It should come as no surprise to anybody that Steyn would have something well worth reading to say today.

For most of the last two decades we have observed the anniversary of 9/11 by re-posting my columns from the first few days of the new era. We ceased to do so after September 11th 2017 when “a president who, on the campaign trail, mocked his predecessor’s inability to use the words ‘radical Islam’ himself eschewed all mention of the I-word” – and a defense secretary laughably hyped as Mad Dog Mattis turned out to be just another dribbler from the Washington Generals and retreated to the madrassah wing of the Pentagon to explain that it was all just a theological misunderstanding.

We shall not resume our anniversary observances today. The war is lost, at home and abroad. On the domestic front, we doubled the rate of Muslim immigration to the west and began assimilating ourselves with Islam’s strictures on freedom of expression and the like. The decade-and-a-half since the Danish Mohammed cartoons has been one long remorseless surrender on core western liberties. When a school teacher gets beheaded in the street, there is no outrage at the act, just a mild regret that he should have been foolish enough to provoke his own fate. Even the milder jests from the immediate post-9/11 era – the cartoon of the woman trying on new burqas in the changing room and wondering, “Does my bomb look big in this?” – would not be published today:

In the broader society, our rulers quickly determined that it was easier to punish us than our enemies. The post-9/11 security state surely helped soften up western populations for the Chi-Com-19 lockdowns, in which entire nations have been reduced to TSA-administered airports.

As for the war overseas, it ended with a military that can do everything except win handing the keys to Afghanistan back to the guys who pulled off 9/11 – and apologizing for the two-decade inconvenience by gifting the mullahs with some of the most expensive infrastructure on the planet plus an air force, approximately five assault rifles for every Taliban fighter, and express check-in for the forty-seven per cent of the Afghan population that apparently served as US translators.

The position of the United States is far weaker than it was twenty years ago. Around the planet, the assumption of friends and enemies alike is that the American moment is over and the future belongs elsewhere. They are making their dispositions accordingly. It is not a question of wishing “the post-American world”, but of accepting the known facts.

There are honorable ways to lose a war. This was not one of them. We have dishonored the dead of 9/11 and insulted their sacrifice.

Indeed we have. Rather than avenge our losses, we inexplicably chose instead to disgrace ourselves and mortally endanger our posterity. Horrible as that is, though, it gets even worse.

I have personally overlooked many things from former President George W. Bush but his comparison between Trump voters and the Jihadists from 9/11 is an absolute disgrace. F*cking unbelievable. #NeverForget https://t.co/ZPFtz9J6a0

— 🇺🇸Col. Rob Maness ret. (@RobManess) September 11, 2021

Unbelievable is the mot juste all right. Seriously, the clueless chutzpah of this vile shitweasel. I’m deeply ashamed to think I was actually blind and stupid enough to support and defend this asshole after 9/11. Although in semi-defense of that serious lapse of judgment on my part, I must also say that I couldn’t stand the smirking twerp before that.

In various comments sections I’ve perused, I’ve seen lame attempts to wave off this all-thumbs indecency by claiming that Bush wasn’t slandering Trump supporters and/or Patriots, in actuality talking about AntiFa/BLM/whothefuckever with a “domestic extremist” slam cribbed straight from the Ruling Class Cliff’s Notes. So sorry, sports fans, but…bullshit. Patent, arrant, see-through bullshit. For one thing, so far as I know Bush has heretofore uttered not a single peep in condemnation of those creeps. But he’s roundly denounced Trump and his supporters again and again and again, starting when his hapless schlub of a brother ¡Pleaseclap! got himself hit by the rapidly-accelerating Trump Train, crippling ¡Pleaseclap!‘s doomed-anyway run for Preznit on impact.

This intolerable calumny, mind, after maintaining a firmly buttoned lip about the godawful Obama throughout his two ruinous terms, ostensibly in the name of courtesy, tradition, and respect for the office, even when directly asked for his opinion. Tellingly, no such courtesy was extended to Trump; the tradition of post-presidential omerta Bush so resolutely upheld for his successor he quite eagerly traduced with Trump.

