6 NEWS Controversy of the week
Shaming Trump donors: Fair game or out of bounds?
Since when did it become acceptable “to target
private citizens for their political opinions?”
said Karol Markowicz in the New York Post.
Liberals have worked themselves into such
moral outrage over President Trump, they think
anyone who donates money to his 2020 cam-
paign is “complicit in this great evil and there-
fore fair game.” Last week, droves of outraged
blue staters canceled (or claimed they canceled)
their memberships to Equinox and SoulCycle,
the high-priced, New Age–y fitness centers,
because Stephen Ross, billionaire owner of both
gyms’ parent company, hosted a fundraiser for President Trump in
the Hamptons. Just days earlier, Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro—
presidential candidate Julián Castro’s twin brother and campaign
manager—tweeted out the names of 44 San Antonio residents
who had donated the maximum $2,800 to Trump’s re-election
campaign, and accused them of “fueling a campaign of hate that
labels Hispanic immigrants as ‘invaders.’” In the current polarized
atmosphere, this “retaliatory intimidation” is dangerous, said Guy
Benson in TownHall.com. Castro’s clear goal was for “anti-Trump
partisans to find and punish these people” for their political beliefs.
The same hypocritical liberals who blamed the El Paso massacre on
Trump’s “incitement” are now circulating “hit lists” of Republican
donors, including the home addresses of retired people.
What Castro did “was not doxxing,” said Suzanne Nossel in The
New York Times. That Twitter-era term means the unauthorized
sharing of your political opponents’ private information: unlisted
phone numbers, home addresses, names of children’s schools, etc.
A person’s history of political contributions, by contrast, is publicly
available information in our democracy, and rightly so. As long
as it never crosses the line into harassment or menace, calling out
people for their donations is absolutely “fair
game.” Trump’s donors deserve to be named
and shamed, said Zak Cheney-Rice in NYMag
.com. They’re giving their money to “ensure a
two-term presidency for a virulent bigot.”The Left’s “shaming of Trump supporters
won’t work,” said Kathleen Parker in The
Washington Post. Trump’s fans don’t “think
he’s a racist, and don’t think they are, either.”
But they do believe that liberals are out to get
them, using charges of “racism” and “white
supremacy” to drive them out of polite society. These shaming
campaigns will only rally Trump’s supporters to his side. The
true believers may feel that way, said Michael McGough in the
Los Angeles Times. But those who supported Trump for cynical
reasons—such as their gratitude for his tax cut for corporations—
may find the charge that they are actively funding Trump’s xeno-
phobia, hatred, and racism a “hard argument to refute.”These two cases aren’t the same, said the New York Daily News
in an editorial. It makes perfect “strategic sense” for socially con-
scious gymgoers to let Stephen Ross know that lending big-dollar
support to “an unstable, dangerous, and divisive president may
have consequences for the bottom line.” But the public shaming
of individuals who gave Trump less than $3,000? That’s “a path
toward endless civic warfare.” With his constant Twitter troll-
ing of his opponents, Trump “bears some responsibility for this,”
said Jonathan Tobin in NationalReview.com. But in insisting that
anyone who supports him is “unworthy of even minimal respect,”
liberals are turning their backs on “the basic rules of American
democracy.” As both sides gear up for 2020, the nastiness to come
will likely “make Castro’s tweet seem like a church picnic.”Only in America
QA former North Carolina
sheriff’s deputy is suing the
police department, claiming
he was fired for following the
“Billy Graham Rule.” Under
the Graham Rule, now also
associated with Vice Presi-
dent Mike Pence, men decline
to be alone with women
other than their wife. Manuel
Torres, 51, said his “sincere
religious belief” motivated
his refusal to ride with female
trainees in a patrol car, so he
should not have been fired.
QWhite visitors to former
slave plantations are object-
ing in travel-site reviews to
the tours’ heavy emphasis on
slavery. One reviewer who
toured the McLeod Plantation
in South Carolina complains
of being “subjected to a
lecture aimed to instill guilt.”
Another writes that “we
didn’t come to hear a lecture
on how the white people
treated slaves.”New White House
pick for intel chief
President Trump tapped re-
tired Adm. Joseph Maguire, a
onetime Navy SEAL, to serve
as acting Director of National
Intelligence last week. Trump’s
first choice, Rep. John Ratcliffe
(R-Texas), withdrew from con-
sideration after critics charged
that the fierce partisan had
exaggerated his counterter-
rorism experience. Maguire,
director of the National Coun-
terterrorism Center since June
2018, was widely deemed to
be a more politically neutral
pick. The vacancy came after
intelligence chief Dan Coats
resigned following months
of clashes with Trump over
the threat of Russian election
interference and North Korea’s
nuclear ambitions. Coats’
deputy, career intelligence
officer Sue Gordon, had been
floated as a replacement, but
was also forced out by the
White House.Modern families, after two gay male penguins at the Berlin
Zoo adopted an abandoned egg and will hatch a chick in early
September. Skipper and Ping, who are inseparable, are “taking
turns to keep the egg warm,” said a zoo spokesman.
Cat people, after scientists announced the development of a vac-
cine for the cat allergies that afflict up to 10 percent of the U.S.
population. The vaccine eliminates a protein that triggers allergic
reactions and is delivered by injection to the cat, not its owner.
Eco-constipation, after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro
defended Amazon deforestation by saying that if people want to
help the environment, they should “poop every other day” instead
of daily. “That would be better for the whole world,” he added.Range, after a 65-year-old Chinese man was hospitalized with
a collapsed lung following a marathon karaoke session in which
he hit some very high notes. “I was very excited in the heat of the
moment,” said the man, identified in news reports only as Wang.
Screen time, with a new study showing that the percentage
of British teenagers needing glasses soared from 20 percent to
35 percent between 2012 and 2018. The teens spend an average of
26 hours a week staring at a smartphone or other screen.
Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York and Democratic presidential
candidate, who received a mere 23 corn kernels out of 20,000 cast
in the Iowa State Fair’s quirky poll of its attendees. “The goal is to
keep building,” the unfazed candidate told the New York Post.Good week for:
Bad week for:
GettyAnti-Equinox protesters in Los Angeles