Is America Now a Banana Republic?

By Robin Itzler

Editor's Note: This is one of the commentaries selected from Robin's weekly newsletter Patriot Neighbors. Any cartoons appearing will have been added by me. If you wish to get the full edition, E-mail her at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com to get on her list, it's free. RK

Following the lawfare trial verdict in New York, some say we are now a banana republic. Others believe the United States is now a socialist Marxist nation. Here’s some comments as the expected guilty verdict was announced:

Conn Carroll, Washington Examiner commentary editor:

“Through two primaries and two general elections I have never voted for Trump. I would crawl over broken glass to vote for him now.”

Tucker Carlson – tweet"

“Import the Third World, become the Third World. That’s what we just saw. This won’t stop Trump. He’ll win the election if he’s not killed first. But it comes to mark the end of the fairest justice system in the world. Anyone who defends this verdict is a danger to you and your family.”

Sean Davis, CEO and co-founder of Federalist – interview:

“Moscow on the Hudson. Stalin himself might not have been so brazen to do what Democrats just did.”

Janet Price, President of Golden State Republican Women (excerpt from GSRW’s news release):

History is repeating itself. Our beloved United States of America was founded by those escaping the tyranny of King George. Make no mistake, the kangaroo court and its outrageous verdict was orchestrated at the very top from King Joe’s White House.

Today’s Democrat party is now the unmistakable face of tyranny that has been trying to strip America of her freedoms since her inception. But once freedom has been birthed in the heart of man, it never dies. This is now the clarion call to every patriot to reclaim our Constitution and Bill of Rights. May 31, 2024, begins the renewal of our Declaration of Independence! God Bless President Trump and God Bless America!

Shaun M. Maguire, general partner at Sequoia Capital – op-ed excerpt:

“I just donated $300k to Trump. I’m prepared to lose friends. Here’s why. Back in 2016 I had drunk the media Kool-Aid and was scared out of my mind about Trump. As such I donated to Hilary Clinton’s campaign and voted for her. By 2020 I was disillusioned and didn’t vote – I didn’t like either option.

Now, in 2024, I believe this is one of the most important elections of my lifetime, and I’m supporting Trump. I know I’ll lose friends for this. Some will refuse to do business with me. The media will probably demonize me, as they have so many others before me. But despite this, I still believe it’s the right thing to do.

I refuse to live in a society where people are afraid to speak.”

Sally Zelikovsky, Founder of 75M & Rising – message to member:

“People get that right now the best thing we can do is show support by donating to Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The other thing is talk to people you might normally avoid, about why this verdict is such a disgrace, why this criminal trial was so wrong, and why it is critical to vote for Trump.  I know it's hard; I know we've all been conditioned to avoid those conversations. So, pick your friends/family carefully, approach folks who are open-minded or on the fence and go for it.”

Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Law Professor:

“I obviously disagree with this verdict as do many others. I believe that the case will be reversed eventually either in the state or federal systems. However, this was the worst expectation for a trial in Manhattan. I am saddened by the result more for the New York legal system than the former president. I had hoped that the jurors might redeem the integrity of a system that has been used for political purposes.”

Joel Pollack, editor-at-large at Breibart News – on its website:

“President Trump will have the biggest mandate for revolutionary change since 1776.… A government that allows this to happen has to be completely gutted. You have to fire almost everyone and start over. As disturbing as today’s verdict is, we may be about to live through the most exciting period of reform in history of our country. The second American Revolution.”

Allen West, political commentator; former Florida Congressman and formerTexas Republican Party Chairman - website:

“Congratulations, Democrats — aka progressive socialist leftists — you have just elected Donald Trump. Please go out celebrate and refer to Trump as a felon.

Yep, a jury of Biden voters, in the courtroom of a judge who should have recused himself, found former President Trump guilty of charges brought forward by a Soros backed DA that were wrongfully elevated from misdemeanor to felony and were past the statute of limitations. One no previous prosecution touched.