This intolerable calumny, mind, not only on the 9/11 anniversary, but on the very heels of the Biden Bugout.

This intolerable calumny, mind, after an initally successful drive into Ashcanistan predicated on the removal of Osama bin Laden’s Taliban enablers from power had wantonly been steered off the road and right into the nation-building ditch, leading to an agonizing slo-mo crash ‘n’ burn in which all faith in American foreign policy imperatives, reliability, and trustworthiness was completely immolated…ALL AT THE SPECIFIC BEHEST OF ONE GEORGE DUBYA MOTHERFUCKING RETARD BUSH.

But nononoNOOOO. The whole problem really comes down to folks wearing MAGA hats, see.

The NERVE of this prick. The sheer, unmitigated, illimitable, incomprehensible GALL. Straight to Hell with him, I say. He, his entire family, and the horses they all rode in on can die in a fucking fire for all me.

Insidious update! Moar Unbelievable yet: Bush hits a new low, then Biden digs deeper.

Joe Biden Delivers Astonishingly Insensitive and Insulting Remarks at 9/11 Memorial
When it was announced that Joe Biden would not give a speech on 9/11, many were shocked and dismayed that the President of the United States apparently felt it unnecessary to commemorate the 20th anniversary of one of America’s greatest tragedies. Instead, former President George W. Bush spoke, as various current and former government officials gathered at the Flight 93 memorial.

Of course, it’s not hard to imagine why he didn’t speak in person. The president has shown little ability to control his emotions lately, likely due to his sharp mental decline, and that’s led to several recent speeches in which he came across as angry and incoherent. That wouldn’t have been a good scene on 9/11.

Yet, Biden did end up giving some unscripted remarks. Perhaps without the permission of his handlers, the president fielded questions from the press. What followed was an absolutely insensitive and insulting tirade that was incredibly inappropriate for the moment, complete with multiple uses of the phrase “c’mon.”

On a day when others are commemorating the loss of nearly 3,000 American lives on 9/11, Biden is still preoccupied with defending his disastrous, deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan. At one point, he claims Al Qaeda was “wiped out” in Afghanistan, something that’s completely untrue. He then leans forward and says, “Can Al Qaeda come back, well yeah, but guess what?” before sarcastically saying “it’s already back in other places, what’s the strategy, every place where Al Qaeda is, we are gonna invade and have troops there…c’mon.”

I can’t think of a worse time to make the argument he’s making than at a memorial for victims of 9/11 who were murdered by Al Qaeda. Even if Biden believes what he’s saying, just wait until tomorrow to say it. This was just not the time. Combine that with his tone and tenor, defensive and angry at times, and what transpired was very jarring.

Everything about Biden’s brief interaction here was odd and out of place. It underscores exactly why he rarely takes questions, and when he does, he’s usually armed with a script and a list of reporters to call on. Still, you would hope he’d have enough decency to recognize what today means and to temper himself. Apparently, even that is too much to ask of this presiden

Hoping for decency from ProPol slime, most especially Biden, is nothing but a mug’s game. But hold on; although we’ve made great progress on this wretched journey, we haven’t reached Peak Unbelievable quite yet.

Dear Leader Biden Yanks Down Face Mask to Yell at Someone During Somber 9/11 Ceremony

And that makes it official. Peak Unbelievable: REACHED.

Most Americans, even Democrats, are finally starting to realize our installed dictator is clueless. It turns out he’s classless as well.

Getty Images captured the moment when the occupant of the Oval Office took down his super-important-totally-effective-non-symbol-of-obedience, also known as a face mask, to scream at someone during the 9/11 ceremony today. It was Joe Biden and all of our country’s problems wrapped into a single moment. Even Bill Clinton seemed to appreciate the somber moment.

With all the bellyaching Democrats did during the Trump administration, one would think they’d be in fetal position by now watching Biden’s daily embarrassments.

Why on earth would you think that? Hell, they’re all in agreement with the drooling rutabaga; he “thinks” exactly like they do, and they’re proud of him.

