Category: US Politics

Joe Biden’s nomination is the Democrats’ crowning insult.  They’re making another go at playing voters for chumps.  Democrats, the D.C. establishment, and the left started hoaxing Americans back in 2016.  The Russia Hoax was about destroying candidate, and then President, Trump.  The conspirators dragged the nation through nearly three years of divisive and costly investigations and hearings.  Framing Trump and destroying his presidency was worth stoking enmity.  The Russia Hoax morphed into the Impeachment Hoax, wherein vindictive congressional Democrats abused their powers to — yes — try to frame the president.  The Democrats’ malice knows no bottom.   

Biden’s nomination is more than a go at sly stagecraft; it’s the most audacious gaslighting in American history.  Everybody and his sister can see that Biden is suffering early onset dementia.  If not, then let’s see the neurological evals, because Biden’s compass isn’t pointing true north.  He’s slow, often confused, irritable, and, increasingly vacant.  He shuffles when he walks.  Trotting ten feet to a podium — once — doesn’t count.  He takes days off, and his availability is strictly limited.  Packing Biden off for a quick, canned event in Florida isn’t close to Trump’s indefatigable stumping.  Most days, Biden lives out the campaign at his spacious Wilmington, Delaware house.      

Not surprisingly, the MSM throws Biden softballs.  That’s a given among Fourth Estate bulldogs.  Democrats always get passes, even when their minds are intact.  But you’d expect so-called journalists to give enough of a damn about the nation’s welfare that Biden’s fitness would merit a few questions. 

Simple question: Does the Democrats’ nominee — the man put forward to occupy the most powerful elective office on the planet — have the mental acuity and stamina to meet the job’s 24/7 demands?  China is increasingly an adversary.  The nation faces stiff challenges domestically.  The MSM are reckless in their disregard.  They’re so corroded by cynicism, so in the tank for the Democratic Party, that they maintain a monkish silence.  Or glide over the obvious about Biden’s decline. 

Future generations will ridicule what passes for journalism today.  An entire generation of journalists is, in fact, made up of shills — propagandists — eagerly participating in a con. 

With Biden’s self-awareness drifting away, maybe he doesn’t grasp that he’s been set up.  Biden is the second coming of Chauncey Gardner.  The Democratic establishment wants addled ol’ Joe to be the empty vessel that voters pour whatever they want into. 

Orange Man bad?  Joe’s un-orange.  Hanker for an old-fashioned liberal Democrat?  Find a Kennedy to backslap Joe.  Need Joe to be a race healer?  Forget about his earlier anti-busing stance and ‘hood busting stands on crime.  Need him to be a working man’s friend?  Slap a little grease on his chin.  He’ll play that role.  Just skip over his support for the Green New Deal.  Speaking of which, want Joe to be pro-environment?  Why, pimp him as for the Green New Deal!  Want him to be a straight talker?  Deep-six his chronic lying and plagiarism. 

The Democratic establishment, in cahoots with the party’s ascendent left, has no illusions.  For them, Biden isn’t an empty vessel.  He’s a prop.  They want nothing more from him than to hit his marks and read the teleprompter without too many stumbles. 

Democrats and the left have their agendas.  They’ve cut a deal so that each can grab their pieces of the pie — for the time being.  In time, they’ll be at each other’s throats.  But for now, a deal. 

The establishment wants something close to the status quo ante, whereby they can reclaim sinecures while growing fat off our tax dollars.  The left wants power and loot, too, but it also wants to pick up where Obama left off: “transforming” America.  That’s always been code for destroying America as founded to impose the left’s anti-liberty schemes — schemes that cement their power and access to plunder.      

Wavering voters need to wrap their minds around this fact: President Trump isn’t squaring off against Joe Biden.  He’s battling the cabal that Biden is fronting.  If through some perversion, some warping of sensibilities — or epic fraud — Biden is elected president, it isn’t just Kamala Harris who becomes de facto president.  It’s the entire depraved enterprise that comprises the Democratic Party and the left.  Harris may well be the General Secretary in a “Harris Administration,” but you can bet that she’d have a Politburo to answer to. 