In the meantime, Joe Biden violates the Constitution by allowing millions of illegals, including single military aged males into the country. Biden is guilty of illegally possessing classified documents and information but supposedly is too old and senile to stand trial. Biden’s son Hunter lied on ATF Form 4473 and illegally purchased a firearm.

So please, go ahead and revel in your miscarriage of justice that would make Joseph Stalin proud. We shall work hard, wait, and celebrate on November 5th when you leftist Islamic jihadists supporting tyrants and imbeciles are crushed.”

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Independent candidate for president:

“The Democratic Party's strategy is to beat President Trump in the courtroom rather than the ballot box. This will backfire in November. Even worse, it is profoundly undemocratic.

America deserves a President who can win at the ballot box without compromising our government’s separation of powers or weaponizing the courts. You can’t save democracy by destroying it first. The Democrats are afraid they will lose in the voting booth, so instead they go after President Trump in the court.” 

President Donald J. Trump Following kangaroo verdict; conflicted judge and jury May 30, 2024:

“This was a disgrace—a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who is corrupt. We will fight for our Constitution—This is long from over!”  — Donate — www.DonaldJTrump.com — 

Write — Letters to your local and regional newspapers — Get Active — Everyone can do something! Make phone calls, knock on doors, signs in yard/window, Attend/plan rallies, hold meet-and-greets for local pols, ballot harvest where legal, join organizations, etc. To share your thoughts with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg: 212-335-9000

The Hijabs of Our Banana Republic

Monday, August 19, 2019  by Daniel Greenfield 7 Comments @ Sultan Knish Blog

When a company runs into trouble, it tries to go forward or backward. And when Banana Republic faced a 3% decline in sales, it decided to go all the way back to the 7th century. Hoping to tap into the lucrative market of concealing bruises and strangulation marks, Banana Republic rolled out a line of hijabs for the discerning woman who knows better than to leave home without the permission of a male guardian.

While women in Iran were being beaten and imprisoned for taking off their hijabs, Banana Republic decided to celebrate the courageous spirit of those women who want to live as second class citizens.

But if the Gap brand thought that displaying some garments of female subjugation between its ugly purple purses and its eighteen-dollar scrunchies would win over Islamists, it had another thing coming.

Modern lefties iconize hijabs without having the faintest idea of what they mean or what they’re for. All they know is that to properly display diversity, you need to add a woman in a hijab between the gay guy, the Black Lives Matter guy, and the militant #resistance member ready to storm Starbucks; even though a hijab is as much a symbol of human liberation as a case of female genital mutilation.

But since Banana Republic couldn’t figure out how to market female genital mutilation to sophisticated urban consumers, it had to settle for trying to sell them hijabs. A hijab, BR execs thought, is just a 72x26 shmata. Our Vietnamese slave laborers can make one a minute before passing out from the toxic fumes. And we can sell them for 20 bucks while getting a diversity award from CAIR for our wokeness.

A cigar may sometimes just be a cigar, but a hijab is always a repressive way of life.

Instead of being cheered from Algeria to Afghanistan, Banana Republic was accused of cultural appropriation and insensitivity. The failing retailer had made an obvious and tragic error. Their model may have had every lock of hair encompassed by the fashion forward follicular prison, but she was showing off her elbows in a short-sleeved shirt. What’s the point of locking up the hair after the elbows are already out there? Does Banana Republic, despite its name, understand nothing about Islam?

"There are guidelines to hijab outside of just covering hair," the founder of Haute Hijab warned.

The guidelines of Islam cover women’s hair, elbows, sometimes faces and even one eye. The hijab is the most distinctive sign of subjugation, because hair is even more offensive than elbows.

The Islamic Republic of Iran's first president, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, warned that women's exposed hair emits rays that drive men mad. It's unknown if women's elbows also emit rays, but Islam approves of women's elbows no more than it approves of their hair. And Banana Republic soon repented.

The model in the black rectangular hijab print and the short sleeves vanished from Banana Republic the way she had from the republics of Afghanistan, Iran and ISIS. The very woke company replaced her provocative elbows with a cropped shot in which she no longer has elbows, arms or hair.

