you have called a crisis and catastrophe? Isnt something better than nothing? she said.

Then, she passed along the Democratic talking point that after three years of aggressively enacting open border policies, Joe Biden said he would shut down the border.

From Sundays Meet the Press on NBC:

KRISTEN WELKER: You have been calling for legislative change to actually deal with this problem. You are now the speaker of the House. Do you not have a responsibility to your voters, to the people who put you in office, to address what you have called a crisis and catastrophe? Isnt something better than nothing?

SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: Kristen, we did that. We did that nine months ago. And since we passed our measure in the House to solve this problem, and the reason we had to do it is because we saw that President Biden was not fulfilling his obligation under the law. Thats why it is such a failure of leadership, but we did our part. And by the way, since then, in the nine months since that bill sat on [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumers desk, collecting dust, 1.8 million illegals have been allowed into this country, welcomed into the country, sent around the nation into every community communities near everyone listening and watching this morning. And that is a catastrophe, and the American people know it, and thats part of the reason that Joe Biden has the lowest approval rating of any president facing reelection.

WELKER: Even former President Trump, though, called for legislative change on this issue. You have one of the slimmest majorities in the House in history. Dont you have to compromise to get something done? What you passed in the House cant pass in the Senate, Mr. Speaker. You know that.

JOHNSON: We are willing to work. We are willing to work with the Senate. I am not disclosing that, and Ive been very consistent for the hundred days that Ive had the gavel. We are willing to work, but they have to be serious about it. If you only do a few of those components, you are not going to solve the problem, and Kristen, that is not a Republican talking point. Thats what the sheriffs at the border, the Border Patrol agents, the deputy chief of U.S. Border Patrol, a 33-year veteran of the agency, told us. He said that its as though were administering an open fire hydrant. He said, I dont need more buckets, like the president has proposed. I need to stop the flow, and we know how to do that, but Joe Biden is unwilling to do it.

CATCH UP ON ALL THE LATEST BUZZ WITH THE EXAMINERS WASHINGTON SECRETS

WELKER: Let me ask you about your decision, and by the way, Joe Biden said he would shut down the border. Hes calling for more funding. Hes calling for you to pass this legislation.

Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: A perfect example of a so-called journalist serving as an advocate for Washingtons media-political establishment, demanding a recalcitrant conservative get in line and adopt the approved narrative.

Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.

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Liberal Media Scream: Kristen Welker likes to lecture Republicans, too - Washington Examiner

Tasmania's minority Liberal government, the only of its colour in Australia, remains intact for now as the premier considers demands made by two key independents.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff issued an ultimatum to Liberals-turned-independents John Tucker and Lara Alexander on February 2, threatening the possibility of an early election if they did not agree.

The duo, whose decision to leave the Liberals in May plunged the government into minority, rejected the new deal which included a ban on supporting opposition bills.

On Friday, Mr Rockliff met with Mr Tucker and Ms Alexander, whose votes have propped up the government.

The premier said he would not ask the governor for an early election this weekend but did not rule out the prospect of a poll before Easter.

"I thank Mr Tucker and Ms Alexander for meeting with me," Mr Rockliff said in a statement.

"It was an opportunity for them to put forward their position, as I have mine."

Mr Rockliff said he would now take "the appropriate time to consider and to consult with my colleagues".

"This is an important matter," he said.

"Tasmanians need stability and certainty, and I am focused on delivering that."

Mr Tucker, who fronted media alongside Ms Alexander, indicated he had received some assurances from the premier.

He said the premier had agreed to abide by a parliamentary motion preventing any "shovels in the ground" for an AFL high-performance centre until plans for a new stadium passed parliament.

The new waterfront stadium was a condition of the AFL granting Tasmania a licence for inclusion in the competition, slated for 2028.

Mr Tucker said any flow-on impacts were a "question for the premier".

In January, Mr Tucker threatened to "bring down the government" and move a no-confidence motion if the premier did not abide by the AFL high-performance motion and another to make CCTV mandatory in abattoirs.

Mr Tucker and Ms Alexander said their preference was to continue with their initial May agreement with the premier for ongoing votes of confidence and supply.

Story continues

"I hope the discussions were conducted in good faith," Ms Alexander said.

"We have come here in good faith to resolve this crisis."

The state's Labor opposition said the premier had his "pants pulled down" by Mr Tucker.

"As if refusing to follow through on his threats after his ultimatum was rejected by the two independents wasn't embarrassing enough, Mr Rockliff is now giving in to Mr Tucker's demands to delay the AFL high-performance centre," Labor MP Josh Willie said.

"The premier is being held to ransom, but he's too weak to do anything about it."

Mr Tucker and Ms Alexander said the premier had given an assurance the trio would continue discussions late next week.

Parliament is scheduled to resume in early March, while the next election is not due until mid-2025.

Ms Alexander and Mr Tucker were concerned about government transparency around plans for an AFL team and stadium and the Marinus Link energy connector when they quit the Liberals.

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Australia's only Liberal government lives on - for now - Yahoo News Australia