If Democrats steal the election, then for years ahead, a spiderweb of lies, fraud, and venality will stretch across America.  America will be run by some amalgam of Sacramento, Portland, and Chicago — or, in other words, some combo of Big Brother, lawlessness, and corruption. The country may not free itself for decades.  Or the nation could break apart.    

The convenient forgetting of Biden’s corruption is another aspect of the hoax.  If Biden is upright than crooked is straight.  Caught on videotape, Biden bragged about strongarming the Ukrainians.  Why?  To pull Hunter Biden’s, and Hunter’s business associates’, nuts out of a legal fire in the Ukraine. 

We know about Hunter and associates raking in millions of dollars from the Chinese.  Merely coincidental, goes the party line.  Joe confabbing with Xi Jingping and other Chinese oligarchs just days ahead of Hunter and company inking a deal with a state-owned bank there is pure chance.  Where were the packs of reporters hounding the Bidens?  No calls for congressional investigations from CNN or CNBC talking heads.  Instead, shrugs and offhand dismissals of Joe Biden’s highly suspect role.  What would be the point of Joe influence-peddling?  To make Hunter rich?  Any curiosity about a Biden skim?  Like the Clintons, Biden, now useful, is granted generous license. 

Understand what we’re up against.  We’re up against a Democratic Party that began unraveling in the late 1960s.  It’s policies and governance failed then, and have failed ever since.  Progressive (aka, liberal) economics needed bailouts from Reagan and Trump.  Progressive social policies have created the dysfunctions that are causing the lawlessness and collapse in Democrat-run cities.  Black generational poverty — a root cause of urban derangement — was spawned by LBJ’s Great Society.  Cronyism and corruption — always rife in the Democratic Party — are historic today in terms of pervasiveness.  Democrats are bankrupt.  What do they have left but bolder subterfuge and criminality? 

Then there’s the left.  Communism — Marxism, in fashionable parlance — started failing shortly after the Russian Revolution.  Communism’s ideas — tried across the globe — never worked.  Human nature — hundreds of thousands of years of human development — make it so.  Yet, those who are insatiably power-hungry love communism, because it’s a vehicle to unfettered power.  In little more than a century, to make communism stick, some hundred million people were killed, from Russia to China to North Korea to the Killing Fields of Cambodia and elsewhere.  Intimidation and violence are, finally, all the left has to gain the power it craves. 

Are American leftists any different?  In 2020, what have we witnessed unfold in blue cities from Seattle to New York?  The street thugs and shock troops now present on Democrat turf are mere prelude to what American leftists intend to unleash in their quest for dominance.    

The Biden Hoax is the crudest of the hoaxes yet perpetrated by Democrats and the left.  They’re playing, perhaps, the last card in their deck of hoaxes.  What comes next will have less to do with deception.  What’s next is the fully unleashed rage of a flailing party and ism.   

 J. Robert Smith can be found on Twitter @JRobertSmith1 and Parler @JRobertSmith.  He also blogs at Flyover.               

Image: Gage Skidmore

Joe Biden’s nomination is the Democrats’ crowning insult.  They’re making another go at playing voters for chumps.  Democrats, the D.C. establishment, and the left started hoaxing Americans back in 2016.  The Russia Hoax was about destroying candidate, and then President, Trump.  The conspirators dragged the nation through nearly three years of divisive and costly investigations and hearings.  Framing Trump and destroying his presidency was worth stoking enmity.  The Russia Hoax morphed into the Impeachment Hoax, wherein vindictive congressional Democrats abused their powers to — yes — try to frame the president.  The Democrats’ malice knows no bottom.   

Biden’s nomination is more than a go at sly stagecraft; it’s the most audacious gaslighting in American history.  Everybody and his sister can see that Biden is suffering early onset dementia.  If not, then let’s see the neurological evals, because Biden’s compass isn’t pointing true north.  He’s slow, often confused, irritable, and, increasingly vacant.  He shuffles when he walks.  Trotting ten feet to a podium — once — doesn’t count.  He takes days off, and his availability is strictly limited.  Packing Biden off for a quick, canned event in Florida isn’t close to Trump’s indefatigable stumping.  Most days, Biden lives out the campaign at his spacious Wilmington, Delaware house.      

Not surprisingly, the MSM throws Biden softballs.  That’s a given among Fourth Estate bulldogs.  Democrats always get passes, even when their minds are intact.  But you’d expect so-called journalists to give enough of a damn about the nation’s welfare that Biden’s fitness would merit a few questions. 