In any race to the bottom of the barrel, you’ll never go wrong by betting on Senile Angry Joe to win. But hey, let’s not be too hasty in letting Ruling Class George, Asshole Extraordinaire, completely off the hook here, either.

Speaking at a 9/11 commemoration at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania, former President George W. Bush, who above all people should know better, made a veiled but unmistakable equation of the January 6 incident at the Capitol with the September 11, 2001, jihad terror attacks in New York and Washington.

“The security measures incorporated into our lives are both sources of comfort” – speak for yourself, George – “and reminders of our vulnerability.” That vulnerability was apparently laid bare anew during the January 6 events that the Left has worked so very hard to portray as an unprecedented, life-threatening attack on our “democracy” (it’s actually a republic, folks) as if they cared about that, and our way of life.

Bush continues: “We have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within. There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home, but then there’s disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them.”

If Bush had been talking about Antifa and Black Lives Matter, he would have been right. But he wasn’t. Bush was, in fact, one of the first to jump on the January 6 “insurrection” bandwagon, issuing this statement on the same day:

Laura and I are watching the scenes of mayhem unfolding at the seat of our Nation’s government in disbelief and dismay. It is a sickening and heartbreaking sight. This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not our democratic republic. I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement. The violent assault on the Capitol – and disruption of a Constitutionally-mandated meeting of Congress – was undertaken by people whose passions have been inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes. Insurrection could do grave damage to our Nation and reputation. In the United States of America, it is the fundamental responsibility of every patriotic citizen to support the rule of law. To those who are disappointed in the results of the election: Our country is more important than the politics of the moment. Let the officials elected by the people fulfill their duties and represent our voices in peace and safety. May God continue to bless the United States of America.

His equating of the 9/11 jihadis with the people who entered the Capitol on January 6 (“their determination to defile national symbols”) is nothing short of monstrous. The jihadis, though he immediately denied it, were exponents of a 1,400-year-long war against the non-Muslim world, with a clearly defined ideology and belief system calling for warfare against and subjugation of non-Muslim states. The January 6 “insurrectionists” were unarmed, killed no one, were not there in service of any ideology, but only to protest against election fraud, and were not part of any coordinated plan (or else you would already have seen some people charged with insurrection and treason; no one has been).

That Bush, a cosseted member of the establishment since birth, would repeat these lies is insidious, and indicates that the elites haven’t given up their agenda of silencing and criminalizing all opposition to their agenda by claiming it leads to “insurrection.” And he is not alone, of course. “As I stand here tonight,” Old Joe Biden said in early May, “just one day shy of the 100th day of my administration. 100 days since I took the oath of office, lifted my hand off our family Bible, and inherited a nation in crisis. The worst pandemic in a century. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”

The idea that the entry of a group of unarmed people into the U.S. Capitol constituted the “worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War” was not just ridiculous (remember 9/11? Pearl Harbor?); it was insidious, as insidious as Bush’s remarks on September 11. The silliness and hysteria are in service of an effort to stigmatize, demonize and silence all dissent from their far-left agenda.

Ayup. Which deceitful, opportunistic manipulation intended to keep the big ball o’tyranny rolling merrily along just makes the whole thing all the more despicable.

Classy update! Compare, contrast.

Former President Trump made a surprise visit with New York City police and firefighters Saturday to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks.

In remarks to assembled guests, the former president sharply rebuked President Biden and the US pullout from Afghanistan.

“It was gross incompetence and I hate to talk about it on this day,” Trump said.

Trump praised New York’s Finest, telling the crowd, “if they let you do your job you wouldn’t have crime in New York!”

As some in the crowd nodded their heads, The Donald jokingly warned them to “just stand and just be perfect.”

He also signed the stationhouse log book, writing, “I love you all!”

Trump left the NYPD’s 17th Precinct in midtown just after 1:40 pm. He exited to cheers and applause, with one well-wisher screaming, “Thank you for keeping us safe.”

Y’know, for a guy widely vilified as an irredeemable, boorish clod entirely bereft of politesse or polish, he sure just made both Biden and Bush look like a couple of belching, farting troglodytes, didn’t he?