Last night I sat down with Tim Pool and his crew to record three hours of discussion -- two for his livestream and one for his members-only forum. It was a great experience. One of the issues we addressed in the members-only portion was Occupy Wall Street.
Tim made his name as a journalist by streaming from the protest in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan -- the main Occupy site. He has long argued that conservatives -- including Andrew Breitbart -- made a mistake by dismissing the movement instead of listening to it.
Tim saw the protest -- at least until it was taken over by trust fund babies and professional left-wing activists -- as an important populist movement that challenged the union of political and financial power. It took Donald Trump to make conservatives listen.
I pointed out that Andrew Breitbart did, indeed, visit and listen to the Occupy protesters -- though he also made fun of them and the fact that they were undoing fundamental values, not just capitalism and law and order, but individualism itself (think: human microphone).
Perhaps Andrew's take on Occupy was also affected by the fact that the protest site we visited was in L.A., where unions were much more directly and visibly involved. It was an institutional-left set-piece. Perhaps it had been less so in the early days in New York.
Regardless, we agreed on a few points. 1. Conservatives should have listened to the populist critique, because their refusal to do so led the GOP to nominate Mitt Romney, who was an emblem of all that both left and right disliked about politics and the establishment.
2. Occupy Wall Street was, in fact, taken over by left-wing crazies who inaugurated an era of wokism. I think that was present at the outset, but Tim points out that it accelerated when people like Sean Hannity bashed the movement. Tribalism hurt political dialogue.
3. The "mic check" stuff really was creepy, as was the movement's descent into identity politics, in which white people were not even allowed to speak (this was years before Black Lives Matter). The crushing of individual liberty was something we all lamented.
I should have noted in my message about the weekly Torah portion that this week is Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath of Vision. We are about to mourn -- but see through that pain to something better that lies beyond, on the other side.
Wishing you the best vision -- and an incredible reality to follow. It happens!
We begin the final speech of Moses to the people of Israel before they enter the Promised Land. He relates the ups and downs of the years of wandering in the desert, before, finally, the people have the merit to enter the land itself.
This Sabbath always precedes Tisha B'Av, the Ninth of Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It is the anniversary of the destruction of both of the Holy Temples, and a catch-all for many calamities that befell the Jewish people.
A word on Tisha B'Av. This year I am leaving for an overseas trip during the afternoon of the holiday -- in the middle of a fast day. Not idea, but there was no other choice. But my flight is in the afternoon, which is significant.
We relax some of the harsh, mournful customs of the day in the afternoon. We start to pray normally; we sit on regular chairs; we start to have hope again in the redemption that will, one day, lead us all back from exile to our home.
I'll be taking a trip to a land where an important part of ...
President Trump is in Scotland, playing golf and making big trade deals -- a major deal with the EU, in fact. Meanwhile, there is a global outcry about humanitarian aid to Palestinians (not about the Israeli hostages, mind you).
On top of that, Democrats are at their lowest polling numbers ever -- so they are trying to win control of the House by redistricting in the middle of a 10-year Census cycle. Oh, economic optimism is up, so they have a tough road.
And Tulsi Gabbard's revelations about the Russia collusion investigation make it clear that Obama's lieutenants lied to Congress. How deeply was he himself involved? The media continue to ignore the evidence, but we certainly won't.
Special guests:
Nick Gilbertson - Breitbart News White House correspondent, on EU deal
Frances Martel - Breitbart News foreign editor, on Trump abroad and Russia
John Spencer - urban warfare expert, on humanitarian aid and war in Gaza
Bradley Jaye - Breitbart News congressional correspondent, on the ...