Simple question: Does the Democrats’ nominee — the man put forward to occupy the most powerful elective office on the planet — have the mental acuity and stamina to meet the job’s 24/7 demands?  China is increasingly an adversary.  The nation faces stiff challenges domestically.  The MSM are reckless in their disregard.  They’re so corroded by cynicism, so in the tank for the Democratic Party, that they maintain a monkish silence.  Or glide over the obvious about Biden’s decline. 

Future generations will ridicule what passes for journalism today.  An entire generation of journalists is, in fact, made up of shills — propagandists — eagerly participating in a con. 

With Biden’s self-awareness drifting away, maybe he doesn’t grasp that he’s been set up.  Biden is the second coming of Chauncey Gardner.  The Democratic establishment wants addled ol’ Joe to be the empty vessel that voters pour whatever they want into. 

Orange Man bad?  Joe’s un-orange.  Hanker for an old-fashioned liberal Democrat?  Find a Kennedy to backslap Joe.  Need Joe to be a race healer?  Forget about his earlier anti-busing stance and ‘hood busting stands on crime.  Need him to be a working man’s friend?  Slap a little grease on his chin.  He’ll play that role.  Just skip over his support for the Green New Deal.  Speaking of which, want Joe to be pro-environment?  Why, pimp him as for the Green New Deal!  Want him to be a straight talker?  Deep-six his chronic lying and plagiarism. 

The Democratic establishment, in cahoots with the party’s ascendent left, has no illusions.  For them, Biden isn’t an empty vessel.  He’s a prop.  They want nothing more from him than to hit his marks and read the teleprompter without too many stumbles. 

Democrats and the left have their agendas.  They’ve cut a deal so that each can grab their pieces of the pie — for the time being.  In time, they’ll be at each other’s throats.  But for now, a deal. 

The establishment wants something close to the status quo ante, whereby they can reclaim sinecures while growing fat off our tax dollars.  The left wants power and loot, too, but it also wants to pick up where Obama left off: “transforming” America.  That’s always been code for destroying America as founded to impose the left’s anti-liberty schemes — schemes that cement their power and access to plunder.      

Wavering voters need to wrap their minds around this fact: President Trump isn’t squaring off against Joe Biden.  He’s battling the cabal that Biden is fronting.  If through some perversion, some warping of sensibilities — or epic fraud — Biden is elected president, it isn’t just Kamala Harris who becomes de facto president.  It’s the entire depraved enterprise that comprises the Democratic Party and the left.  Harris may well be the General Secretary in a “Harris Administration,” but you can bet that she’d have a Politburo to answer to. 

If Democrats steal the election, then for years ahead, a spiderweb of lies, fraud, and venality will stretch across America.  America will be run by some amalgam of Sacramento, Portland, and Chicago — or, in other words, some combo of Big Brother, lawlessness, and corruption. The country may not free itself for decades.  Or the nation could break apart.    

The convenient forgetting of Biden’s corruption is another aspect of the hoax.  If Biden is upright than crooked is straight.  Caught on videotape, Biden bragged about strongarming the Ukrainians.  Why?  To pull Hunter Biden’s, and Hunter’s business associates’, nuts out of a legal fire in the Ukraine. 

We know about Hunter and associates raking in millions of dollars from the Chinese.  Merely coincidental, goes the party line.  Joe confabbing with Xi Jingping and other Chinese oligarchs just days ahead of Hunter and company inking a deal with a state-owned bank there is pure chance.  Where were the packs of reporters hounding the Bidens?  No calls for congressional investigations from CNN or CNBC talking heads.  Instead, shrugs and offhand dismissals of Joe Biden’s highly suspect role.  What would be the point of Joe influence-peddling?  To make Hunter rich?  Any curiosity about a Biden skim?  Like the Clintons, Biden, now useful, is granted generous license. 

Understand what we’re up against.  We’re up against a Democratic Party that began unraveling in the late 1960s.  It’s policies and governance failed then, and have failed ever since.  Progressive (aka, liberal) economics needed bailouts from Reagan and Trump.  Progressive social policies have created the dysfunctions that are causing the lawlessness and collapse in Democrat-run cities.  Black generational poverty — a root cause of urban derangement — was spawned by LBJ’s Great Society.  Cronyism and corruption — always rife in the Democratic Party — are historic today in terms of pervasiveness.  Democrats are bankrupt.  What do they have left but bolder subterfuge and criminality? 