Just the way Allah intended.

But Muslim critics pointed out that the model in the blue soft satin square hijab has an exposed neck. And Allah is no more fond of the sight of women’s necks than he is of their hair and their elbows.

Meanwhile the model in the unconvincing leopard print hijab is not only showing her neck, but has the first two buttons of her shirt open. The only thing more offensive would be is if she were also driving.

Banana Republic had banished the model with the dress slit below the knee, but it couldn’t keep up with the frenzy of demands for erasing all the parts of the female body whose existence Muslims object to.

"If people were on the fence about the short sleeves or exposed neck photos, no one could get behind the dress slit photos," Melanie Elturk, the founder of Haute Hijab, complained.

An American brand that claims to tap into the liberating power of fashion bet big on subjugation and discovered that no amount of subjugation is ever enough. The hijab is not just another twenty-buck shmata. Its origins go back to 7th century Arabia where Mohammed faced the same problem as his modern ISIS counterparts. He had to figure out how to tell apart his wives and his rape victims.

Or, as Islam likes to call them, concubines. Or, as the media likes to call them, underage sex slaves.

The Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), like the Prophet Jeffrey Epstein (Prison Be Upon Him), sought to colonize the world with miniature versions of himself by capturing and raping innumerable young girls. Since the Florida Democratic Party did not exist in 7th century Arabia, Mohammed couldn’t just write a check to the Clinton Foundation, and instead had to recruit a gang of rapists with promises of rape.

A famous PBS documentary refers to this period as an Empire of Faith.

Since the various rapists also had wives, and since Islam frowns on Muslim men assaulting each other’s wives (the wives of non-Muslims however are fair game, as Koran 4:24 states, "And all married women are forbidden unto you save those captives whom your right hand possess"), the hijab, the burka, the abaya and all the other exciting ways to repress women arrived.

“O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks all over their bodies that they may thus be distinguished and not molested,” Koran 33:59 states.

A commentator on the Koran adds, “It is more likely that this way they may be recognized (as pious, free women), and may not be hurt (considered by mistake as roving slave girls.)” It’s always awkward when you confuse your wife, or somebody else’s wife with one of those roving slave girls.

Muslim women cover their hair and elbows to show that they’re the property of a Muslim man. Banana Republic had gone into the business of selling twenty-dollar social markers distinguishing their wearer as already belonging to a Muslim husband or father, and suggesting that he go “molest” someone else.

Maybe the purchaser of that Banana Republic purple purse who left her elbows shamelessly exposed.

The media can’t exactly fault the Old Navy’s cousin for advertising hijabs in a way that sends mixed messages to sex grooming gangs, so it instead threw out accusations of cultural appropriation.

Islamists had spent a generation whining about a lack of accommodation and representation. Restaurants weren’t open around the clock to break the Ramadan fast. Victoria’s Secret wasn’t hiring models in burkas. The police still treat synagogue bombings as a crime no matter what the Koran says.

And then Banana Republic debuts four hijabs and it’s cultural appropriation even though Islam appropriates cultures the way hot dog eating contest winners go through sauerkraut and brats. Huge chunks of the Koran are appropriated from Judaism and Christianity like a little kid trying to write his own comic book by taking all the best parts of all the books and movies he saw and mixing them up.

The Washington Post article concludes with a Muslim fashion blogger vowing to "stick to Muslim-owned businesses".

The Texas resident said that it is, "where my loyalty lies."

The question is where do the loyalties of the huge corporations which collude in the oppression of women lie? Is it with the women risking their lives to defy oppression or those who collude with it?

Banana Republic tried to collude with a theocracy of rape and discovered that no amount of erasing women is ever enough. And that’s a tough lesson for an American clothing retailer to absorb.

But when BR next relaunches its line of oppressive headgear, it’ll bring in CAIR advisers who will make sure that none of the models are showing any ankle, elbow, neck, or hair. And then the media will cheer. And there will be awards and an ad campaign.

Because we all live in a banana republic now.


Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.

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