Senator John Kennedy said the "four horsemen" of the Democratic party's internal apocalypse were the "reason there are directions on a shampoo bottle".
I doubled over in laughter. Then I watched the interview with "the squad".
Rashida Tlaib whined about Trump being a "bully". AOC called America a "story. Ayanna Pressley called the president "predictable" despite her and her colleagues constantly appearing surprised or taken aback by his actions. Ilhan Omar refused to retract her wildly anti-Semitic comments.
Then there was Yahoo News basically calling actor Chris Pratt a white supremacist for wearing a t-shirt with a Gadsden Flag.
Gaslighting America into believing they're the helpless victims of a pitchfork-wielding president.
Then there was Yahoo News basically calling actor Chris Pratt a white supremacist for wearing a t-shirt with a Gadsden Flag on it for a veteran's charity.
It's only been about 10 days since the Betsy Ross flag debacle. Megan Rapinoe's U.S. flag would still be on the ground were it not for her lesbian teammate who picked it up. I mention her sexuality only because we were expected to be mad about that, for some reason. No one was.
Everyone's gone nuts.
They know they've gone nuts because they stealthily try to go un-nuts, having gone nuts already. Check the stealth edit on the Yahoo News article.
Originally: "Chris Pratt criticised for 'white supremacist' T-shirt'.
Later: "Chris Pratt criticised for T-shirt choice'.
You can't go un-nuts once we've seen you go nuts. That applies to Starbucks, Nike, Oreos, Yahoo, CNN, all of you.
Oh, and speaking of NUTS, yesterday was also the day CNN decided to amplify Richard Spencer. Teaming up with White Nationalists to own the cons! Mind you, they showed their willing when Ilhan Omar was endorsed by David Duke and no one in the establishment batted an eyelid.
Speaking of nuts, yesterday was also the day CNN decided to amplify Richard Spencer.
WHODUNIT?
Interesting also was the spelling of criticised in the Yahoo headline. The British spelling. Because the article came from Yahoo Movies UK.
Now, we Brits have plenty of reason for taking offense over that flag, but "white supremacy" ain't one of them. Nor do I suspect the Yahoo Movies UK team was up in arms because they believe the Commonwealth of Virginia's rightful place is within the confines of Her Majesty's Empire.
Yahoo Movies UK appears to have only two regular by-lined writers: a girl called Hanna Flint, and a chap gloriously named... Ben Arnold.
Flint appears to enjoy breathlessly writing about ethnicity in movies, and retweeting pictures of hangman games that attack the U.S. President (see right).
Ben Arnold is – ironically – far less hostile to the United States. He just seems to be a guy who likes movies and likes writing about movies.
So I reckon the little "Christ Pratt is a White Supremacist" angle probably came from Flint, though there's no byline on the piece.
But this isn't really about the author, anyway. It's about how everyone's gone nuts, and why.
NO BUT REALLY WHODUNIT?
One of the first major tweets about Yahoo News' Pratt-fall came from someone called Scott Kasanovich, aimed at his pal Amanda Clarke.
Clarke was one of the first accounts to critique Pratt after Hunter Harris of Vulture magazine tweeted out the original picture of Pratt wearing the Gadsden t-shirt.
The pictures appear to have originated on Just Jared – a celebrity gossip and picture website that looks low budget but is actually owned by the massive TownSquare Media group, itself a subsidiary of the Madison Square Group (owner of the New York Knicks, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, etc etc).
So, basically, one big media company triggered a few others and now everyone has to suffer.
Vulture mag is owned by New York magazine. The same New York magazine that boosted the recent E. Jean Carroll fable of her "encounter" with Donald Trump in Bergdorf Goodman. Here's their latest front cover.
Clarke was one of Yahoo's first citations in their "people are outraged!" piece.
But back to Clarke for a second.
Certainly without Just Jared's pic and Vulture's tweet we wouldn't have seen the flare-up. But Clarke was one of Yahoo's first citations in their "people are outraged!" piece.
She lists herself as a Brooklynite who is an alum of "Ro Khanna, Jim Johnson, Bill De Blasio, and Hillary Clinton". I suspect this means she has worked or interned for them or their political campaigns.
Kosanovich, who congratulated her, lists himself as a "Deputy Organizing Director at Florida Democratic Party" on LinkedIn.
The other accounts cited by Yahoo are anonymised, apart from some Australian called Tim Byrnes who seems to be glorying in all the attention he's getting from right-wingers replying to his tweet through the Yahoo article. Fair enough. Clarke appears to have gone private as a result of all the mentions. Also fair enough.
But these horsemen – two Democrats, an Aussie, and two other anonymous, pro-Clinton accounts – were all that was required to create a massive news story which will no doubt now feature on TV shows, and in articles and books for years to come.
For the right, it's an example of how "everything is racist to the left".
For the left it is an opportunity to shift the Overton window further. To create consternation about a flag that requires no consternation. To undermine the founding of America by undermining its symbols.
That's all it took.
And that's why all it takes to upset the political apple cart is those who John Kennedy referred to as the Democrats' four horsemen: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar.
...they're forgetting those now "racist" words: Don't Tread On Me.
One media company rattled the cage of another – for exposure, clicks, and profit – and America got sucked into a heated political war as a result.
The same reason Nike snubbed the Betsy Ross flag. For profit.
And that's what the 'Squad' are doing to America.
Riling her up. Dividing her. Causing consternation and upheaval wherever they go, and through whatever they say.
For profit.
In their case, it's not so much financial gain they're after. It's power. That's what the whole internal fight they're having with Nancy Pelosi is about. Power. The left craves power as the right craves autonomy.
But they're forgetting those now "racist" words: Don't Tread On Me.
And that's why Trump continues to goad them. Because Americans don't like being tread upon. And he knows elevating them provides his best hope of waking people up to the danger of a Democrat president, House, and Senate in 2020.
Raheem Kassam is the Global Editor-in-Chief of Human Events