Then there’s the left.  Communism — Marxism, in fashionable parlance — started failing shortly after the Russian Revolution.  Communism’s ideas — tried across the globe — never worked.  Human nature — hundreds of thousands of years of human development — make it so.  Yet, those who are insatiably power-hungry love communism, because it’s a vehicle to unfettered power.  In little more than a century, to make communism stick, some hundred million people were killed, from Russia to China to North Korea to the Killing Fields of Cambodia and elsewhere.  Intimidation and violence are, finally, all the left has to gain the power it craves. 

Are American leftists any different?  In 2020, what have we witnessed unfold in blue cities from Seattle to New York?  The street thugs and shock troops now present on Democrat turf are mere prelude to what American leftists intend to unleash in their quest for dominance.    

The Biden Hoax is the crudest of the hoaxes yet perpetrated by Democrats and the left.  They’re playing, perhaps, the last card in their deck of hoaxes.  What comes next will have less to do with deception.  What’s next is the fully unleashed rage of a flailing party and ism.   

 J. Robert Smith can be found on Twitter @JRobertSmith1 and Parler @JRobertSmith.  He also blogs at Flyover.               

Image: Gage Skidmore

The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg has created another political firestorm for the weeks to come.  Since we’re so close to the election, doesn’t it seem fair for Trump wait until afterward the election to replace her?

No, Trump should not wait. 

Trump has nothing to lose and everything to gain by replacing RGB before the election

Some Democrats have brought up Merrick Garland, who was nominated by Obama but failed to become a SCOTUS judge.  The GOP objection was that Obama was in the last six months of his second term, so the upcoming election should decide.  Democrats will be quick to point out this occurrence, labeling it hypocrisy for conservatives to replace RGB when they rejected Garland.

Other leftists urged Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell to lead the way by not filling a SCOTUS seat this close to an election.  He concluded with: “You’d agree with this, especially in light of the Garland precedent, right?” 

Except, that’s not what happened.  The Merrick Garland circumstance was different because Obama was in his second term, and there would be a new president in six months, no matter the outcome.  In this instance, we might have the same president in six months.  What makes it worse is Democrats did not set any “precedent” by deciding it wouldn’t be fair to fill an open SCOTUS seat only months away from a new presidency — they tried to ram judge Garland down our throats anyways! 

The only reason Garland is not sitting on SCOTUS is because Mitch McConnell and the Senate refused a hearing on Garland.  The rationale was the constitution does not require a timeframe to hear the president’s SCOTUS nomination, so they waited.  It was not out of the nobility of Democrats that prevented Merrick Garland from a SCOTUS seat — it was Republicans like McConnell who stopped it.  Some precedent.

After the GOP declined Garland a hearing, the left-wing media went on a full-court press, calling it “obstruction.”  The Atlantic, Slate, the L.A. Times,  U.S. News and World Report, the list goes on for media outlets who claimed McConnel was obstructing justice.  Go visit any search engine and type “Merrick Garland obstruction,” and you’ll find a plethora of hit pieces by nearly every major left-wing news network. 

The left is doing everything possible to enable more election fraud to steal the election.  Democrats are preparing to hijack American freedoms and our constitutional government through endless litigation by hiring over 600 lawyers to contest the election results. We’re talking about a Democratic Party that is so fraudulent and corrupt, leftists in the swamp even erased data from 27 cell phones after learning there would be an investigation into the origins of the Russian Collusion hoax.  As Deborah Weiss writes: “ALL of the people whose phones were wiped clean claimed to have had their phones wiped ‘by accident.’  Yes, ALL of the people whose phones were wiped clean just ‘coincidentally’ wiped them clean after they learned that the I.G. was going to conduct an investigation…”

Trump has nothing to lose by replacing RGB in the next few weeks.  Sure, the media will huff and puff and go into their “fake outrage” mode.  Yes, the media will call Republicans hypocrites over Merrick Garland, knowing their Democrat base doesn’t know the facts or understand the different circumstances.  Even never-Trump Republicans like Joe Walsh are already making that case. Yes, the media will call Trump a tyrant and dictator — they already do all that. 

The Washington Post is already threatening Americans with violence if Trump wins again.  Democrat groups are already planning for coordinated unrest if Trump wins.  Media figures are already threatening violence and riots if Trump fills RGB’s seat — but they’re already rioting!  Go ahead and riot; nothing helps the Republican cause like Democrats revealing their true colors. 

I don’t want to hear conservatives suggesting the fair thing to do is to wait until after the election to fill RGB’s seat because of Merrick Garland or any other lame excuse.  Sure, we could give them mercy and pat ourselves on the back for taking the high road, but we shouldn’t.  We should not relent or give the Democrats any mercy because they have not, and will not, return the favor. 

The people of Minneapolis, New York, Portland, Seattle, and many other cities didn’t receive mercy when Democrat activists destroyed their communities and businesses.  Small business owners didn’t receive mercy when left-wing politicians shut them down to hurt Trump.  For years, Republicans have been mercilessly attacked for sporting Trump clothing or putting Trump signs on their property.  Sports fans begging the NFL not to ruin football haven’t received any mercy from being inundated with social justice propaganda during the game.  Kyle Rittenhouse and the McCloskey’s are fighting absurd litigation against Democrat tyrants for defending themselves against violent leftist mobs.  They know the charges won’t stick, but they are attempting to punish those who resist the left anyways.  A party that celebrates the death of Conservatives is devoid of mercy.

I am not suggesting Republicans cheat or break the rules.  What I am suggesting is conservatives should reciprocate the mercilessness the left has for Republicans by moving forward with filling RGB’s SCOTUS seat.  When Democrats have an opportunity to advance their causes, they take it — always.  Conservatives should do the same. 

We should not give Democrats more motivation to steal the election via voter fraud and endless post-election litigation by upping the stakes with a SCOTUS seat.  The best course of action is to ease the tension by replacing RGB with a new judge pronto.  The outrage that follows will be nothing new. 

The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg has created another political firestorm for the weeks to come.  Since we’re so close to the election, doesn’t it seem fair for Trump wait until afterward the election to replace her?

No, Trump should not wait. 

Trump has nothing to lose and everything to gain by replacing RGB before the election

Some Democrats have brought up Merrick Garland, who was nominated by Obama but failed to become a SCOTUS judge.  The GOP objection was that Obama was in the last six months of his second term, so the upcoming election should decide.  Democrats will be quick to point out this occurrence, labeling it hypocrisy for conservatives to replace RGB when they rejected Garland.

Other leftists urged Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell to lead the way by not filling a SCOTUS seat this close to an election.  He concluded with: “You’d agree with this, especially in light of the Garland precedent, right?” 

Except, that’s not what happened.  The Merrick Garland circumstance was different because Obama was in his second term, and there would be a new president in six months, no matter the outcome.  In this instance, we might have the same president in six months.  What makes it worse is Democrats did not set any “precedent” by deciding it wouldn’t be fair to fill an open SCOTUS seat only months away from a new presidency — they tried to ram judge Garland down our throats anyways! 

The only reason Garland is not sitting on SCOTUS is because Mitch McConnell and the Senate refused a hearing on Garland.  The rationale was the constitution does not require a timeframe to hear the president’s SCOTUS nomination, so they waited.  It was not out of the nobility of Democrats that prevented Merrick Garland from a SCOTUS seat — it was Republicans like McConnell who stopped it.  Some precedent.

After the GOP declined Garland a hearing, the left-wing media went on a full-court press, calling it “obstruction.”  The Atlantic, Slate, the L.A. Times,  U.S. News and World Report, the list goes on for media outlets who claimed McConnel was obstructing justice.  Go visit any search engine and type “Merrick Garland obstruction,” and you’ll find a plethora of hit pieces by nearly every major left-wing news network. 

The left is doing everything possible to enable more election fraud to steal the election.  Democrats are preparing to hijack American freedoms and our constitutional government through endless litigation by hiring over 600 lawyers to contest the election results. We’re talking about a Democratic Party that is so fraudulent and corrupt, leftists in the swamp even erased data from 27 cell phones after learning there would be an investigation into the origins of the Russian Collusion hoax.  As Deborah Weiss writes: “ALL of the people whose phones were wiped clean claimed to have had their phones wiped ‘by accident.’  Yes, ALL of the people whose phones were wiped clean just ‘coincidentally’ wiped them clean after they learned that the I.G. was going to conduct an investigation…”

Trump has nothing to lose by replacing RGB in the next few weeks.  Sure, the media will huff and puff and go into their “fake outrage” mode.  Yes, the media will call Republicans hypocrites over Merrick Garland, knowing their Democrat base doesn’t know the facts or understand the different circumstances.  Even never-Trump Republicans like Joe Walsh are already making that case. Yes, the media will call Trump a tyrant and dictator — they already do all that. 

The Washington Post is already threatening Americans with violence if Trump wins again.  Democrat groups are already planning for coordinated unrest if Trump wins.  Media figures are already threatening violence and riots if Trump fills RGB’s seat — but they’re already rioting!  Go ahead and riot; nothing helps the Republican cause like Democrats revealing their true colors. 

I don’t want to hear conservatives suggesting the fair thing to do is to wait until after the election to fill RGB’s seat because of Merrick Garland or any other lame excuse.  Sure, we could give them mercy and pat ourselves on the back for taking the high road, but we shouldn’t.  We should not relent or give the Democrats any mercy because they have not, and will not, return the favor. 

The people of Minneapolis, New York, Portland, Seattle, and many other cities didn’t receive mercy when Democrat activists destroyed their communities and businesses.  Small business owners didn’t receive mercy when left-wing politicians shut them down to hurt Trump.  For years, Republicans have been mercilessly attacked for sporting Trump clothing or putting Trump signs on their property.  Sports fans begging the NFL not to ruin football haven’t received any mercy from being inundated with social justice propaganda during the game.  Kyle Rittenhouse and the McCloskey’s are fighting absurd litigation against Democrat tyrants for defending themselves against violent leftist mobs.  They know the charges won’t stick, but they are attempting to punish those who resist the left anyways.  A party that celebrates the death of Conservatives is devoid of mercy.

I am not suggesting Republicans cheat or break the rules.  What I am suggesting is conservatives should reciprocate the mercilessness the left has for Republicans by moving forward with filling RGB’s SCOTUS seat.  When Democrats have an opportunity to advance their causes, they take it — always.  Conservatives should do the same. 

We should not give Democrats more motivation to steal the election via voter fraud and endless post-election litigation by upping the stakes with a SCOTUS seat.  The best course of action is to ease the tension by replacing RGB with a new judge pronto.  The outrage that follows will be nothing new. 

The news of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing has driven much of the left bonkers. They know that President Trump may nominate a constitutionalist replacement and rather than a robust opposition, are vowing death and destruction in response:

Here’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and note the innuendo in her tone:

“If Mitch McConnell isn’t going to honor RBG’s final wish, we will. We will. And we have to.” Thank you, ⁦@AOC⁩. For your voice. For your fight. Tonight. And always. pic.twitter.com/2P5ttuvJsx

— Eliza Orlins (@elizaorlins) September 19, 2020

Doesn’t sound like a democratic response she has in mind. No smiles, no sexy red lipstick, no pricey designer clothes, she’s got a dirty tshirt with something written on it, a blazer thrown over it, and her hair in a rarin’ for revolution mess. Among socialists, this is what is meant by meaning business.

Others are much more explicit — such as this blue-check:

The news of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing has driven much of the left bonkers. They know that President Trump may nominate a constitutionalist replacement and rather than a robust opposition, are vowing death and destruction in response:

Here’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and note the innuendo in her tone:

“If Mitch McConnell isn’t going to honor RBG’s final wish, we will. We will. And we have to.” Thank you, ⁦@AOC⁩. For your voice. For your fight. Tonight. And always. pic.twitter.com/2P5ttuvJsx

— Eliza Orlins (@elizaorlins) September 19, 2020

Doesn’t sound like a democratic response she has in mind. No smiles, no sexy red lipstick, no pricey designer clothes, she’s got a dirty tshirt with something written on it, a blazer thrown over it, and her hair in a rarin’ for revolution mess. Among socialists, this is what is meant by meaning business.

Others are much more explicit — such as this blue-check: